She nods slowly. “I want that too. Do you want to stay here? I will get rid of the strawberry rug.”
I chuckle. “Nah. No point in you paying rent. I want you to be able to quit that job if you want to. Find a better one if you like. But there’s no reason for you to put up with puking on Zoom if you don’t have to.”
She rests her face in her hands. “The things we do for our kids.”
Kids. Plural. I can see a day when our life is filled with little ones. We’ll see how we do with the one already on the way.
I grab my phone and send a few texts, then I kiss Violet’s head. “I’m hitting the shower. How soon till you can be ready?”
“Ready for what?” she asks.
I cup her bare breast through the thin fabric of my shirt. “Sweetheart, I told you. I’m taking you home.”
Two hours later, we pull Violet’s sedan down a gravel access road. “Where are we?” she asks.
I drive for about five minutes down a path that winds through dense trees. Thankfully, the area was relatively untouched by the tropical storm. Any damage that was done has long been cleaned up. But if we do have another storm, we’ll always have shelter at the compound.
Once the trees clear, I steer her car down a long driveway that leads to a garage. A sleek black car is parked out front.
“I normally don’t keep her here, but if you’ll be here most of the time, she’ll be safe. I have a one-car garage that fits her and the bike, but I’m going to look into adding a carport so we at least have a shelter for your car. I’ll leave my truck at the compound, so I’ll always have wheels.”
Violet turns to me, looking adorable in the passenger seat of her own car. She’s sucking on a ginger candy, and I smell its spicy sweetness as she asks, “Is this your place?”
I get out of the car, go around to the passenger side, open the door for her, and take her hand as she steps out.
“Yeah,” I tell her. “Now, our home.”
I lead her past the GTO, which she pats hello and greets with a little giggle. Instead of walking her to the front door, I lead her through the grass around back.
When she sees it, she gasps. “Oh, Shadow. Oh my God.”
That’s the same reaction I have every time I’m here.
The house I bought about six years ago is right on the shore of a fairly clear, shallow river. Houses have been built for miles in either direction, but the dense trees and small boat slips that most of us have afford a lot of privacy. The river itself isn’t very deep, so we don’t get the show boaters and water skiers. Mostly, older guys fish off their small private piers, and the younger crowd swims, catches frogs, or kayaks quietly down the ten-mile stretch that leads from the spring where it starts to the Gulf of Mexico.
“She’s spring-fed, so the water tends to be too clear for gators, but we’ll get the occasional one out here. I’ll teach you what to look for and how to protect yourself.”
The water is surprisingly clear, and even though the day is overcast, Violet walks to the shore, kicks off her shoes, and puts her bare toes in the water.
“You’re kidding me,” she says, turning to face me. “This is yours? I thought you lived in the compound.”
“I stay there a lot, and I don’t have a ton of storage here, so I keep the books and shit that I don’t use that often in my room at the compound. But I can sleep here every night and keep my room. Perks of being a VP. That plaque on the door means it’s mine for as long as I hold the office.”
“So, you’ll stay here with me?” she asks, her voice sounding hopeful. “And then what, just go to the compound when they need you?”
“The Club is my job, Violet. I’ll go every morning like other guys go to work. But I’ll be home for dinner most nights. If I can’t, you can come to me, with or without the baby.”
I don’t tell her that I don’t know how well the Club will handle having a baby at the compound, but the other guys have their kids around, playing video games or doing homework. “It’s not an orgy twenty-four seven in there,” I tell her. “And I’m sure it’ll be good for some of those shitheads to see another side of life.”
The club is the only family most of us have. It’s what binds us, bonds us, and that’s never going to go away. I can’t imagine not combining the sides of my life—my blood and my brothers.
Violet wraps her arms around my waist and squeezes tight. “Baby, this is incredible. I can’t believe I get to wake up every morning and look at this.” She looks over her shoulder and then cups my chin. “I won the lotto of life.”
I grin. “Jizzy and a bunch of the others are bringing my truck to your condo this afternoon. Let’s get you moved in sooner rather than later.”
She cuddles herself against my chest but then leans back and frowns a little. “I assume you’ve got a bathroom in there? Because I think I…”
We hold hands and run for the back door.
