Page 53 of Steel

Within a second, my sweet boy who I thought didn’t need his mother any longer had his arms wrapped around my neck from the back.

“I’ll protect you, Mom. You don’t need to be strong. I’ll do that too.”

Both Steel’s eyebrows knitted together, his smile fading as he obviously tried to figure out what was wrong with the crazy girl.

“I know you will, baby. And here I was thinking you’d need me for a little while longer.”

“Nope,” Damon said with heavy emphasis. “I’ll be eight, which means I’ll be the man of the house. I’ll take care of everything.”

While wiping my eyes, I bit back yet another chuckle. My kid was often the only reason I was able to smile. “Everything?”

“Yep.”

“That means you’re going to need to get a job,” Steel offered.

“That’s okay. I can find something I can do. I’m really strong. Aren’t I, Mom?”

“You are very strong. Yes,” I answered and was struck by how normal it seemed to be talking this way. After a car fire. With a basic stranger.

“Why don’t we tackle dinner first, young man,” Steel suggested. “How about pizza?”

“Really? Mom never lets us order pizza. She makes it sometimes but it’s not like ordering from our pizza place. We did have pizza on my birthday last year. That was because the kids didn’t come to my party. But that was okay. Mom and I watched a movie and we had ice cream too.”

I shifted in my seat, a little uncomfortable my child was telling all our dirty little secrets. “Yeah,” I said when Steel didn’t respond. “We need to make our budget stretch.”

Especially now.

“My treat,” he told me as he pulled onto the street where we all lived.

“No. That’s not right. You saved my life. I think it would be appropriate if I made you dinner.”

“Well, I’d love that, but from what I heard, unless you can whip out something gourmet with bread and cheese, then I’ll take a raincheck. Fair enough?”

How terrible was it of me to feel entirely comfortable around him? Right now would be a very good opportunity to tell him why I was here.

But why ruin an evening after the crap of the day? I wasn’t in the mood to argue or banter. I honestly didn’t think I had it left in me.

“Okay. I’ll make it up to you though. I insist.”

“That’s fine,” he said, grinning. “I might hold you to it.”

As soon as he pulled up to the house, I thought it strange that I almost said it was good to be home. This definitely wasn’t my home. But at least I could breathe a little easier when behind closed doors.

We piled inside and he seemed more annoyed than before while looking around the living room.

“What’s wrong?”

“I could kick Jasper’s…” He stopped himself before offering a curse word, especially since my son was watching him closely. “Tushy for leaving you with such a mess.”

“That’s okay. We can work with it. Baby, what do you want on your pizza?”

As usual, my son had to make a big deal out of deciding. “Um. Pupperoni and cheese. Lots of cheese. Sausage. Onions. Green peppers. Ummm…”

“Mushrooms?” Steel asked.

“Yuck. No mushrooms.”

“How about pepperoni, since pupperoni is for dogs?” My suggestion brought a huge smile.