Walk Through Fire (Chaos #4)(158)

She shrugged through a grin. “Life surprises us. Stuff happens, we change. Not that I’m saying if you showed all biker babe, I’d think anything bad,” she assured me quickly. When I nodded, she continued, “No matter what, seeing what I saw, it’d be good because that was cool.”

“Sorry?” I asked, not knowing what she meant.

“You. High. Seeing him laugh like that. I swear, Millie, never saw that.” She smiled. “He said you made him happy. He didn’t lie.”

Suddenly, the depth and breadth of my salad didn’t enter my mind.

“Never?” I asked.

She shook her head. “Nope. No wonder Cleo likes you. She and High are close. Two peas in a pod. You make him laugh like that, she’ll love you to the end of time.”

That felt good.

But.

“Things haven’t been...” I hesitated and decided to say,“such that I’ve had many chances to make Logan laugh like that around the girls.”

Or at all.

She nodded and speared a spinach leaf. “I hear that. Princess Zadie.” It was then she shook her head. “Love that girl but so does High. If he could build her a princess castle that had turrets that reached to the clouds, he would. He’d do the same for Cleo but she’s got her feet on the ground and she thinks of other people as well as herself. She knows not even to ask because doing it might break her dad’s back. Zadie’s thought process doesn’t go that far.”

I decided not to respond to that.

“She gets there, though,” Deb assured me, finishing with, “Eventually.”

“It’s really kind of you to wade into all this,” I told her.

She’d shoved the spinach leaf into her mouth while I was talking so she flicked her fork out to the side when I was done.

Once she swallowed, she said, “This kind of thing is the way it is now. Families aren’t like they used to be. Don’t know, didn’t live back in the fifties where women had zero choice, even if they were stuck in a marriage that wasn’t working. But my guess is, this way is better. People adjust and if they don’t know how to do that, they should learn. We’re adjusting.” She shrugged. “Making a new family for the girls.”

I tried not to look like I was staring at her.

But.

Could she honestly be this cool?

Before I could blurt that question out, Logan slid in beside me with a plate holding four loaded tacos.

He grasped hold of one and dropped grated cheese, lettuce, and meat on a trail to my tray as he plopped it beside my salad.

I looked to him. “I said I didn’t want one, Low.”

He looked to me. “You lied, Millie.”

He was correct.

I gave him a glare.

He gave me a grin, then turned to his tray.

“So, High, thinking on this, this is gonna make things a lot easier,” Deb remarked, spearing more unadulterated vitamins, fiber, and protein and shoving it into her mouth.

“What?” he asked, speaking through a mouthful of taco.

Deb circled her fork around. “Us three. I mean, we sort this out, we can do Thanksgivings together. I have the girls Christmas morning, you guys can come to dinner Christmas night and vice versa. Birthdays will be awesome. Lots of family around. Girls get to feel super special.” She stabbed her salad again. “It’ll all be good.”

I couldn’t help it that time.

I stared at her.

God, she honestly was this cool.

“Yeah,” Logan agreed. “And Thanksgivin’ is comin’ up and we agreed I got the girls this year ’cause you get ’em most of the time but Millie’s kickass pad doesn’t have a dining room. So now, we can all come to your place.”

“Done,” Deb decreed. “Mom’ll love it. She told me to say hi, by the way.”

“Hi back,” Logan muttered, tipping his head to the side and taking another massive bite out of taco. As he did this, he must have caught sight of my tray and my lack of interest in it because his eyes came to me, and through a mouthful of taco, he asked, “Babe, why aren’t you eating?”

“I will when I quit freaking out,” I answered.

He straightened his head, swallowed, and drew his brows together. “Freakin’ out about what?”

“I... you...” I looked to Deb and announced, “You’re very cool.”

She smiled but didn’t say anything because Logan did.

“Told you she was.”

I looked to him. “I know you did but you didn’t say she was cool.”

“Not sure how I can say she’s cool when I’m sayin’ she’s cool, which means Deb’s cool,” Logan returned.

“Cool is not cool,” I replied.

“Beautiful, also told you she was a decent woman who wants me happy. So how you can’t get that her cool is cool I have no clue.”

I quickly looked to Deb and stated, “No offense,” before looking back to Logan and stating, “Women don’t work that way. Rarely are we that cool.”

“Jesus, that’s f*ckin’ ridiculous,” Logan returned.

I opened my mouth to retort, not knowing what I intended to stay, just knowing it would likely be heated, but I didn’t say it because I heard Deb snort prior to busting into laughter.