Page 90 of Tasting Fire
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As much asEmmy liked Grif Steele, she was considering doing him bodily harm by the time he finished two beers from her fridge and had paced the perimeter of her apartment like a guard tiger so many times that she was dizzy.
He checked the front windows for the tenth time, and she said, “I don’t care what you claimed. This isn’t a friendly visit. Cash put you on Emmy duty.”
“Can’t a guy—”
“You are not aguy.You are Cash’s married cousin who has a wife and two beautiful daughters waiting on you at home. Go be with them.”
Grif sighed and chucked his bottle into her recycling bin. “He’s worried about you, but I have a feeling he didn’t tell me the whole story. Which means he’s even more worried than he let on. I like you, Emmy. But family is family, and Steeles don’t desert family.”
She pointed to the apartment door. “See those locks? You already turned this place into a fortress. And yes, I know that you replaced all the windows with ballistic glass.”
He avoided her stare. “Just good business. I do own this building and I don’t like paying for repairs.”
My God, was there a single man in Cash’s extended family who didn’t have a protective streak ten miles wide? “You should be milked, the whole lot of you.”
That brought him around to stare at her. “What?”
“The Steele men, the Kingston men, probably every other cousin related to y’all in whatever far-reaching way. There should be a way to skim off the extra testosterone. You could package it in manly bullet-proof bottles and sell it for a hefty profit.”
Grif huffed a laugh. “Don’t let Maggie, Riley, Micki, or Evie hear you say that. They’re not exactly wallflowers themselves.”
“But they do have the tendency toward rationality that sometimes seems to be missing in you XY chromosome types.”
Grif’s phone rang, and he answered it with a smile. “Hey, babe. What’s—” His eyebrows pinched together and his mouth tightened. “When? How long has she been running a fever?”
More frowning. “I don’t like the sounds of that. Hang on, I’m with Emmy McKay right now. Let me ask her.” He covered the phone and turned to Emmy. “Stella Grace has a temperature of 101, the sniffles, and a cough. The fever came on within the past hour or two. Should we be concerned?”
Hm. She could be totally honest and tell him the fever would probably go down on its own. Or she could get this man—a wonderful husband and dad—out of her apartment so she could think. She usually hated it when people used the ER for situations that could be handled by an urgent care clinic or a primary care physician the next day, but Emmy said, “Remind me how old she is.”
“About eight months.”
Stella Grace’s fever wasn’t that high, but that could be a tricky age. Better safe than sorry, even though it was probably nothing to worry about. “I can call Dr. Patton and let her know you and Carlie Beth are coming in and that Stella Grace needs to be seen right away.”
“Fuck,” he said, worry clouding his eyes. “I mean thank you.”
“No problem.” She reached for her phone.
“Hey,” Grif turned back to his own phone. “Emmy says we need to get her in right now. I don’t want to waste time by coming to the house. Can you and Aubrey get her loaded up in the van and meet me at St. Elizabeth’s? Okay. Fine. Good. See you there in less than fifteen. I love you. Kiss my girls for me.”
Tears glazed Emmy’s eyes. Grif Steele was an all-around good guy. She probably shouldn’t have given him such grief for playing guard dog for Cash.
It was in these good ol’ boys’ DNA. Protect the womenfolk and babies, regardless of their ability to protect themselves. The beauty was that these strong men hadn’t gone for weak life partners. They’d each fallen for smart, tough women who pushed them to be even stronger.
Cash included. And Emmy couldn’t stay pissed off at him for that.
“I’m sorry,” Grif said. “But I’ve gotta go. I’ll text Reid and—”
“No!” God, no. At least Grif’s testosterone was urbane. Reid Steele was completely uncivilized. His high-frequency personality would decimate her ability to think rationally. “I’ll call Cash and let him know you had an emergency. I promise I won’t leave this apartment until he shows up at 7:03 in the morning.”
Grif unlocked and yanked open the door. “Secure this behind me. Now.”
“Call me later and let me know how Stella Grace is.”
He nodded and was gone.
Emmy let the silence surround and soothe her for a few seconds before she got up and shot all the locks.
