Page 42 of Silver Sanctuary
She let her eyes open, adjusting to the soft glow of afternoon light flooding into the room. Wait—not her bedroom.
The memories from the night before flooded back in, and Lacy closed her eyes as she let the dizziness pass.
“You okay?” A strong, steady hand landed on her arm, grounding her.
Nash. She was at Nash’s apartment.
“What time is it?” Lord, she really needed some water. Her mouth felt like she hadn’t had anything to drink in days.
“A little after five.”
“At night?! Oh my god! Where’s Embrie? Is she okay?” Lacy sucked in a harsh breath as she launched herself up in bed. A whimper escaped and tears flooded her eyes.
“Lace! What the fuck? Lie back down.”
Nash’s hands remained steady on her as she lay back into the soft pillows that had surrounded her all night… and apparently all day too.
“I’m fine,” she gasped, knowing full well that she wasn’t, but moms didn’t get a day off. She needed to know where Brie was. “Embrie?”
“Had a good day at school and is now enjoying a pizza night with Gunner and Lily, even though Lily made us enough soup to feed a small army this afternoon. You don’t have to worry about Embrie. I think she’s mentioned having a little sister at least five times since Lily let her play with Sage when I brought her to the office after pickup.” He chuckled.
“It’s so nice of them to have her over for dinner, but she can’t stay the night there. I need to help her with her homework and she needs to be with me. We’ve never not been together. I can’t?—”
“Slow down. I didn’t ask them to watch her overnight, and I would never do that without talking to you. But that’s just it, Lace. We need to talk.”
There it was—the moment he realized her problems weren't worth dealing with. The trailer might be nothing more than a pile of ashes, and now she was going to have to find somewhere for them to land, but that didn’t mean he had to feel obligated to help her out. Lacy let her head drop, her eyes squeezing shut as she waited for him to kick her and Brie out.
“Lace?” Concern laced through the care in his voice. “Hey, is it the pain? I really think you should take the medicine like the doctor said. I talked to Jake today, and he said he’d come over here if we needed him to. Do you feel like the pain is severe?”
“What?”
“You’re face. You look like you’re in pain.”
She shook her head. “I was just waiting to hear what time you want me and Brie to leave by. I can probably be ready to go in a few minutes, but if Brie is eating dinner, then we’ll have to wait for her to be done.”
“What are you talking about?” His deep rumble had her eyes jumping to meet his.
“I just thought… I told you I would be okay, and then I slept the day away instead of making sure we were ready to leave when you got home from work. And I wanted to cook for you to say thanks, but my body was just exhausted.”
“Baby,” he whispered. “Did you forget about the fire last night?”
She winced. “No. I didn’t forget.”
“So, where were you planning on going?”
“We can stay at the shop tonight. In my office.”
His face fell. “No. Absolutely not.”
“Nash, we can’t stay here and intrude on your life.”
“Of course you can! I want you to! I want you and Embrie to be so ingrained in the blueprint of this place that it feels like it was always your home, too. Someone hurt you last night, and I told you, you’re both staying with me. That’s… that’s what I need to talk to you about.”
She bit the inside of her cheek. “I can cook and cleanaround here, if that’s what you’re worried about. Brie and I can share a room, too. It was silly for me to be here today. And it’s just until I can get the office at the shop fixed up. There’s no reason we can’t stay there after. I don’t want you to think I’m taking advantage of you.”
“Lacy—”
“No. You’re being too good to me. That’s not how things go. So, if we stay—which will just be until I find a place for us to go—I’ll pull our weight. Hopefully, we’ll be so out of sight that you won’t even know that we’re staying here.”
