Instead, silence descended. Long enough that I damn near choked on it.
Finally, Atlas grunted. “She in today?”
That…wasn’t what I expected.
I cleared my throat. “Yeah. After lunch.”
“Sounds like a good time to do it,” Xander said, taking a sip of his coffee like we were talking about the weather and not changing the structure of our family business. “You think her wife is gonna be okay with her taking on this responsibility? I don’t want Robyn on my ass.”
“Um. Yeah…” I said slowly, still waiting for the other shoe to drop. “Tash mentioned they’re saving to buy a house, so this’ll be welcome.”
Declan raised a brow. “This mean we all get fewer shifts?”
“No, dumbass.” I reached to smack him upside the head, but he dodged me with a low chuckle. “Just me. I don’t see any of you fuckers pulling sixty-hour weeks behind the bar.”
Dec shrugged and shoved the rest of his donut into his mouth. “Fair enough.”
“Wait…that’s it?” I asked.
The corner of Atlas’s mouth twitched—Brick Wall’s version of a beaming smile. “Seems like you were waiting for a fight.”
“Maybe because that’s all I’ve gotten every other time I’ve brought this up?”
Atlas lifted one giant shoulder. “Well, you’re not going to get one this time.”
“Seriously?”
The three of them exchanged a glance so quick, I would’ve missed it if I’d blinked.
Xander dipped his chin in a nod. “Seriously.”
“I’ve been trying to get you three to agree with this for a fucking year,” I said, eyeing each of them. “And now you’re all just suddenly good with it?”
“Yeah, well, yousuddenlygot yourself a wife.” Xander shared a look with Atlas and shrugged. “Things change.”
His meaning was crystal clear when Atlas grunted his agreement—they’d both had their lives shifted dramatically in the past year. First Atlas when Sutton and Laurel had moved in to town, right in his backyard. And then Xander when he had not one but two bombshells land in his lap—his four-year-old daughter he hadn’t known about and the supposed-to-be-temporary nanny who’d made the three of them a family.
“You’ve been holding this place together on your own for years, Linc.” Atlas braced his forearms on the bar top and leaned forward, leveling me with a steady gaze. “About fucking time you get a break if you want one.”
For a second, I couldn’t speak. Which, for me, was saying something. I could only stare at them, my throat tightening without my permission.
Finally, my voice coming out rough, I said, “You all feeling okay? Is someone dying? Because this level of emotional maturity from the Steele men is…unsettling, to say the least.”
Atlas snorted, Xander flipped me off, and something in my chest eased for the first time in a while.
I turned to Declan, who’d been uncharacteristically quiet. “What about you?”
He tipped his chair back, his arms crossed, expression completely unreadable. “You’re the one who’s been stuck here.”
“I haven’t beenstuckhere. I love this place.” I ran my hand over the worn, scuffed wood of the bar. “Always have.”
“But you love something else more right now,” Atlas said, his voice steady and sure. “And she needs you.”
His words hit me harder than I expected, that four-letter word in regard to Willa landing like a bomb. But that was exactly what everyone was supposed to think—that I was head over heels in love with my wife and putting her first.
I was playing my role well, apparently.
“Yeah. She does.”
