Page 137 of Steel

“You bet. My entire body aches.”

“You’re not mad.”

As soon as I laughed, a moan swept from my throat. I was getting too old for this. “Not in the least. I might even give you a reward.”

The blip on my phone was the reason for me to groan. Not the pain coursing through every inch of my body. While I struggled, I managed to jerk it free, trying to make out the words in the sun.

When I did, I sat straight up.

“What is it?” Steel asked, half laughing.

I read the text again. “It’s Eric, my boss. He said the pictures were perfect and after some tweaking, they’ll go to press.”

“Well, that’s great. What’s wrong?”

I turned my head. “That means the project is over. He wants me to head back to LA.”

* * *

An arrest was finally made. After two weeks, about time. I flicked through the story from a Missoula television station, thankful they’d caught the kids. Only they weren’t high school age, but college kids on break. The parents of one of the kids involved had lived in my house. Well, the rental house, and their lives had fallen apart. So their son had been angry, using the key he’d already had and crashing there. Then they used it for a party space and he and his friends developed a plan of taking revenge on people who’d wronged his parents.

Maybe some would call that noble. Apparently, the night Damon had discovered them, they’d been planning on burning down the rental house.

My son had been permanently added to the hero list. Steel would be proud.

Shit. I’d tried very hard not to think about Steel. Oh, how many nights of sleep had I lost?

“You look half a million miles away,” Brenda said as she dropped by my office.

“How could I be somewhere else when I’m right here?”

“You’re staring at an article from a city where you don’t live but should be living.”

Office? My somewhat larger cubicle. Who was I kidding? I sat back, closing my eyes. “That obvious?”

“Yeah, girl. It is. Are you okay?”

“As okay as I can be after having my life turned upside down. Twice.” Maybe more.

“The early buzz on the calendar from the promotional people is incredible. At last report, there are stores that stopped carrying calendars reaching out in hopes of securing hundreds if not thousands of copies. We’ll have the proof in a couple days, and I can’t wait to see it.”

“Great.” We’d been gone two weeks. Two weeks. The time had flown and yet I was still in a fog. Eric had demanded we return so we could work on the project from the office, pushing us to finish, which we had. I knew why. There was a big rift with the investors, which had spilled over into the other major shareholders.

With personnel changes, it would appear the rumor mills had it that another company was trying for a hostile takeover and that could happen based on loans yet to be paid on time. No, I wasn’t in the know, but I could tell when a company was in trouble. Eric had been in a shitty mood.

I’d tried to talk him into allowing me to stay for another couple of weeks in Missoula, but he’d refused to entertain the idea.

So I’d made my goodbyes in one day. One day after the amazing birthday party. I’d been forced to rent a car just so I could gethome. Thankfully, I’d found another Jeep, although I missed my old one. Everything was back to normal.

Except it wasn’t. At least not in my mind.

The only reason Damon hadn’t experienced a complete meltdown was Zorro. Who was already an issue in the apartment, but the cage helped. So did having a way too expensive babysitter who had a yard where Zorro could run and with school still being out, it was a necessity.

But I could tell my little man missed Steel. So did I. Enough that every time his name crossed my mind I ached.

But what was I supposed to do? Moving was risky and we weren’t a permanent couple. I wasn’t certain what we were since the last words we’d spoken had been terse.

“There’s talk about reprints already,” she continued.