Smoke and Steel (Wild West MC #2)(102)

“So, it’s not gonna calm down soon,” he noted.

“Um…”

I was feeling anxious, and I didn’t know why.

He’d been mad at me before, and we’d talked it out (okay, yelled it out).

Maybe it was that this was work. He knew how important that was to me. And if he was mad about work, that would not only be upsetting, it would also be troubling.

“It does get like this a lot,” I warned.

“Why are we having this conversation?” he asked.

Considering the climate in that truck, I didn’t understand the question.

Though I did my best to answer it.

“I’m trying to explain why I was running late.”

“I know why you were running late.”

“I don’t want you to get upset because I work so much, seeing as I always work so much.”

“I’m not upset you work so much.”

“You seem to be in a mood.”

“Yeah?”

“Uh, yeah.”

“So when you asked, ‘Are you mad at me,’ you didn’t hear my answer?”

All righty then.

“Is something else bothering you?” I pressed.

“Nope.”

Hmm.

I wasn’t a fan of that because it sure seemed something was bothering him, and if it was, we should talk about it.

But now was not the time to get into it.

I’d been looking forward to that evening since we’d planned it, and Beck was Core’s best friend (with Eight and Muzzle close seconds), so I knew he was looking forward to it too.

Now was the time to enjoy the evening.

Thus, I let it go.

“Would you mind if I called Li? She texted me on the way home and I haven’t had a chance to call her.”

“Why would I mind if you call your sister?”

There seemed some attitude in that when he could have just said, No.

I didn’t get into that.

I called Li.

“Hey, everything okay?” I asked when she answered.

“Are you at work?” she asked in return.

This didn’t bode well for our conversation.

“No,” I answered hesitantly.

“I didn’t want to interrupt you at work with this,” she said.

“With what? Are you okay?” I pressed.

“I got to feeling guilty,” she told me. “So I called Grandma to feel her out about Granddad. And the truth, he does have diabetes and it’s messing with him because diabetes does that. The lie, he might not be fit as a fiddle, but he isn’t reaching to death’s doorbell.”

“So…” I couldn’t finish it because I couldn’t force my mouth to say the words.

Li could. “So Dad used that as a ploy to see his daughters. On the one hand, it indicates how much he missed us that he’d go to those lengths. On the other hand, that’s super fucking shitty, and if he’d managed to reconcile with us, how would he explain he played us like that?”

I had no answer to this question.

It was Li’s turn to ask, “You okay?”

I wasn’t. You never got used to a controlling parent’s ever-changing and sometimes escalating attempts at control.

I also was. Because I might not be close with my grandparents, but I didn’t want them to die. And this was further indication that it was healthier not to have my father in my life.

“I am,” I told her. “You?”

“It’s entirely messed up, but at least Granddad isn’t dying.”

She was right there with me.

I told her Core and I were on our way to dinner, and she let me go.

I’d barely taken my phone from my ear when Core demanded, “What was that?”

“Granddad isn’t dying,” I began, then told him the rest.

Okay, so maybe there wasn’t a mood coming from Core when we got in the truck, because now, there was definitely a mood.

“Honey, I’m used to this kind of thing,” I placated him.

He reached for my hand.

I gave it to him.

He squeezed it, pulled it to his lips, kissed the back of it, and then let me go.

I smiled.

All righty then.

All around all better.





“Okay, I feel the need to apologize,” I said to Janna.

We were in her kitchen.

She was doing something with corn in a skillet, I was placing biscuits on a baking sheet.

I’d discovered a bit earlier that Janna and Beck’s kids were adorable, but very young (aged two and a half and a six-month-old baby). They had Beck’s dark hair and Janna’s dark eyes. I got to meet them, then they had to put them to bed.

Which made me feel even more crap I’d been late.

“No, you don’t,” she replied.

“We were late.”

“Core said you own your own business. It probably gets hairy sometimes.”

“It does.”

“So that’s understandable.”

That was sweet.

Then again, Janna was sweet.

She moved to the oven and peered in.

I got to the heart of it.

“Okay, then I need to apologize about not taking the hand you were offering when Core and I had our thing.”