Page 66 of Levee

That was probably for the best anyway, since going back to my apartment in the broad daylight felt a lot safer than going back at night.

“Then I think we should meet up at your place sometime this week. Order in some food. I can do some nude poses for you,” he teased, getting a little laugh out of me.

“That sounds like a good idea,” I agreed.

Maybe this was exactly what I needed. To get a damn life. To stop hyper fixating on the life, or death, of a neighbor I didn’t even know.

If I stopped looking into it, maybe the threats would stop too.

That, at least, was a shred of hope to cling to, right?

There was a knock at the door a few minutes later, then Rynn’s voice calling through the door, “If you guys are done fucking, the food is done.”

A little giggle bubbled up and burst out of me as I rolled off of Levee, smiling as he smirked down at me, realizing I hadn’t been this carefree, this happy, in what felt like ages.

“Better go get some hash browns before she eats them all,” Levee said, climbing off of the bed.

He kept his back to me as he found and slid on his pants, and I enjoyed the view of his ass for a second before unfolding and finding my bikini and his tee again, my heart set on a little swim again after breakfast.

“You have to let me meet the tortoise today too,” I reminded him as we made our way down to the kitchen.

“You can collect some flowers and feed him if you want.”

“Flowers?” I asked.

“He eats most of the ones we have growing around here. That’s really the only reason anyone tends to the gardens. To feed him.”

“He eats the hibiscus?” I asked.

“His favorite,” Levee confirmed as we made it into the kitchen. “York, wait,” he called, eyeing the man reaching for a big tray. “Jade wants to feed him after breakfast.”

York nodded, reaching instead for a plate and starting to load it up with French toast, scrambled eggs, hash browns, and sausage.

Rynn, sitting with her legs draped over the man who had to be Cato, was already plowing through her mound of French toast.

Coast was sitting with a full plate, but cradling his coffee like a lifeline. He looked hungover and exhausted. And why wouldn’t he be? I was pretty sure he brought three girls to his bed the night before.

At the end of the table, Kylo was holding a piece of French toast up toward Mackie, who took it and started to eat with gusto.

Eddie was singing along to something on the radio, the Spanish not familiar to me, but it sounded happy, as he beamed at everyone eating the food he’d lovingly prepared.

It was all so… domestic.

I glanced over at Levee, who was talking to Cato, and I was struck with how they’d both grown up in my building, how they’d both come from rough upbringings with no familial support. And, somehow, they found their way to this.

It was an unconventional one, sure, but there was no denying that this was absolutely a family.

I had my own family. I loved them dearly. But I still found myself longing to be a real fixture in this one as well.

It was too early for thoughts like that, for hopes that big.

But as Coast said something that made Levee throw his head back and laugh, there was this tightening sensation in my chest that said that while this might be new, my heart was already rushing forward into those hopes.

I grabbed a notepad on the counter that seemed to mostly be a running grocery list for Eddie, drawing the quick, sweepinglines of the room, the faces, trying to capture them all before they got up.

“Wow,” a voice said, interrupting my concentration, making me jolt and look up to find most of my subjects had started to move around. And that a few other people had shown up.

Including the woman at my side with electric-blue hair.

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