Page 81 of Cold as Stone
“I need nuggets,” Mercy announces as we stumble drunkenly down the sidewalk to Steel’s SUV.
“Nuggets!” Ginger agrees. “Steel, we need nuggets!”
“There’s food at home?—“
“NUGGETS, STEEL.”
The poor drive-through worker looks overwhelmed as four drunk women and one pregnant one shout orders from the car.
“Twenty nuggets!”
“No, forty!”
“And fries!”
“Large fries!”
“Apple pies!”
“Do they still have those?”
“STEEL, ASK IF THEY HAVE APPLE PIES!”
Steel turns to the speaker with a defeated expression. “Can I get sixty nuggets, five large fries, and however many apple pies you have? Add six bottles of water to that as well.”
“I got it!” Ginger waves her credit card. “Tank gave me his card!”
“That’s Tank’s?” I ask.
“He’ll never notice. I bought a motorcycle last month and he didn’t say anything.”
“You bought a?—”
“NUGGETS ARE READY!” Steel shouts tossing takeout bags into the back of the vehicle like we’re wild animals.
To be fair to him, we act like it as we rip the bags open, shoving food into our mouths like we haven’t been fed in five years.
We’re all significantly quieter now, full of nuggets and exhausted from dancing. Mercy’s the first to pass out against the window. Poppy’s dozing, humming something off-key as she closes her eyes, a hand over her belly. Meanwhile, Andi’s braiding Ginger’s hair.
“Steel,” Ginger says seriously, nugget crumbs on her dress. “You’re a good prospect.”
“Thanks?”
“I mean it. You took care of us tonight. You didn’t complain. Well, not much. That’s what family does.”
He glances at her in the rearview mirror. “You ladies aren’t so bad.”
“We’re amazing,” she corrects.
As we drive through the night, I can’t help but smile. These women, this strange found family–it’s more than I ever expected when I came back to Stoneheart.
“Hey Kya,” Ginger says sleepily. “Lee’s probably already home.”
My pulse quickens. “You think?”
“I know. Tank texted. They got back an hour ago.”
We stop at Andi’s first, Hawk coming out to carry her inside. Then Poppy’s, where Axel is waiting on the porch. Mercy gets dropped at her apartment. Steel half-carries her inside as she yells at us how much she can’t wait until the next one.
