Page 42 of Silver Sanctuary (The Silver Springs #3)

Twenty-Five

N ash pulled over in front of the large, two-story house.

Embrie was in full chatter-box mode, teaching him about the first four rows of the periodic table and her progress in memorizing the elements in order.

He wasn’t ashamed to admit that his daughter was well and truly smarter than he’d ever be.

“Ready to go have some fun?” he asked, parking the truck and shutting off the engine.

“Yeah. I guess.”

Embrie’s fingers played with her necklace as she looked out the window. She was nervous.

“Hey, I have something for you.”

Her eyes left the window and found his, excitement dancing behind apprehension. “You do?”

“Yep.” Nash reached around the back of Embrie’s seat.

“Now, I cleared this with your mom, and Uncle Gage has it locked down with what you can and can’t do with it, but in case you need to get a hold of us and you’re someplace like this, you can have it with you so we know you can call if there’s an emergency. ”

Embrie opened the box to find a small cell phone sitting in the package. Nash had asked Lacy only about a hundred times if she wanted to give the phone to Embrie with him, but she insisted he do it while he was dropping her off at the birthday party.

“I love it so much!”

“Glad to hear it, Limberger.”

She giggled. “You have to be cheating! Mom even helped me look up some different cheese names last night. I’ve never heard of Limberger!”

“It’s not cheating to be resourceful. Belgium, by the way.”

“Yum. Like the waffle!”

“Yep. And… you’re too smart for me. How would I win if I didn’t have some help?

It’s clearly not going to be from your mom.

She’s fully on Team Cheese, seeing as how she was helping you cheat last night.

” He pointed at Embrie and got another giggle.

“All right, my number is programmed in your phone, so is your mom’s and all the aunts and uncles, too.

Call me if you need anything while you’re here, okay? ”

Embrie looked out the door, tightening her hold on her phone and the present they’d wrapped together that morning.

“You okay?” Nash asked when she didn’t move to get out.

“I’m nervous. Don’t tell mom, because she’ll worry… but sometimes I tell her I have more friends than I really do. Kids are mean.”

“Here’s something I’ve learned in all my years here on this planet…”

“You have been here for a really long time,” Embrie teased.

“Yeah, yeah. You and your mom really like the old man jokes don’t you?”

She nodded, the genuine smile on her face replacing her worry.

“It’s never about the number of friends you have, Embrie. It’s about the quality of those friendships. One friend who sees you for who you truly are and loves you for it? That’s worth more than a thousand surface-level friendships.”

She nodded. “I only have two surface-level friends.”

“Maybe you’ll make some new connections today.”

“Yeah, maybe.” Her shoulders and back straightened, lining up in determination. “You’ll be here at one-thirty to pick me up?”

“I will.”

Embrie nodded before she swung the truck’s door open, scooting to the edge of her seat. “Oh…”

“You oka?—”

Embrie turned and launched herself into his chest.

“Thank you, Nash.” Her arms squeezed as she rested her head against his heart.

“Anytime, kiddo.”

Someone was walking down the hall at Montgomery Defense, jingling their keys on the way to their office. Nash lifted his head, waiting to see which of his buddies was also in on the weekend trying to get ahead with work.

“What are you doing here?” Stone leaned against the door frame to his office.

“My girls are both occupied, so I figured I’d hang out here until one of them was back.”

“God,” he scoffed.

“What?”

“Nothing, man. It’s just… being married to Lacy… stepping up for Embrie in a fatherly way—fuck. I’m just happy for you.”

Nash nodded, trying not to let his emotions get the better of him. It was one thing to know how special Lacy and Embrie were to him. It was a completely different thing to have someone outside of his little family acknowledge it.

“Thanks.” Nash cleared his throat. “You here cause Mae’s at lunch with the girls?”

“I fear I’m probably the reason why a girls’ lunch is being had.”

“What do you mean?”

“Mae and I… we aren’t really…”

He groaned as the sad look on his buddy’s face became all too understandable. “You fucked up.”

“What?”

“Stone. In no world do you ever do better than Mae. You are the biggest idiot?—”

“I didn’t want to end things with her!”

“Oh. Then she did? Why?”

“Fuck. It was me. I love her, but she deserves someone who can love her out in the open. Who can put a ring on her finger, make her a wife, give her lots of babies. I’m staring down five, ten years of schooling to follow my dreams, and she’s, what?

Going to sacrifice all of hers just to be with me?

