Chapter 2
Porter
Setting the newspaper on the table, I sighed.
I’d checked every online site I could find already.
Apparently, my brother was right. Houses in Bluewater Coast were slim pickings.
It wasn’t so much a population boom in the area as it was people settling in and then not moving.
Surely something would come open soon, though.
I really wanted to get my stuff out of storage.
It wasn’t that I was picky. I would’ve taken pretty much anything, considering I could always resell when the right house for me came on the market. But living in this tiny apartment sucked. I’d done a month-to-month lease on Main Street, just down from Jace’s apartment over the bar.
My home back in California had been great.
It was on clan land, and I’d had plenty of room to spread out as well as room for the future, whatever that held.
It had sold fast to another family in the clan who wanted to move onto clan land.
I’d hired a clan-based moving company to pack it all up and bring it here to Bluewater, a long drive I was glad I hadn’t had to do myself.
For my next home, I wanted big and airy.
I liked wide open spaces and preferred most rooms to be big enough to accommodate my dragon, if the need came up, and that meant lots of floor space.
It was rare to need to shift indoors, but if for some reason it happened, it would’ve been nice to not take out the walls or ceiling. Or squish most of the furniture.
My move to Bluewater was sudden. I couldn’t afford to be picky at first. This loft was only temporary, a place to crash while I finalized all the details of my move. But mostly things were finished, loose ends tied up and all the I’s dotted and T’s crossed.
Hell, I’d barely had time to unpack the few things I’d brought with me here to the loft.
The rest of my belongings had been delivered straight to a large storage unit, waiting for me to figure out my shit.
At least it was nearby. I’d taken a couple of days to organize it all so if I needed something from inside the boxes—well labeled; they’d done a great job—it wasn’t too difficult to get to them.
Ugh. To be honest it was a huge pain in the ass. I tried to be optimistic as a person. Glass half full. Some days, it was freaking hard and I didn’t manage it.
Forcing myself to think positively, I left the paper and grabbed my gym bag.
As a dragon, I was naturally fit and burned a lot of calories without trying, but a good workout soothed my dragon in between flights and shifts.
Joining a gym was always one of the first things I did any time I moved.
This one was like all the others I’d ever used. It would do just fine.
And it made me feel less exposed. This wasn’t my clan yet.
Flying with them was going to take some getting used to, even though my brother was an integral part of what I hoped would be my new, lifelong clan.
It helped that Anthony seemed like he was going to be easy to get along with as a clan Alpha.
I’d been born an alpha myself but leading a clan had never been something I’d even considered. I loved having my freedom to come and go, have whatever job and hours I wanted. Outside of being available if my clan needed me, my life was my own, with the added perks of being a dragon shifter.
My phone beeped with an email as I bounded down the inside staircase.
I unlocked it as I came out onto the sidewalk outside.
It was from Gilbert, Gilbert, and Fell, a firm I’d been considering taking a job interview with.
I’d finally agreed to one and they’d emailed me with the date and time.
It was a bit of a long drive to their offices, but the pay made up for it.
With a spring in my step, I made my way down Main Street toward the only gym in town. As it was the single option, it was busy all the time, even on a Sunday afternoon.
I didn’t mind, though. After changing, I plugged in my earbuds and hopped on the stair stepper for some cardio. It was easy to up the intensity without it being obvious how difficult I had it set.
The only thing about gym workouts was being careful not to go so fast or so hard that it became noticeable I was faster and stronger than pretty much everyone else.
It took some time for me to burn enough energy to sweat, but I worked myself up a good bit to feel the burn. The weight of other people’s gazes tickled the back of my neck, but that was normal. As long as they didn’t notice what I had the equipment set to, it was all good.
Stares were going to happen. I had a great body. It was just a fact, like having a nose on my face. Human men got envious and wanted to grill me on my routines and nutrition. The women were… persistent, at times. Sometimes they just admired the view. Nothing wrong with that.
I moved on to the weights but had to be even more careful here. If I loaded them too much, the other men would get suspicious. I could easily lift what men much bigger than me could, with a smaller frame than those bodybuilders. Awkward questions were always a day ruiner.
