Page 31 of Higher Notes

I shrugged when Sikes glanced at me. “We can fly back tomorrow. Jason is going with us.”

“I expected nothing less. Where are you staying while your house gets built?”

Again, he already knew.

“Mickey offered up his spare rooms. We’ll throw our stuff in storage while we wait.”

“Sounds like a plan. Mickey’s a solid guy, just avoid his basement. Or not. Not my place to know that about my employees.”

Yeah, the infamous BDSM dungeons frequented by Mickey, River, Benny, Diamond and Easton. From what we understood, Diamond’s dungeon was state-of-the-art. Not our place to judge and not our kinks, either. To each their own but it might be cool to see firsthand. Just saying…

“We’re good, Boss.”

“I’ll make the flight reservations and email them shortly. Enjoy the new bus and don’t disappoint me.”

“We won’t.”

Two minds, one reply.

“I’ll be in touch.”Click.

“Well shit, do we rent a truck or just load it into a pod rental?”

“Honestly, most of our shit is old and will not go with the new house. Let’s start our new life with furniture we pick out with Jason and donate the old. I bet we could donate it to the LGBTcenter Jordan volunteers at in Vegas.” I loved this about Sikes. The man had an amazing heart.

“Works for me.” I nearly kissed him then remembered the audience on the other side of the glass. Far too many eyes who enjoyed a show and we weren’t the men to give it to them. Sure enough when we turned around, they didn’t even try to hide the fact they were staring. Jason grinned and winked at us. Little shit.

“Gentlemen, can we assist you with something?” Sikes asked as we stepped back inside.

“Actually,” Easton stood, “we’re headed to the conference room so River can use the large screen. Fizzbo texted you’ll be heading back to Vegas tomorrow with Jason?”

“Yes, sir.”

“Please, just call me Easton. I believe you have Mickey’s phone number. Shoot him a text so he has both of yours, you, too, Jason. Mickey, thank you for orchestrating this. It’s very kind of you to welcome our new family members into your home.”

“Whaaattt?” Marley drew the word out. “You get to hang with my mentor? Dude, lucky duck.”

“Marley, you’re welcome over any time. In fact, we should probably schedule a jam session soon.” Mickey and Marley wandered off before we got a chance to thank him. Given Sikes and I both had our phones out I knew we’d both fired off a text of thanks.

“All right, teams, into the conference room. Sikes, Snipe, feel free to make yourselves at home. You’re welcome to eat or drink whatever is in the kitchen. Don’t want to bore you with a marketing meeting.”

“Thanks, Easton.”

Sikes and I grabbed a cup of coffee and another muffin and took them outside. Neither of us minded the rain. The sound had a soothing effect. Who knew, maybe sleeping with the windowsopen here would help calm the demons. Soothe the mind, soothe the body type of thing.

One could always wish…

“What’re you thinking about?”

“The sense of calm I feel. Whether it be the rain or recent choices we made. I’m feeling really good about everything. A sense of peace.”

Sikes sighed. “I am, too. Is it weird that I’m excited about the whole family scene and wanting to give them a better life and be there for them?”

“No, it’s not. Given what our own childhoods lacked, it’s almost like a way to stick it to those who failed us.” Self-redemption for those of us that life had shit on. “A way to prove to ourselves we’re better than our pasts and that we deserve to love and be loved.”

“Yeah, that sounds about right. Let’s finish up and clean the kitchen. It’s the least we can do for being included in the meal.”

“This kitchen is off the charts.” First time I’d seen a stove outside of a commercial kitchen with eight burners on it. I couldn’t imagine how much the oversized sub-zero fridge and freezer set them back. Probably the equivalent of my annual salary.

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