I can’t let that happen. Besides, I’d kind of like to keep my head, and once Hawk found out about us, I’m almost certain he’d make sure I didn’t. ”

“You are an idiot. Hawk might have a problem with it at first, but you are one of his best friends—he’d come around. The two of you aren’t giving him enough credit.”

“I don’t think…”

Stone’s words faded into the background as a text came in on his phone.

Cheese:

Please come get me .

Fuck. There was over an hour until the party was supposed to end. Was she okay? Had something happened?

“Everything okay?” Stone asked, stepping inside his office.

“Not sure. It’s Brie. She wants me to pick her up.”

“I thought the birthday thing wasn’t over for a while?”

“Exactly.”

Of course. You okay? It’s kinda early to be leaving.

Cheese:

Yeah. I just want to come home.

I’ll be there in five minutes. Stay inside until I get there.

“Gotta run, man. I’m sorry.”

“No, go. Your kid is more important than telling me over and over again what I already know.”

Nash raised an eyebrow in question.

“That I’m an idiot, and basically the best thing that’s ever happened in my life just walked out my door,” Stone admitted.

“Ahh… yup. Better come up with a good plan to get her back, Doc.”

“Don’t know if I can.”

“Well, you better figure it out fast. Mae doesn’t exactly strike me as someone who will sit around and wallow, waiting for you to figure out what’s right in front of your face.”

Nash didn’t wait for his response, walking out of the office before Stone could get up off the sofa.

Something in his stomach was churning with worry.

Fuck. Was that feeling what Lacy was always talking about when Embrie wasn’t with her?

He felt so fucking unsettled. Something bad must have happened for her to want to leave the party early.

Nash just needed to know what he was dealing with.

Pulling up to the house five minutes later, rage slammed into him.

There were fucking tears streaming down her face. Fucking. Tears. This wasn’t a homesick thing, someone had made her cry, he knew it in his bones. Nash was getting really sick of seeing his girls cry.

She stood as soon as her eyes spotted the truck, but Nash was faster. He was out and hopping over the curb before she could make it off the porch. The keys were still in the cup holder, engine still on, but he didn’t care. He wanted to know who the fuck he was going to have to kill.

“What happened? Are you okay?”

“Yeah.” She sniffled as she wiped her face. “I’m fine.”

He knelt down on the pavement in front of her. “Don’t give me that. You promised you wouldn’t keep things from me, remember?” And that’s when he saw it. Her hair.

“Embrie! What happened to your hair?”

She’d had the most precious pigtails braided down her back when he’d dropped her off.

Lacy had even put some fancy ribbon at the bottom of each braid that made Embrie look like a little princess.

Nash had never understood the pull toward frilly pink things until he saw the joy in Embrie’s eyes at the girly touches.

But now, right in front of him, he couldn’t make sense of what he was seeing. Because there was only one pigtail still on the right side of her head. On the left side, her hair was chopped above her shoulder, halfway to her ear.

“Turns out, I only have one friend. She wasn’t invited to the party. And I wasn’t really wanted here either.”

His jaw locked up as he bit down on his molars. “What do you mean?”

“It was fine. I was just playing with their dog, then some of the kids started saying some stuff about my mom—Amber, not my mom, mom. Archer said his mom doesn’t want dirt in their house.

He laughed at me and told me I needed to wait for you on the porch.

I stood to walk out, but someone grabbed my hair, and they cut… ”

She hid her face in her hands, and Nash fought the anger dumping into his bloodstream.

“That was when you first got here?”

“Yeah.”

Nash closed his eyes. “Honey, why didn’t you call me right away?”

“I didn’t want to make you come back. But my belly hurts and I just want to go home.”

“Let’s get you in the truck.” He wrapped his arms around her shoulders, going still for just a second as she wrapped her arms around his waist. “I’ve got you, sweetheart. Those kids don’t know what they’re missing, cause you’re the funniest, kindest, smartest nine-year-old I know.”

“I’m the only nine-year-old you know.”

“Not true. I know all the kids I coach, including the little asshole I’m about to go set straight.”

“Aunt Lily’s going to make you put money in the swear jar.”

He laughed. “How about I give you the money instead and we go get a treat after I talk to Archer and his parents?”

“You don’t need to go in there. Can’t we just go home?”

He stopped outside the truck, putting his hands on her shoulders as he crouched down to look her straight in the eyes. “Embrie, no one gets to make you cry and not have a consequence for doing that. No one, understood?”

She nodded as Nash opened the door and waited for her to get situated inside the cab.