Page 97 of Sparks Flying

“Sorry, with work and remodeling the house, we’ve just been insanely busy.”

After much consideration, Bailey and I agreed to stay at the Davenport House, though we were in the process of remodeling the top floor into our private quarters. The house was far too big for Mom and Dad alone, and none of my siblingswanted to live there. It made me happy to know that she was comfortable enough in my childhood home to want to stay.

“Well, I’m glad you made it tonight. I know it means a lot to Kim to have Bailey here. She’s a bit of a hero to us all.”

Bailey’s heroic rescue of Kim had been retold so many times about town that they treated her like a saint or something now. It definitely overshadowed our mating and helped to launch her into Ravenden.

I knew being the only wolf in town wasn’t exactly easy for her. Wolves craved community, but so far it seemed like she was finding that here amongst us birds, too.

“What game are we playing tonight?” I asked.

He chuckled. “It’s Monopoly night.”

“Nope. Babe, come on. It’s time to go,” I said.

“No way. Get your ass in here, Dean,” Gracie yelled.

“I hate you all,” I told them, but it only made the others laugh.

“What’s wrong?” Bailey asked me.

“We’re playing Monopoly.”

“Is that bad?”

“It’s banned from my house, dear,” Mom told her.

Because there were so many of us we divided up across three boards. There was a whole formula to narrow it down the winners until only one game remained.

I wasn’t at all surprised to see Andrew and Mom won their games to advance. But when my girl beat Clarence, I thought all hell would break loose.

Kim’s dad was a sore loser when it came to Monopoly. He threw the board across the room, stole the dog piece Bailey was playing with and refused to give it back to her, which forced her to choose a new piece to play with in the final game as that was the only dog we had.

“Real mature, Clarence,” I taunted, earning myself a bird as he flipped me off.

“Nice,” Elias teased.

The final round came down to the reigning champ—me, and then Andrew, Mom, and Bailey. If she thought for one second that I was going to team up or go easy on her, then she was in for a rude awakening.

It was a cutthroat match. The women ended up teaming up together despite rules against it. Their alliance remained tight as they defeated Andrew, but they couldn’t take me.

Finally, Mom landed on my Park Place and couldn’t pay up. Out she went, but not before gifting all her properties to Bailey.

“That’s against the rules, Mom.”

“Rules were meant to be broken, Son.”

I growled, but kept playing my game.

I had to admit I loved how cut throat Bailey played. She didn’t seem to give two shits that I was her mate.

“All my money’s on Bailey. If anyone can take down Dean, it’s got to be her,” Andrew announced as a pool was started and everyone placed their bets.

I rolled the dice. Snake eyes.

“Shit!”

I’d just landed on Water Works, and I was running very low on cash. Bailey owned all the utilities, compliments of my mother.

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