Page 44 of Levee

Coast saluted him, waited for him to leave, then declared, “We’ll do strip poker inside until then.”

“I doubt the club girls know how to play poker,” Velle said, coming down the stairs still pulling a shirt on, looking like he hadn’t slept in days. I realized then that while Velle had a knack for getting to know all of us pretty well, often without us even realizing we were spilling our guts to him, we knew almost nothing about him.

“Yeah, that’s the point,” Coast said with a grin as he shoved the rest of his food in his mouth.

At the corner of the table, Mackie was gripping the bars of his cage and hanging down toward Kylo—who he’d rightfullydecided was the club sucker when it came to sneaking him food—who immediately ripped off a piece of bread and handed it to the bird.

“I’m always down for poker,” Kylo said as York came in from the backyard, a large plate in his hands after likely having dropped off food for the tortoise.

“We’re playing poker?” he asked.

“Once the girls get here,” Coast confirmed. “Gonna start making some calls,” he added as he got up to put his plate in the dishwasher. “Sure you don’t wanna hang?” he asked me.

“Nah. Rather have some alone time with Jade. Been cock-blocked twice by my uncle.”

“Good luck to you, man,” he said, already reaching for his phone.

“You ever want someone to talk to about her…” Velle invited as he loaded up a plate.

“And find out I have some long-buried mommy issues and anxious attachment or whatever shit I heard you talking to Candy about? I’ll pass,” I said, getting a smile out of him. “I got my pep talk from Teddy already,” I added.

“Can’t get a read on that man,” Velle admitted. “There’s… something going on with his need to get the guys of this club to get their heads outta their asses and commit to their women. But I can’t put my finger on it.”

“Well, good luck with that, man,” I said, clamping him on the shoulder on my way toward the door, wanting to make sure I made it to the building before the delivery window, not wanting my stubborn-ass uncle to refuse delivery or some shit like that.

—

“What do you want?” Uncle Will greeted me, shooting small eyes at me as I moved into his apartment to find him in his chair waiting for something in the microwave.

“Got a delivery coming for you in a few minutes,” I told him.

“Don’t need nothing from you.”

“Yeah, I’ve heard that before,” I agreed, hanging back near the door, pretending I was waiting for the delivery guys when I was really just listening to hear if Jade was in or not. “Any idea what happened to Jade’s whiteboard?” I asked.

“Her what?”

“The board on her door? It’s gone.”

“Probably some little shits stole it,” he said, shrugging it off.

That was possible.

Just seemed unlikely that it would have been up for over a month only to be stolen now. That said, the paint on the door was chipped where it had been hanging, so who knows.

“What are you waiting for?”

“Your new electric wheelchair. I ordered it weeks ago. Timing is good now, though, with your hand.”

“I’m managing,” he insisted, but I saw that spark of interest in his eyes, no matter how much he tried to squash it.

“And now you can do more than manage,” I said. “And I’ll run the cord under the rug to near your recliner, so you can charge it when you’re sitting there.”

I got a harumph at that but he sat up a bit straighter in his chair at the prospect.

“Speaking of, I’m gonna run a vacuum real quick,” I said, hearing nothing but silence from Jade’s apartment, and feeling kind of silly for standing there listening.

With that, I got to cleaning as much as quickly as I could as my uncle ate his food sitting in his wheelchair in the kitchen. Uncharacteristically out of my way to let me get things ready for the delivery.

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