Page 88 of Nightingale

“What is this?” Kevin asked, snagging the wine bottle she’d set on the coffee table. “Drinking and fucking.”

“What’s fu—”

“Callum, dressed now,” Amber scolded, not taking her glare away from Kevin until the scurry of little feet up the stairs were gone.

“You’re not a fit mother.”

“I’m not the one givingourson a vocab lesson,” she challenged. “It’s a closed bottle of wine, Kevin, and you can’t handle being responsible for more than forty-eight hours every two weeks, so don’t lecture me.”

“I’m setting up meeting with my lawyer once I’m back in Billings!” Kevin shouted and punched her wall leaving a small indent. “You’re a bitch and you neglect my children.”

“It’s not your time with them and I think you need to leave, now!” Amber shouted.

Mountain tucked her under his shoulder. “You need to leave now, she’s askin’ nicely, I’m not gonna. Don’t care what ya’ll did in the past you will not speak this way to her.”

“You stay out of this. This is none of your business,” Kevin argued with Mountain.

“Yeah, it is. Amber, do you want him to leave your home?” Mountain smiled, shifting her behind him as he stepped forward.

Amber wondered if the smile was a request to let him do what he wanted to with the man. Grasping his hand with both of hers, Amber felt safe to speak her mind. No longer going along to get along. “Kevin it’s time for you to leave. You’re not welcome here. If you don’t leave now I will call the police and they’ll make you.”

Kevin walked toward the door. “This isn’t over Amber. I will be contacting my lawyer and I will take the kids away from you.”

When the door slammed, Amber took a deep breath. “I need to call my lawyer.”

“He’s bluffing because his ego was bruised,” Mountain said.

“No, he’s not, I had to ask for an advance on the child support which told him I was vulnerable and he likes that in a woman. Needy and he will drain my account to put me there.”

“Let’s talk to Cream about this. She’ll be able to help you. Let’s go and see her on your lunch break.” Mountain suggested.

“Cream?”

“Bailey’s mommy,” he teased and she remembered the woman now. How sad the puppy stuck in her mind more than the beautiful woman who was glowing from her rounded belly. “She’s a lawyer, just renewed her license for Montana.”

“A lawyer, a doctor, a teacher, you Steels have everything don’t you?” she questioned.

“We’re real people,” he replied. “The club may be our life, but life is complicated.”

“And what do you do?” she asked.

He stepped forward and placed his hand over the indent in her wall. “I lift heavy things and fuck beautiful women,” he said with a wink. “Construction right now, I can fix this.”

“I have a picture I could hang,” she replied.

“But I can fix it,” he countered. “I tried the Army out of high school. ROTC in college, but I grew too much and was discharged before I even would have graduated.”

“You didn’t graduate?” she asked.

Mountain shrugged. “If I would have graduated, my path in life would have been set, family business and I didn’t want that.”

Callum raced down the stairs, leaping from the bottom three with a thud and pointed to Mountain. “You didn’t eat my pancakes did you?”

“I was giving you thirty seconds to get back before I did,” Mountain replied.

“Where’s Daddy?” Maisie asked when she reached the main floor.

“He had to go to work, just like me and you guys have school,” Amber said trying to keep the trembling out of her voice and return to the morning where for a moment…everything was right.

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