Law & Beard

by Lani Lynn Vale

  I blinked. “Please, don’t ever refer to eggs as butt nuggets again. And, no. I did not. How do you know?”

  “I asked,” he answered, causing my mouth to quirk.

  “He asked, and then he asked how the farmer killed them. When the farmer told them he wrings their neck, Cody then asked if he could help him do it sometime. The farmer told him that it could be arranged, and now you have an appointment to take him to this man’s house next weekend so Cody can help kill, pluck, and process chicken.”

  I looked over at Steel.

  “You’re kidding, right?”

  Steel shook his head. “Nope.”

  He popped the ‘p’ in nope, making me want to maim him. “Why?”

  Steel shrugged. “Well, you did say that you wanted to quench his thirst for knowledge. This is the quenching part of his thirst for knowledge.”

  “I meant it in a way where you would have to deal with that crap, not me,” I said, crossing my arms. “I cannot believe you.”

  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.”

  Cody and Conleigh had such adult conversations sometimes that it was downright scary. I remember at Cody’s age, Conleigh was getting into my makeup and still cutting her hair.

  However, I had a feeling that some of Cody’s grown-up personality had a lot to do with Steel.

  “Baby?”

  “Told you that you wouldn’t be able to keep that secret for long,” Steel muttered, taking a seat at my side with a new plate of eggs.

  I eyed those, too.

  “Don’t even think about it.” He angled his body so that his back was slightly to me.

  I pouted.

  “Baby?” Again, Sean repeated himself.

  “Yes, brother Sean. Baby. Do you know where babies come from?”

  Sean rolled his eyes at Conleigh’s sarcastic comment.

  “Why yes, sister Conleigh. I do. You and Naomi will be sharing a pregnancy, then. I wonder if my child’s niece or nephew will be born before or after him or her,” Sean mused.

  I burst out laughing. “Our luck, it’ll be born after, and then we’ll have yet another weird name going on between them like you two already do. I’m sure y’all won’t let that opportunity pass.”

  And I didn’t.

  As much as Sean and Conleigh fought, they were actually quite fond of each other…like real siblings.

  “I got a call today from an employer who wanted to know what kind of character I thought a ‘Lizzibeth Cross’ had. I told him that she would be a great fit for her company,” Sean said, stunning me.

  “You did?” I asked. “Why did you do that?”

  Sean’s grin was almost infectious. “Because this job was in Montana. Way the fuck away from here.”

  “Language, brother dear,” Conleigh chirped.

  Sean flipped her off.

  “Children,” Steel drawled, humor lacing his voice.

  I grinned.


  I loved the brother/sister dynamic those two had.

  He’d also helped her with school quite a bit, too.

  After Angelina’s son and her son’s girlfriend had been outed for trashing and spray painting the police station and seven police cruisers, they’d been sentenced to juvenile detention.

  Once they were back, they started at an alternative school and were no longer going to the public high school with Conleigh. Meaning Conleigh’s life got a whole lot easier.

  Then again, so did mine.

  Without having to worry about her day in and day out like I used to, I now had more time to focus on Cody. Cody, who was passing all of his classes with flying colors—and knew all of his sight words. Boom!

  Again, that had a lot to do with Steel, too. Having two parents doing the parenting instead of one helped not just the parent, but the child as well.

  It also meant that I didn’t have to work as many hours and got to spend a whole lot more time with my family.

  “So, who was that boy that I saw you with last night, Con?” Sean asked, a gleam in his eye.

  I turned to look at Conleigh, but it was Steel’s “WHAT BOY?” that had me shaking my head.

  “Steel,” Conleigh said warily. “It was just a boy.”

  “What kind of boy?”

  Conleigh glared at Sean. “You know exactly who he is, loser.”

  I studied the ceiling as Sean, Conleigh, and Steel started arguing, so I cleaned up my own plate and took a small, teensy tiny bite of an egg, that turned into an entire egg, behind Steel’s back.

  “So who is it?” Steel asked as I scraped my plate into the trash and then rinsed it off.

  “It’s a boy.”

  “Not a boy. He has a beard. Boys might have mustaches, not full-grown beards.”

  And that’s when I knew exactly who she was talking about. There was only one ‘boy’ that had a full grown freakin’ beard that I knew of, and that was Jessie James’ son, Linc. The college football player.

  “You’re seeing Linc?” Steel barked. “And don’t act like you didn’t know the ‘kid’s’ name, Sean. You knew exactly who it was. Why wouldn’t you tell me this yesterday?”

  Sean grinned.

  “Because I’m a grown ass adult, and I don’t have to tell my father when I see my little sister canoodling with a bearded man who is three years older than her.”

  While Steel was otherwise occupied, I took my shot.

  Steel sat down moments later, still somewhat angry, and reached for his fork only to stop short.

  “Where’s my other egg, Winnie?”

  I waved and kept walking with Molly’s hand in one hand, and Cody’s in the other. “Okay, you two. Let’s play Candy Land.”

  ***

  Two hours later, I was dropping Steel off at the airport where he would be riding in a helicopter looking for what he called ‘pot fields.’

  “Thank you, baby.” He leaned over the console of my new Jeep Cherokee and gave me a kiss. “Pick me up around five if I don’t call.”

  I winked. “Yes, sir.”

  “Shithead.” He laughed and got out.

  “Have a safe flight,” I said to him, pushing my door open and standing up.

  He looked at me like I was crazy. “I have no say in the matter. I’m just a bump on the log in the grand scheme of things.”

