Page 404 of Lodestar

“She didn’t tell me. I think I inferred?—”

“Why do you like us living with you?”

Pondering the question, I hummed as I tucked the pleats tighter on her head, making sure the line followed her parting. “Because you bring the apartment to life.”

She giggled, and because it was a full-body giggle, she wriggled on her knees. “You’re weird, Conor.”

“I thought Star told you only the best people were weird.”

“Nah, she saidcrazy.”

“Who’s taking my name in vain?”

With my hands full of thick, blonde hair, I groused, “Nowyou decide to come over.”

Star peered at us both. “She was right.”

“Who was?”

“I was,” Kat crowed. “I said you’d be able to do it.”

“Do… braiding?”

“Yup. I just knew you could.”

“Why?”

“I don’t know. I just did.”

“Why?” I teased. “I can ask questions too, you know?”

She harrumphed, then, with more earnestness than I expected, she murmured, “I think I knew you’d care enough to learn.”

Star’s mouth rounded and the hand she placed on my shoulder was shaky. The kiss she pressed to my head was shakier. Then, she whispered in my ear, “Thank you.”

Taken aback by both my girls’ responses, I just cleared my throat as I twisted the hair tie around the last inch of hair that I couldn’t braid.

“There,” I declared. “That should stay?—”

Back to her giggling self, Kat exploded into movement. Two cartwheels later, the French braid still in place, she crowed louder than before, “Told you so, Star!”

“I guess she did,” was Star’s tremulous retort as she plunked herself on my lap and clutched at me like I'd disappear if she didn't.

I was going nowhere, but I wasn’t about to argue with the hold she had on me.

33

STAR

There’s knowingyou love someone, and then there’s feeling it vibrate through your whole fucking nervous system as if you’re a tuning fork that’s just been struck.

It rattled along my nerve endings like a bolt of electricity that needed to escape and the only outlet was him—so I wrapped my arms around him after I settled on his lap and held him tight.

This overwhelming surge of love was partly to do with finding him braiding my kid’s hair at an MC’s house party, a look of utter concentration on his face as he tried to get it right.

Then, there was a part that revolved around her confidence in him, which had nearly fucking broken me.

Then, there was that conversation I’d left behind with Rachel—my past, so ugly, head-butting the beautiful present I existed in.

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