Steele

by Bennett, Sawyer

Leaning in closer, I touch my temple on the top of her head, lowering to a complete whisper. “I’ll give you orgasms any day you want, Ella. All you have to do is ask.”

  “You know I will,” she teases.

  “What’s going on?” Lucy says from behind us.

  Ella and I jump apart as if we’d been electrocuted by each other. We spin to see Lucy standing there, Brody in her arms. She must have worn him out as he’s still, watching us curiously.

  Lucy’s expression, on the other hand, is condemning and suspicious.

  “Nothing’s going on,” Ella says, her voice raised in a tone that borders on hysterical.

  It’s adorable. “Your mom and I were just talking,” I calmly explain.

  “With your arm around her waist and whispering,” Lucy challenges. “Looks more like flirting to me.”

  “Are you mad about it?” I challenge back. Lucy was upset when we separated, and she struggled with it for a long time.

  Her brows knit together. “Just confused.”

  Ella’s expression indicates she has no clue what to say. I can’t say I’m any more well equipped, but I’m going to take this one.

  Shooting a pointed look at Ella, I ask, “Where did you put all the dog supplies you bought? Lucy and I will pull them out while the ziti is cooling.”

  Ella jerks to the right, relief evident in her eyes. “In the garage.”

  “Okay,” I say, moving that way. “Come on, Lucy. Help your dad out.”

  She heaves a protesting sigh, but she follows me into the garage, carrying Brody with her.

  I immediately spot the stack of supplies, which includes a wire kennel, similar to mine, that the puppy will be crated in at night or when we’re away, as well as bowls, a soft dog bed, food, and toys.

  Picking the kennel up, I tell my daughter, “The puppy has to be crated if we can’t keep our eye on him. He’ll also sleep in here at night.”

  “But I want him to sleep with me,” Lucy complains.

  “These are the organization’s rules, not mine,” I reply, carrying the kennel toward the door that leads back into the house.

  Lucy turns to precede me into the house, but I stop her. “Hold up.”

  When she pivots to face me her expression is guarded. “You asked about your mom and me. What do you want to know?”

  “Were you two flirting with each other just now?” she demands.

  I can’t believe I get a little warm in the face at such a question, but I nod.

  Her eyes narrow. “So are you… what… getting back together?”

  I place the kennel on a chest freezer up against the wall and lean back against Ella’s Escalade. “It’s not that simple.”

  “It kind of is,” she replies. “Because Mom kicked you out and you left and for months, you showed no interest in Mom, then once she starts dating someone—who is very nice, I might add—then you’re suddenly coming around more. And then Mom breaks up with David, and now you two are making googly eyes at each other.”

  “Googly eyes?” I ask with a grin, hoping to lighten the moment.

  Lucy doesn’t crack a smile, instead, she dips her head and rubs her cheek against Brody’s head, who seems to be on the verge of falling asleep.

  Tucking my hands in my pocket, I decide to be honest with my kid. “Okay… so here’s the thing. When your mom asked me to leave, I didn’t understand it. And to be fair to her, she was clear in why she was asking me to leave, but I guess I just didn’t want to hear it. So yeah… I just let it go, figuring it’s what your mom wanted. I thought we were over. But not once in that time did I not want to come back home. I always wanted my family back, but I didn’t think it was possible.”

  “What changed?” she asks dubiously.

  “I saw your mom out on a date with David, and I got insanely jealous,” I admit. “It sort of lit a fire under me.”

  “Lit a fire to do what?” she asks, this time her voice is a bit softer.

  “To try to prove to your mom that I’m the type of man she wants. That I can make her happy again.”

  Lucy’s eyes go a little round.

  “Your mom deserves better than what I gave her as a husband. Now I know that, so I’m ready to do better.”

  “See,” Lucy murmurs, her expression filled with confusion. “I don’t get it. You and Mom always seemed to get along great. You never argued. I never understood why she asked you to leave or why you so easily accepted it.”

