Chapter 27 Koi daddy
Koi daddy
Gage
Audrey: Gerald is officially out of the house! Levi stopped by and made sure everything went smoothly. Thank you for everything! I think I’m starting to finally get excited about this new start.
Me: Congratulations! I told you everything was going to work out. Beers and milkshakes are on me. And remember, if he does anything that makes you uncomfortable, I want to know. I know you have concerns about a restraining order, but they exist for a reason.
Ican’t believe she talked you into this,” Levi grumbled as we dragged the second cooler out of the back of the truck and placed it on the ground next to the first one.
“Who?” I asked, only half listening. It was Friday, and the sun was dipping low in my backyard, signaling the end to another busy week.
Nana was wriggling in the grass on her back, grunting in ecstasy.
Meetcute was barking at a butterfly. Usually I’d feel a sense of satisfaction in my accomplishments, but today I was left feeling restless.
And I placed the blame squarely on Zoey Moody’s shoulders.
For an impulsive woman, she was taking a hell of a long time to decide to let me back in her bed.
“Who?” Levi repeated. “Hell.”
“What now?” Cam demanded from where he was muscling a boulder into place next to the pond skimmer.
The backyard pond I hadn’t really wanted was officially in operation. According to the small frog I’d found in it this morning, it appeared to be hospitable. I’d worked on it every night after work until I was too tired to think about a certain curly-haired siren who’d cast her spell on me.
“Gigi’s spaced out again,” Levi complained.
Cam took his dirt-streaked shirt off and mopped his face. “It’s the sex. It turns our brains against us.”
I dragged off my hat and swiped a forearm over my brow. “Well, since you brought it up. Can sex be so good you change your mind about everything you want in life?”
Levi looked like I’d just asked if the Easter Bunny was real. “No.”
“Yes,” Cam said at the same time before punching Levi in the arm. “Then you’re not doing it right.”
“I do it just fine,” Levi insisted before turning back to me. “What exactly did this so-called good sex make you change your mind about?”
“I’d rather have more great sex with Zoey than find the future Mrs. Bishop,” I admitted.
Cam shook his head. “I told you not to fuck around. Now you’re finding out.”
“You’re telling me that one night with her and you’re ready to give up on the whole marriage-kid thing?” Levi demanded, opening the second cooler and handing out beers.
I popped the top on the bottle. “I didn’t say I want to give it up. It just doesn’t seem as…interesting right this second.”
Cam sprawled out in the grass. “Must have been some damn good sex that I don’t want to hear about,” he said. “Still pissed about that, by the way. I’m your older brother. You should take my advice.”
“It’s hard to take a man obsessed with a raccoon seriously,” I pointed out, taking a seat on a boulder next to the pond.
He raised a middle finger lazily in my direction. “Speaking of the raccoon that I’m not obsessed with, I have a new plan. I’m gonna set up a perimeter of motion detection cameras all around the house. That way, I can figure out where she’s getting in.”
“Sounds better than your ‘all night stakeout in the garage’ idea.”
“That’s plan B,” he said.
“I’d like to clarify that I’m good at sex,” Levi broke in, plopping down on the other cooler.
“Yeah, right,” Cam snorted.
“Sure you are, buddy.”
“Fuck you both,” Levi said.
“Hey, how’d it go with Audrey and her ex?” I asked him, changing the subject.
“Fine.”
“But?” I prompted.
He shrugged one shoulder. “Don’t like the guy. Came in all pissed off and smelling like booze. But pulled it together when he realized I was there.”
“And?”
Levi took a leisurely sip of his beer. “There were holes in the drywall in a couple of rooms. All about the same height.”
“You think he was taking swings?” Cam asked.
“I asked her when he left. She insisted he’d never been violent but…”
“You don’t believe her?” I pressed. I didn’t like the idea that Audrey might not have felt safe enough to tell me the full truth.
“Just got a bad feeling is all,” Levi said.
“I told her we could file a restraining order, but she said she wanted to keep the split as friendly as possible.”
“Said the same thing to me. But nothing about that guy seems friendly,” Levi said.
“We could preemptively kick his ass,” Cam suggested.
“And then I’d get disbarred and Livvy would have to arrest himself,” I pointed out. “I’ll talk to her again about legal protection. Maybe she’ll open up now that he’s out of the house.”
“Maybe,” Levi said grimly.
We sat in silence, listening to the trickle of the waterfall and the calls of birds.
My thoughts inevitably returned to their new North Star.
