Total pages in book: 158
Estimated words: 160684 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 803(@200wpm)___ 643(@250wpm)___ 536(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 160684 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 803(@200wpm)___ 643(@250wpm)___ 536(@300wpm)
“Such a good girl for her Daddies,” Grady added as Steele handed him the bottle. “Open up for Daddy G.”
She parted her lips and he pushed the nipple into her mouth. And even though she wanted to stay awake and watch them both, be with them, her eyes drifted shut.
It didn’t matter that things weren’t perfect because the two of them were perfect for her.
In every way.
51
“Effie, we need to have a talk.” Grady walked over to where she was sitting on the sectional. Steele was behind him.
She had her laptop with her, trying to get some work done. She hadn’t gone back to Pinkies since the accident a week ago.
But things were going better. She was doing better.
She had an appointment with a therapist at the start of next week.
And she’d managed to move her legs a few times, she’d always felt pins and needles. For some reason, her brain wasn’t ready to let go completely, but she was no longer terrified of staying like this.
“I didn’t eat all the magic beans! Someone else must have snuck in and stolen them! I swear!”
Grady paused and looked down at her. Then he glanced over at Steele, who staring at her sternly.
“No sugar for the rest of the week,” Steele told her. He lifted the laptop away.
She pouted. “That’s so mean!” Although all the jelly beans that Millie had given her were gone now anyway.
“I can add another week to the sugar ban,” Steele threatened as he lifted her, then sat with her on his lap.
She’d noticed he liked to have her close, within touching distance.
“Rats,” she muttered.
“That’s what I thought.”
Grady sat facing her. “I’m sorry, Little one, but I need you to be my Big girl for a while.”
Since that day when she’d fallen over after trying to walk, she’d spent a lot of time in Little headspace. Maybe it was a form of hiding, but she’d needed it. She went back to Big when Brooks was home, of course. Although Brooks wasn’t an idiot. She was pretty sure he knew what was going on.
“What is it? What’s happened? Is Brooks all right?” He was due home any moment. Raul now took him to school and picked him up. Steele had made noises about teaching him to drive. Which made her nervous as hell. Her boy out in a car, driving? Yeah, she knew she would be a bundle of nerves.
But he was growing up. And all his friends were going to be driving.
Of course, that meant finding money for a car for him, but she was getting paid pretty well now.
“Brooks is fine. But he is part of the reason we have to talk,” Grady told her.
“What? Why? Do you not like having him here?”
Steele squeezed her and she glanced up to see him scowling. “Gonna pretend you didn’t ask us that because it fucks me off. Of course we like having him here. We love having both of you here.”
“Indeed,” Grady said. “And our plan is that you never leave.”
“I say we say it right now. They ain’t leaving,” Steele stated.
“We’re not leaving?” she asked breathlessly.
“No. You’re not,” Grady replied. “I’ll get movers to deal with your belongings and talk to the landlord about your lease.”
Move in? Could she do that?
Why wouldn’t you do it? You love them. You want to be around them, and they wouldn’t ask if they didn’t want you living here.
“I, um, are you sure? I can be a lot to handle.”
“No, Effie, you aren’t a lot to handle,” Steele told her gently.
“That’s just your nan fucking with your head.” Grady gave her a firm look. “You are our girl and you belong here with us. And so does Brooks. Although there will have to be some changes.”
“Changes?”
“He’s your kid, baby girl,” Steele said. “But we aren’t men to stay in the background. We want to help with him. Not saying he needs much, that boy is sixteen going on forty. But sometimes we want to do our bit with him, yeah?”
“I guess that would be okay.” More than okay since she often worried that Brooks didn’t have a father figure in his life. No one could ever replace Joe, but Damon and Grady were good men.
“And you’re not going to argue about moving in here?” Grady eyed her with some surprise.
“No. I’m not going to argue. I love being here with you guys. But I do have six months left on my lease.”
“Don’t worry about that, Twinkletoes,” Grady told her. “I will sort it. However, before Brooks gets here, we need to talk about the letter you got the morning of the accident.”
A letter that she got on the morning of the accident?
Oh. Fuck.
“I forgot,” she said in a panic.
Steele tightened his arms around her as she tried to move.
“I forgot about the letter! Oh my God! How could I forget?”