  I push off Ella’s vehicle to move in close to Lucy. When I brush a lock of hair behind her ear, Brody tries to nip at my wrist. “A lot of that stuff is private between your mom and me, but what I will tell you is that a marriage should be better than just getting along great and not arguing. I’m telling you this as a woman, Lucy, who may one day fall in love and get married. You should be deliriously happy all the time. You should feel loved and noticed all the time. Anything less, and you do exactly as your mom did and kick the offender to the curb.”

  Lucy’s mouth drops open.

  “I’m serious, kid. While I love your mom madly, I thought she was satisfied with just getting along great. I didn’t know she needed so much more, even though she always voiced her needs. I was too caught up in other shit to hear her correctly. But I hear her now, and that’s all you need to know.”

  Lucy’s eyes start to sparkle. “Does that mean you’re moving back in?”

  I ruffle her hair while I shake my head. “Not anytime soon. Your mom wants to take it slow. She needs to see that I’m more than just words.”

  She gives me a sage nod. “Makes sense.”

  “But…” I drawl, giving a quick look at the door leading into the house, lowering my voice on the off-chance Ella’s eavesdropping on me. “The Vengeance is having a big Halloween party next week, and I want your mom and you to come. I’m going to ask her but I know she’ll balk. She might consider that to be too fast or feel awkward being around the team since we’ve been separated.”

  Lucy starts to get my drift, expression turning conspiratorial. “So when you ask, you need me to be vocally in favor of going, right? As a family?”

  “Smart kid.” Grinning, I bend to kiss her head.

  “I have your back, Dad,” she replies.

  Looping my arm around her shoulder, I steer her to the door. “And I love you for it.”

  “The kennel, Dad,” Lucy reminds me. “We better come in with that, or Mom will think we were out here conspiring.”

  Laughing, I release my kid and grab the kennel from on top of the freezer. I’ll come back and get the rest after we eat dinner.

  Together.

  As a family.

  CHAPTER 12

  Steele

  Lucy comes trotting toward my Range Rover, her backpack slung over her shoulder. She’s wearing a pair of shorts that are thankfully modestly mid-leg, a rainbow-striped t-shirt, and pink high-top Chucks. I love her individuality and her refusal to follow the mainstream trends. She gets that mostly from her mom, who doesn’t care about such things and who is so comfortable in her skin she needs no other trappings to strengthen her healthy ego.

  I’m the one who tends to like fancy trips, cars, and clothing, but we’ve always kept most of our spending modest. Our house isn’t as big and luxurious as some of the other players, and Ella doesn’t want a different designer purse for every occasion. We’ve always been about saving as much as we could because no day in this league is guaranteed. I could sustain a serious injury, and, just like that, be unemployed.

  Regardless, I’m about to get extravagant and I enlist Lucy’s help.

  The team was on a short road trip to Vegas to play the Spades yesterday, and we came back late last night. Lucy took the bus to school this morning and I get her tonight per the loose and casual custody arrangement Ella and I worked out and are always willing to adapt as needed.

  Before heading to school to pick up my kid, I swung by Ella’s house. She was on puppy duty while Lucy was in school, and I entered the house using my key.
Without knocking, as Ella said she’d be on a Zoom meeting with her team in New York, I went inside. I found Brody in her office. Ella had earbuds in and was talking with someone on her computer screen, the back of which was to me. Brody was under her desk, happily gnawing away on a cow hoof. The minute I walked in he came running to me.

  Not that he likes me best, but because he’s just a puppy and loves everyone. I scooped him up, shooting a wink at Ella. She didn’t dare return it or blow me a kiss, as everyone would see. She did give me a smile and a subtle chin lift.

  I mouthed the words “Call you later,” and quietly slipped out of the house with a wiggly, licking puppy in my arms. Before putting him in my car, I placed him on the grass and made a general fool of myself by encouraging him to go potty. When he did, I made a bigger fool by praising him—probably to an extreme—but his butt was wagging hard, so he knows he did a good thing.

  From there, we cruised the short drive to Lucy’s school to pick her up.