Zoey Moody. The breeze ruffled the grass in the field, making me think of her hair.
My brain was wearing ruts in itself with her being its new favorite destination.
I wondered what she was doing right now and if she was thinking about me.
“Look at his stupid face,” Levi said, pointing at me. “He’s doing it again.”
“Jesus, you’re not already in love with her, are you?” Cam demanded.
I snorted. “Of course not. I only think about her as often as you think about Bertha the raccoon.”
Cam couldn’t rise to the bait on that one, and I congratulated myself.
Nana trotted over and nudged me with her nose, demanding attention. I ruffled her silky ears, and she gifted me with a hearty burp in the face. “Ugh. Thanks, Nan. Very ladylike.”
She looked at me with love in her big dumb eyes before romping off to demand pats from Levi.
I hadn’t asked my brothers to show up tonight.
They just had. Because that was what our family did when there was work to be done.
Trucks pulling into the driveway, unloading the beer cooler and shovels as if we hadn’t already spent the better part of the day together.
Two more of the Haven cottages were closing in a week, which meant we were racing the clock to finish.
One of the wives had already snuck her signed Hazel Hart collection onto the bookshelf in their study.
I’d taken a picture of it and sent it to Zoey.
We’d been texting a lot this week. Texting and little else.
I’d spent more time than I cared to admit sitting in my office, just listening to her moving around above me.
“Hazel still willing to marry you?” I asked Cam, breaking the silence.
“Long as I stay on my best behavior until the marriage license is signed,” he joked.
Levi smirked. “Good luck with that.”
It was a good life we’d built, I thought as I scanned the horizon.
Fence lines rolled out, demarcating fields from pastures.
The cows congregated on the sunny hilltop between my place and my parents’.
The dogs basked in the sunshine in my backyard that, thanks to last fall’s reseeding, was finally looking more like a yard and less like a dirt pit.
I was surrounded by family here. I knew my neighbors by name.
The town was coming back to life like it had just finished a long, interminable winter.
I wanted to build on that, to leave my mark as my parents had left theirs.
I wanted to grow our family. It was something I’d always wanted.
Something that I’d taken for granted would happen.
Now there was Zoey. She didn’t make sense.
She didn’t fit neatly into the space I’d left intentionally blank.
Neither did my feelings for her. Neither did the fact that I was sitting here wondering if I wanted her more than the things I had always wanted.
She represented fun and flavor, light and chaos.
I’d spent my life chasing security and the next logical step.
Now I couldn’t stop thinking about just enjoying myself for a beat. If it was a mistake like Cam insisted, I’d at least have fun making it.
“You gonna name them?” Levi asked, nudging the other cooler with his foot.
I popped the lid and stared at the contents. Four fat koi were barely discernible in the murky green water of the sludge-infested pond they’d been rescued from. “Dunno. Do fish have personalities?”
Cam peered into the cooler. “Sure. Slimy. Disgusting. And Swampy.”
“That’s only three,” Levi noted.
“Well, who could forget Ed?” Cam joked.
“You’re worse than the kids at naming things,” I observed.
“Don’t listen to him, Disgusting. Gigi’s just jealous that you have a fish girlfriend and he doesn’t,” Cam said.
“I’m not jealous of a fish. Let’s get them in their new home.” I put my beer down out of Nana’s tail’s reach and signaled for Levi to take the other handle. Together we walked the cooler to the edge of the pond. “Welcome home, guys.”
We unceremoniously dumped the contents into the water.
There was a mighty splash and several flashes of color as the koi entered the water. Nana and Meetcute gathered with us and barked at the disturbance.
“You guys ever wonder why we let Mom talk us into this stuff?” I asked as we watched the fish dart around the bottom of the pond. The bright red one kept my attention as it explored the rocks and grasses with frenetic energy.
“For the same reason Hazel has me wearing ear protection when I mow the lawn and the same reason you took that fucking case when Laura asked you to. Because we love them. And love makes men do stupid, annoying things,” Cam said.
“Like dig out a six-hundred-gallon pond in their backyard so you can rescue four koi from an abandoned property,” Levi pointed out.
“Or represent the woman responsible for your brother-in-law’s death and not tell your brothers, which I’m also still pissed about,” Cam said.
“Yeah, that,” Levi added.
“I’m sorry, okay? I didn’t want to take it on, and I sure as hell didn’t want to do it without telling you assholes. But…”
“Laura,” Levi said simply.
“Yeah.”