Page 95 of Levee

“It’s home, ain’t it?”

“But do youlikeit?”

“What’s it matter if I like it or not? It’s where I’m stuck.”

“But if you weren’t stuck. If you could move somewhere else, would you?”

“Suppose so.”

“What would you like to be different?”

“Guess I’d like to be somewhere quieter. Noise all day and night here.”

He wasn’t wrong about that. Though I kind of enjoyed the activity.

“I want a bungalow somewhere,” I confessed.

“Yeah? What’s the use in dreaming? Ain’t gonna have it.”

That was where he was wrong.

I would have it.

So I was going to go ahead and keep on dreaming.

And if that dream suddenly involved having Levee in that little bungalow with me, then so what?

For the time being, though, I had to keep hopping between my place and the clubhouse so I could take care of my fish. And, you know, not leave my apartment empty for too long, since that kind of thing got noticed in a rough area.

That said, the wheels were in motion.

I was about to send Zayn his commissioned art. And I’d already been in touch with Teddy’s associate about the hotel.

Maybe it wouldn’t be just a dream for much longer.

Levee - 3 months

“You’re a lucky fuck, man,” Cato said, nodding as we stood at the curb in front of the house I’d just bought.

He was right about that.

The thing was, with being a member of the club, you had to live somewhat close to the clubhouse. And it wasn’t really an area where you found bungalows. Let alone one big enough to eventually have a family in. Especially if that family involved the ‘litter’ of kids Jade had been very clear about wanting.

I hadn’t given kids that much thought before her. The more I saw her with kids now, the more I wanted to see her with one ofmykids.

I could picture it right in the house I now had the keys to. Coming home to see her in the front covered porch, rocking a baby like I’d seen her do with other babies countless times before.

Or walking in to find her sitting at a canvas in her art room, the sun streaming in through a myriad of suncatchers, casting rainbows across her skin and hair.

I could see both of us sitting at the table in the dining room, watching the chaos as four small children chattered and laughed.

“Though I don’t know why the fuck you would want to stick your uncle in the guest house.”

It wasn’t exactly my idea.

The longer Jade and I dated, the more she got involved in the caretaking of my Uncle Will. And because Jade had the heart the size of a blue whale’s, it made her want to do more and more for him, even when he was nasty to her.

To her credit, the more she worked at him, the more my uncle’s sharp edges softened. And, amazingly, the more he actually wanted to start taking care of himself. Hell, she actually had the man eating the fruit that I’d been bringing—and then throwing away—for years.

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