“I own this house fifty-fifty with your brother,” he replies. “I pay our company the rent we’d charge for it every month. I told him if my mate wanted to live here, I’d buy him out. If you want, we’ll move.”
“Move where?” I ask.
“We can build like Linc’s doing. There’s a vacant building lot three houses from your parents. Or there are two houses for sale here on this street. Linc’s mother’s old place is one of them.There are a few other places up for grabs too since a couple betas are goin’ with Brody.”
“Where’d Julia go?”
Julia is Linc’s mom.
“Florida.”
“When?”
“Last week.”
“How did I not know about this?”
“Guessin’ you’ve been a little distracted, Bay.”
“Maybe a little,” I muse.
Smiling, he goes on. “There’s a little holiday settlement started up a few years ago with a bunch of other retired shifters. A whack of retired alphas. That’s a big house if you want that one. There’s also the Dougherty farm right at the end of this street. Not yet for sale, but I was out there a few weeks back fixing their roof and it’s getting to be too much now that Jacob is getting up there in years. The place is a lot of work. They’re thinking about selling the farmhouse and half the land, just keeping part of it where they’ll hire Savage Construction to build them something smaller, all on one level. Also heard Matt and Lauren’s house will be going up for sale soon. They’re joining the Moonshine Springs pack so Matt can be one of Brody’s betas. Heard you saying you loved their house once.”
“What do you want to do?” I ask.
“I want you to pick where you want to live, Bay. Pick where we’ll raise our family. Somewhere you’ll be happy.” He kisses my hand.
“You said you’d build me a reading nook upstairs.”
“I did.”
“With a rolling ladder.”
His shoulders shake with silent laughter. “Can build that for you anywhere. Can build you the house of your dreams if you want.”
“I imagined it up there,” I tell him.
“If that’s what you want, that’s what we’ll do.”
“There’s lots of room here. Many great memories,” I say.
“Didn’t know if you’d want a clean slate.”
I shake my head. “Nope. This house is part of our story. I love this house.”
“Then it’s settled,” he says with a big smile.
“You like it here? Because if you want a fresh start–”
“Love it here,” he tells me.
“Well… good. But we’re throwing that ugly-old beer-stained couch in the trash.”
He laughs. “Or I’ll make a man cave in my garage and put it there.”
“As long as I don’t have to smell it on a daily basis.”
“Done,” he says, then goes on, “So, this is home. Good.”