Page 49 of Higher Notes

“All right, I’m out of here. Easton said to tell you if your day job doesn’t work out you’ve got one in management.” Diamond winked and grinned.

“D, did you just show teeth?” Mickey teased him.

Diamond flipped him off as he walked backwards toward the front door. “Deuces, jackass!”

Fuck, these guys were the best. Fierce friends and stellar performers. Their souls reached the heavens themselves.

Chapter Fourteen

Sikes

“I’m not sure this tub will fit all three of us. Is it too late to change?” We were doing the final walkthrough for the new house. The contractor finished three weeks early thanks to Easton, I’m sure. But I was certain this tub was smaller than the one I’d ordered. The problem was we’d been spoiled staying at Mickey’s and now I wanted the same one we had there. You know, small outdoor pool-sized that didn’t fit into a normal non-mansion house.

“Dude, the house is done. We. Will. Fit.” Snipe was clearly done with this conversation.

“I assure you, Mr. Whitlock, that this is the exact tub you selected while at the showroom. We’d have had to extend this wing of the house in order to accommodate anything larger.” Daniel, our superintendent, said. William, the owner of theconstruction company, was normally who we spoke with, but he had a previous engagement to attend. “Shall we move on?”

Dana was near giggles when we entered her room. They’d given each of us a roll of blue painter’s tape to mark anything that had to be fixed including paint blemishes. So far, we’d not taped a single thing.

“Finally a room fit for the family matriarch,” Jason curtsied.

“This is so exciting. I can’t wait to decorate it.” Dana smiled so wide I thought her cheeks might burst but inside, I was equally excited. Just had to keep my cool and not blow my cover. You know, the hard ass protector one who also played dress up with his little princess.

This nearly perfect inspection had Easton written all over it. That man never failed to impress, and I wouldn’t be surprised to find he’d stopped by daily and called out any errors he found.

But how exciting was this? Building our own home and formally starting our life together.

“I just can’t believe this is real,” Dana hugged Jason tight as she squealed. “That this is our life.”

“It’s all uphill from here, Mom.”

“Mr. Sniper,” Nolan tugged Snipe’s hand. “What if I get scared in my new room?”

“You can sleep with me, and I’ll protect you,” Nicole assured him. “Wyatt will protect us, won’t you, Wyatt?”

“Of course, and so will Mr. Sniper. Plus, we’ll have a super de duper state-of-the-art security system installed, too.” As though she’d accept any other reply. I couldn’t wait to teach her self-defense. That girl was already a take no shit kind of gal and I loved her to bits for her fierce attitude. Now I just had to teach her the moves to back it up.

“See, Nolan, everything will be fine.” Nicole was so motherly it was scary. Right down to holding and patting his hand reassuringly.

Fizzbo had the team who set up all the systems scheduled to install ours tomorrow. He’d already arranged it through Easton and they were ready to roll. We were moving in this weekend but had to meet the furniture delivery truck here tomorrow as well.

While Dana worked, we’d been at the apartment packing what they wouldn’t need to use before Saturday. The movers would be there bright and early that morning. Jason, Snipe and I planned to drop our stuff off here first then head over to meet them. We wanted to limit the amount of stress on Dana. The overworked mother of four was about to become very pampered.

Well, while we were in town at least.

Tonight, Chaotic’s new CD as well as Embrace’s dropped and there was a release party at Mickey’s place. All Social and Chaotic band members would be in attendance. I was happy to report that included Marley. He’d kept his promise and pulled his head out of his ass and met with Mickey a minimum of twice a week, sometimes three times since Jason lost his shit. I was so freaking proud of him. Did I want him to lose his tender side? Not at all. But having others walk all over him like Marley had didn’t fly with us.

“Hey, Easton, what’s up?” Jason pulled away from the group but had the call on the speakerphone.

“Is now a good time for great news?”

Jason smiled at the staring crowd. “Absolutely, walking the house right now.”

“Well then, I won’t keep you. Wanted to let you know Chaotic Abyss first CD had enough preorders that it dropped in at gold!”

“Fuck yeah!” Jason screamed and apologized before Nicole corrected him. “Sorry, Nic, but that’s awesome. You are the star atop the Christmas tree, Easton.”

“Happy to help. Congrats. I’ll call the others, and we’ll see you tonight.” Easton hung up.

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