  Lucy opens the car door, shrugs off her backpack, and flings it on the floorboard, and scoops Brody into her arms, who had previously been sitting like a good boy in the front seat. As much as Brody likes Ella and me, he goes batshit crazy when he sees Lucy. And Lucy is just as enamored. I’m fearful about what will happen when we need to return him for his long-term foster and training. I had not thought about the repercussions of us getting attached to him, particularly Lucy.

  “Hey, Dad,” she says as she slides into the front seat, placing Brody on her lap. She shuts the door, then affixes her seatbelt.

  “What’s up, Lucy Goosey?” I reply with a grin as I pull away from the curb. She gives me her standard eye roll, but there’s a fond smirk when she does so. “How was school?”

  Her reprisal takes less than two minutes. Like usual, it was good and she did well. Lucy is incredibly smart, and she’s at the very top of her class.

  “Want to help me do something?” I ask her, the sly tone in my voice getting her attention, so she looks across the console at me.

  “Like what?”

  I waggle my eyebrows before turning my attention back to the road. “Want to help me romance your mom tonight?”

  That gets another eye roll, but she’s still curious. “How?”

  “Well,” I drawl dramatically. “I was thinking of you helping me cook an extravagant meal, which we’ll serve to her by candlelight. I’ll have some flowers for her and a little gift. Just a token of my undying love and worship of her.”

  Lucy snorts. “You’re laying it on thick.”

  “Hey,” I say in defense of myself. “Your mom is a tough nut to crack sometimes and I’m pulling out everything in my arsenal.”

  “You know you don’t have to do all this stuff to impress her, right?” Lucy advises. “She’d be happy sharing a takeout pizza with us tonight.”

  I shoot Lucy my most dramatically horrified look. “Child… you know nothing about romance. Sit back and let me teach you, then make sure any boy who ever dates you in the future treats you this way.”

  “But you didn’t do this for Mom before?” Lucy points out, but it’s done gently. Not in a way meant to rub my face in my failures.

  “I know,” I murmur. “And I was wrong. But so what if I’m going a little overboard now? I just want her to see me working hard.”

  Lucy scratches Brody’s head. “She knows.”

  “Why? Did she say something?” I press like a middle-school boy wanting to know if sweet, pretty Ella likes me.

  “Nothing I’m allowed to divulge because moms and daughters can have secrets,” she says primly. “But I have it on good authority that you are making an impression.”

  “Hmm,” I say, rubbing at my chin. “I could tickle it out of you. That has worked in the past.”

  “I’ll never reveal her secrets, so give it up,” she says firmly, then refocuses the subject. “So let me get this straight… you want me to help you cook an extravagant meal?”

  “Yes, because I suck at cooking even non-extravagant meals,” I confirm with a solid nod. “I don’t want to screw this up.”

  “Probably want me to help you set the table properly?”

  “That would be nice,” I agree.

  “Make sure there’re candles and the flowers and gift all sweetly laid out?” she presses.

  “You’re a regular Martha Stewart,” I mutter.

  “Who?” she asks.

  “Never mind, but yes… I would like you to help me do all that. Plus, I need you with me to go shopping for groceries, flowers, and jewelry.”

  “And after all of this,” Lucy continues, her tone droll. “I expect you want me to hide in my room.”

  I burst out laughing, but I quickly shake my head. “No way. You help me with all of this, and you get to join in on the romance.”

  “Having your kid there is not romantic,” she asserts.

  “There you are wrong,” I correct sternly. “Romance is nothing more than expressing love, and your mom would think it’s sweet we did this together. I mean, I can’t get you to go putt-putt with me, but we can show her that we’re a solid team and we both like making her happy.”

  Lucy’s head twists my way, her lips pursed. She thinks I’m ridiculous, but she finally smiles. “Okay. I’m in.”

  “Awesome,” I say, slapping a hand on the wheel. “Let’s take Brody home and get him situated in the kennel. We’ll run out to the grocery store and we can get flowers there, then there’s a jewelry store nearby we can pop in. But to make sure this all goes off without a hitch, text your mom and come up with some lie to get her over to my place around seven.”

  “You want me to lie to her?” Lucy asks dubiously, reaching into her backpack to nab her phone.

