Total pages in book: 71
Estimated words: 71625 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 358(@200wpm)___ 287(@250wpm)___ 239(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 71625 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 358(@200wpm)___ 287(@250wpm)___ 239(@300wpm)
Steel chuckled and cracked another egg into the pan.
“Mom, I heard from Matt.” Conleigh said.
“Yeah?” I asked. “What did he have to say?”
“He said that he’d like to stop by next week sometime and take Cody and I to a movie.”
I’d believe that when I saw it.
Matt was still the resource officer at her school, so she saw him a whole lot more than Cody did. Not that Cody cared. At least not until Steel and I had moved in with each other. Now Cody was all about Steel.
Steel can shoot eight bullets in the bullseye. Steel can piss without hitting the toilet seat, so he said I had to learn how, too. Steel can eat an entire row of Oreo cookies. That’s my new goal in life. Steel can do this, and Steel can do that.
Steel, Steel, Steel.
I fucking loved it.
Steel had become a large part of our life, and six weeks ago when we’d gotten married, he’d also become permanent.
I knew he’d asked Matt if he would give up rights to Cody, but Matt had refused. And since Steel couldn’t adopt Cody without that, Conleigh wouldn’t hear of Steel doing it with her, either.
Which left us a well-blended family.
Speaking of blended family…our doorbell rang, and without waiting for a knock, the door opened and closed.
Sean walked in moments later, and I looked up and smiled for the first time that morning.
His daughter, Molly, was in his arms.
“Molly!” I grinned, holding out my hands. “Come ‘ere!”
Molly came, then threw her arms around my neck and squeezed with as much strength as her little arms could muster.
Sean grinned as he bypassed me for the skillet that was still sizzling.
Steel set my plate of toast down next to me, and I immediately picked up a piece and handed it to Molly.
Molly took it and steadily munched away as her father started cooking more eggs.
“Here, Molly Mine,” Steel said, scraping an egg and a piece of bacon off of his plate onto another paper plate and passing it over.
I set her up on the stool next to mine and then reached for Steel’s fork.
Steel rolled his eyes and got up for another fork. Once he had it, he reached forward and set it out on the counter next to his plate, then showed Sean something he’d found on his deer camera that morning.
After passing Molly her fork, I reached over for Steel’s fork and took a bite of his eggs.
The constant nausea that was always present these days seemed to abate, and I frowned.
Testing another bite, I smiled when I knew that it was going to stay in there unlike everything else I tried to put in there. Then, before I even knew it, all the eggs on his plate—three in all—were now gone.
Sheepishly, I looked up to find Steel’s incredulous eyes on mine.
“What?” I burped lightly.
He snorted and looked back at his son. “You can fry up four more, right?”
Sean was laughing silently at this point, and there was nothing I could do but shrug. “Sorry.”
“It’s okay,” Sean said.
“Umm, no it’s not,” Conleigh piped in from behind us. “Daddy Steel…” She grinned at Sean who only rolled his eyes at Conleigh’s use of ‘Daddy Steel’ and continued, “Asked mom if she wanted any eggs before this all started. When he went to turn the burner off, he asked once again if she wanted one. She again declined. Then she just ate all of his eggs and two pieces of his bacon. Bacon that we don’t have much of since Mom made that baked potato soup last…”
“You made the soup without me, Mommy Winnie?”
I flipped Sean off.
Sean was thirty-four to my now thirty-three. It was odd and a little bit disconcerting that he called me Mommy Winnie, or mommy anything, but he and Conleigh thought it was hilarious. Since it was all innocent, I decided to let it slide.
“I saved you some.” I pointed to the fridge. “It’s in the container that Naomi brought over for me last week. Maybe we should just both buy the same Tupperware if we’re always going to be handing it back and forth. That way when we trade it out it won’t mismatch.”
“But how will you know whose is whose?” Cody chimed in.
“Ummm,” I hesitated. “We wouldn’t. But if one starts running low, and the other has more than enough, we just take some back.”
Cody nodded. “Sounds logical.”
Sean and Steel burst out laughing.
I rolled my eyes again and asked Molly if she wanted any more toast. She did.
Which wasn’t a surprise. That kid could eat like a freakin’ horse, yet she was still skinny.
“Mommy, when you have your baby, I want to work as a trash man.”
“What baby?” Sean suddenly asked, a frown forming on his face.
My face flushed.
“Why do you want to be a trash man, and why would you need to do that? Mom and Steel can afford their child,” Conleigh spoke distractedly as she continued to do her homework—late as always. “You’re ridiculous.”