Again, it took a while to lift enough to get my sweat on, but eventually I tired and stopped my reps. I took advantage of the shower at the gym before I left, though. The water pressure in the gym showers was worth the inconvenience of washing in public.
When I finally bought my own house, I planned to have some plumbers come in to put a narrow pipe on the shower that would help create water pressure. The pressure in the apartment sucked big time.
Fully drying my hair would take too long.
I’d already been there a couple of hours, anyway, since it took me so long to tire out.
With my hair still dripping a bit, I headed out of the locker room, but my phone beeped again.
I’d forgotten about it in my gym bag. As I yanked it out and pulled open my emails, someone slammed into my shoulder. Or maybe I’d hit them.
Stumbling to the side, I caught myself quickly and turned to apologize to whoever had plowed into me.
“Watch where you’re going!”
Ugh. I knew that shrill voice. As I lifted my gaze, I came face to face with Kaylee, the psycho from the bar. She glared at me with murder in her eyes. “Are you going to apologize?”
With a sigh, I lifted my hands in surrender. “Sorry.” It ate at me to just let her go with her hoity-toity attitude. “But you probably should apologize to me, too. If you’d been watching where you were going, it wouldn’t have happened, same as me.”
Her glare intensified as her mouth opened slightly.
Whatever. I sidestepped her and kept going. She wasn’t worth getting my blood pressure all raised for.
“Jackass,” she mumbled.
My dragon thrashed at the word that my advanced hearing had picked up, but I rolled my shoulders and shook it off. Not worth it.
I had an invitation to Jace’s to have dinner with him and his new lady, Briana, and her daughter, Hayden. I passed the afternoon by finishing up the last bit of paperwork for the last cases I’d done back in California.
That passed quickly and I soon found myself at Jace and Bri’s dinner table.
“How is settling in going?” Bri asked. “Are you liking it here?”
Nodding, I swallowed my bite and shrugged. “Yes, I love the area. I found a gym and a barber, and the dry cleaners is right on Main, so I know where to go when I’m back in my suits.”
“What about a job?” Jace asked.
I grinned. “I’ve got a couple of interviews lined up. I’m looking forward to them. If they go well, I’ll have my pick of firms.”
He clapped me on the back. “My bigshot attorney brother.”
Ducking my head, I sipped my wine. “Come on, man, it’s just family law.” After what I’d gone through with my father and seeing the difficulty my mother had with their divorce, I’d opted to specialize in an area that would let me help people like me and my mother.
“I have to admit,” I continued. “Loft life isn’t for me. I think I’m going to look for a place.”
Bri grunted and wiped her mouth. “I love the realtor we used,” she said. They had a new place really close to clan lands. “I’ll email you her info.”
“Yes, please. That would be great.” I looked forward to a big house. “I want it all,” I said, and they smiled. “A yard, a big back patio to have little parties and stuff. Room for possible future kids to play.”
Hayden squealed. She’d been so quiet, I nearly forgot she was there. “Are you going to have kids?” she asked. “Can I hold them? I’m like your niece, practically. That makes me their aunt, right?”
Briana chuckled. “Calm down, nugget. Porter’s children would be your cousins, and yes, you can hold them. But he’s not even dating anyone, sweetie.”
And didn’t I know it.
She continued, “When he settles down and has babies, you’ll be the first to know, I’m sure.”
Hayden beamed and fixed me with a sharp gaze. “You’ll tell me first, right?”
I inclined my head slightly. “Of course. Princess Hay has to have all the news hot off the presses.”
“What are presses?” She looked back to her mother to clarify.
Briana sighed as Jace and I laughed. “I’ll explain newspapers later.”
Spending time with my brother and his newfound family was wonderful. I had a family again, a real family. After losing my mother, it meant a lot.
It also made my chest ache with longing. I wanted this. Two-point-five kids and the picket fence. But so far it hadn’t been in the cards for me. As much as I’d tried to remain optimistic, and would still be, judging by the type of home I wanted to buy, history had turned me a bit cynical.
As happy as I was for my brother and other friends back in California who had found their mates and had children, I needed to start preparing myself for the fact that it might not be in the cards for me. At least not now. Maybe ever.