  “It’s for the greater good,” I assure her.

  ♦

  “Are you sure she’s coming?” I ask Lucy, glancing at the clock. It’s 7:05.

  “Relax,” she mutters from the floor where she’s playing a little tug o’ war with Brody. “I strung an elaborate set of texts to get her here. It’s foolproof.”

  I glance back into my small dining room. My house is about half the size of the one I shared with Ella and Lucy, but that’s fine by me. Less to keep up with.

  Lucy outdid herself, helping me shop for and make an amazing shrimp scampi. It’s no Chateaubriand, but, frankly, we didn’t have a lot of time. She has the flowers prettily arranged on the table, and I opened a bottle of wine to breathe. There’s a tiny gift bag on the plate where Ella will sit, a beautiful gold charm bracelet that’s incredibly delicate and completely Ella’s style.

  A pounding on my door startles me, and I jump about a foot in the air. I frown, moving that way, wondering why Ella didn’t use the doorbell.

  I swing the door open, my most charming smile in place, and say, “Hey, baby.”

  Ella stands there, her face a mask of pure fury that quickly dissipates into confusion. “You’re here.”

  “Of course I’m here,” I reply with a frown. “I live here.”

  Some sort of understanding filters into her expression, but I’m still clueless. “Where is that daughter of ours?” she asks in a clipped voice.

  I turn sideways from the door so she can see into the living room where Lucy is on the floor with Brody. Ella storms past me, anger once again heating her eyes, and stomps right up to her.

  Putting her hands on her hips, she says, “Lucy McKenna Steele… you better have a damn good reason why I’m standing here. You had me worried sick.”

  “Worried sick?” I exclaim, moving to stand by Ella, but my gaze is fixed on my daughter. “What did you tell your mom?”

  Lucy shrugs with a grin. “You’re the one who said to lie to her.”

  I duck my head in shame because that’s completely true.

  “What the hell is going on?” Ella practically screeches. “I get a flurry of texts from Lucy saying you were acting weird, wouldn’t feed her, then you left saying you were going out for the night.”

&nbs
p; I whirl toward Lucy, my jaw dropping wide open. I can’t even say anything.

  Lucy smirks. “You said to get her here at seven. You said to lie. I did my job, so don’t give me that look.”

  “Lucy,” Ella growls.

  Not sure whether to be mad or laugh, I decide Lucy did her job, although not in a way I would have wanted. It’s time to let her off the hook and calm Ella down.

  “Come with me,” I say, taking Ella’s hand and leading her into the kitchen on the other side of which is the dining room. I glance over my shoulder at Lucy and give her a chiding glare, to which she still smirks back.

  I sweep my hand for Ella to see the dining table all set with a platter of shrimp scampi in the middle and two glowing candles on either side. “We wanted to make you a nice meal, and have it be a surprise. While admittedly, Lucy did the majority of the cooking—”

  “—because you suck at it,” Ella points out.

  “Yes, because I suck at it,” I continue. “It was also her job to lure you here, but I didn’t realize she’d do it in such a manner that would give you a heart attack.”

  “I’m going to beat her,” Ella mutters, but her tone is soft with fondness and delight.

  “Lucy,” I call into the living room. “Put Brody in his kennel and come eat dinner.”

  “Coming,” she calls back.

  Ella walks around the table, looking at the flowers and the candles. She notes the gift bag with a tag hanging off it with her name, and she leans over the platter of food and inhales deeply. “Wow,” she whispers.

  I want to go to her, hug her from behind, and kiss her neck. Tell her that she’s the most wonderful woman in the world and I want to spoil her like this forever, but that moment is lost when Lucy comes bounding in.

  “Still mad at me, Mom?” she quips.

  Ella shoots a glare at her daughter that knocks the smirk off Lucy’s face, but then concedes. “Maybe next time, find a way to get me somewhere that doesn’t involve me trying to figure out how to murder your dad and get away with it, okay?”

  Lucy salutes as she moves to take a seat. “Got it.”

  I pull the chair out for Ella to sit in, and she lifts the bag on her plate. “What’s this?”