  I don’t know what made me say it. Maybe it was the hormones that were coursing through my body thanks to what he’d done to me—putting his baby inside of me. Whatever, I didn’t care. But I said it.

  “Die then,” I said with a shrug and started to get back into the car.

  He caught me up around the middle before I could so much as drop a single inch.

  “Now, that was rude,” he chided, nipping me on the ear.

  I giggled and turned in his arms, placing one chaste kiss on his lips.

  “I can’t believe you did this to me,” I paused. “Again. I never wanted to be pregnant again. Cody and Conleigh were hell on my body. I can’t even imagine what this one is going to do to me.”

  He grinned unrepentantly. “I don’t know what you want me to say. I can’t help that I have feelings for you.”

  I sighed. “I have feelings for you, too.”

  He winked, then patted the roof of my SUV. “Drive safe. Text me when you get home. And don’t eat all the leftovers like you did yesterday.”

  I shrugged. “If it’s in the fridge, it’s fair game.”

  He shook his head. “If you say so, woman. If you say so.”

  “Oh,” I teased. “I say so.”

  ***

  Seven hours later, I was in a food coma and laying on my back naked in bed.

  Steel was just coming out of the shower, and he was staring at me like he’d never seen me before.

  “Is that seriously a Subway sandwich?” he asked.

  I shrugged. “What if it is?”

  “I’d say that you don’t need to be eating sandwiches in the bed that we share because I’m not very fond of crumbs.” He dropped the towel.

  My eyes zeroed in on his cock, and I licked my lips, suddenly hungry for something else. Something that I couldn’t eat, but I sure could taste.

  I patted the bed beside me. “Come lay down and let me rub your back.”

  Because back rubs always turned into other things, and he damn well knew it.

  He bent over and picked up the towel, laying it on the end of the bed, before walking over to the edge and flopping down.

  I bounced slightly and then rolled, moving until I was straddling his hips.

  “I probably shouldn’t have eaten the sandwich,” I admitted. “But I’ll work off those calories.”

  “You’re gonna go running tomorrow?” he asked.

  I shrugged. “Maybe. Maybe not. I’m not really sure yet. The doctor said as long as I was running before, I could safely continue to run. But you heard that.”

  “I did,” he confirmed.

  Steel had gone with me to the OB/GYN appointment.

  But, that had only been because we were both scared.

  I’d been experiencing lethargy, muscle aches, and headaches that were sending me to bed for hours and hours on end. I thought I was having a setback due to the stroke, and we’d both been worried.

  After seeing multiple other doctors, and having them say I was perfectly healthy, it was suggested to go see my OB/GYN by Krisney.

  Krisney who’d said that her husband had said that I sounded like I was pregnant when she explained my symptoms.

  Thinking I was forever going to be a mom of two and was perfectly safe from pregnancy thanks to my IUD, I’d written off the idea.

  However, the more that I thought about it, the more sense it made.

  Steel coming with me had been more of a hand-holding type of thing than my actually needing him there. Yes, I was more than capable of going to my own doctor appointments, but I needed him there for moral support. Just in case something happened like the doctor telling me I was pregnant.

  Which, turns out, I was.

  I’d left there the day before thinking that I was one crazy mother fucker for doing this a third time with a man more than twenty years older than me, but I couldn’t find fault in something that was made from the love that Steel and I shared.

  “Babe?”

  I started moving my hands again and got to work on the hard knot that I felt just above his left shoulder.

  “I was thinking,” I said softly. “If this baby is a girl, we could name her Liddie.”

  He hummed. “And if it’s a boy?”

  I smiled, remembering last night’s story about his deceased best friend. His name had been Stone, and he’d been the president of the MC before Steel. He’d also been a fellow cop, as well as the chief of police. Both jobs that Steel now possessed.

  He’d told me how Stone had been shot by a gang banger. He also told me, even before last night, that he mi
ssed his best friend.

  Something that I saw every once in a while when his gaze would go distant and a faint smile would cross over his face.

  “I was thinking that if it’s a boy, we can name him Stone.”

  I found myself on my back, and Steel between my thighs, in a matter of moments.

  “You’re serious?” he asked.

  I nodded, suddenly finding a smile on my face. “A hundred percent. Stone Cross is kind of cute, right?”

  I swear to God, I’d never seen Steel cry. But his eyes got a little misty, and he looked away.

  “Nothing would make me happier. Nothing.”

  I smoothed my hand over Steel’s face, down his beard, and cupped his neck on both sides.

  “Then it’s decided.”

  He nodded. “You’ve made me one of the happiest men in the world, Winnie.”

  My lip trembled. “When all that was happening to me with Matt…I didn’t think happiness would be in the cards for me again. I didn’t think that I would find something like that again. And I didn’t find that same happiness again. Because this, what you and I share, isn’t something that I ever had before with anyone. This is something totally different, new and pure. Sometimes, when I wake up in the morning by your side, I can’t believe that this is my life.”

  He smoothed back my hair. “This is our life, baby. Better get used to it.”

  ***

  Steel

  Eight months later

  “Stone,” I said to the headstone. “I’d like you to meet your namesake. Stone Connor Cross.”

  The little boy that had defied all odds. The little boy that’d come kicking and screaming into this world, his hand securely wrapped around the IUD that was supposed to prevent him from happening.

  Stone Connor Cross, my two-day-old son, raised his tiny fist in the air and then brought it down lightly on the stone.

  Then, a cloud blocked out the sun, and a beam of light shone down onto the headstone, darkening everything but one word: LOVED.

  What’s Next?

  Kinda Don’t Care

  4-5-18

  Prologue