Page 52 of Silver Sanctuary
“Mae!”
“Oh don’t tell me he’s proposed to you but you haven’t… even… Oh. No. Have you two not done the deed yet?”
“Stop,” she begged.
“The horizontal tango?”
“Oh good god!”
“The nas-tay? Or maybe it should be Nash-tay in honor of your soon-to-be hubby!” Mae laughed while Lacy tried to figure out if she could dig a hole deep enough to die in with just her fingers.
“You have to be quiet,” Lacy hissed. “Someone is going to hear you!”
“I hope it’s your fiancé and he takes you home and makes you see stars! Good lord. At least that’s something Stone is doing right.”
“Happy for you. Truly, I am, but I totally didn’t need to know that.”
The final whistle of the scrimmage sounded and Lacy jumped up, happy to have an excuse to start walking toward the field and away from Mae’s laughter.
“Don’t think that gets you off the hook! I want you to put the move on him tonight and report back tomorrow!”
Lacy locked her eyes on Embrie, ready for her daughter to run over to her. Instead, she took off in the opposite direction, down the field and back behind the goal. Lacy took off like a shot, leaving Mae to call after her. But that man was still standing all alone, his eyes now glued on Embrie as she ran right up to him.
“Mr. Ike! You came!” Embrie giggled.
“Sure did, kiddo! You were great out there. Is this your adult?” He gestured to Lacy, and Embrie turned around, smiling like she had with the game-winning goal.
“Oh, yep! This is my mom. Mom, this is Mr. Ike! He eats lunch with me sometimes.”
Lacy’s shoulders relaxed. “Oh, it’s so nice to meet you. Thank you for being so kind to Embrie.”
“No, no, it’s my pleasure. You have a bright little star here. She truly is the kindest kid I’ve ever encountered. And she teaches me something every time we have lunch together. Isn’t that right, Embrie?”
“Yup! We went over the gas composition of the Horsehead Nebula last week. It was so fun!”
“Lace? Brie?” Nash called out, waving them over.
“That’s my fiancé calling us over—better go see what he wants. It really was so nice to meet you.” Lacy’s hand landedon Embrie’s shoulder and she turned her daughter toward Nash.
“Yeah, you too.”
“Bye, Mr. Ike!” Embrie smiled as she waved.
“Bye, kiddo. See you at school on Monday.”
Embrie took off at a mad dash, making it back to Nash in no time. But Lacy walked, still trying to figure out what was off about the interaction she’d just had. Nothing truly stood out as wrong… But her “mom’s intuition” was sending off alarm bells that didn’t make sense.
“Everything okay?” Nash asked, pulling her into his chest and kissing the top of her head.
“Oh yeah. Just lost in thought. Speaking of that?—”
“Of thinking?” Nash laughed.
“Yeah. I thought you were going to have to push Beau off the field earlier. He’s a little intense with the kids.”
“I think he’s just trying to impress Birdie. It’s kind of cute, actually. He wants to win for her.”
“Wait.” Lacy pushed back against his chest. “Don’t you want to win for me?”
