Chapter 6
Ronan pulled up in front of Havoc’s house and got out of his old beater truck.
He looked up at the house and the warm glow shining through the windows.
Even the house gave off the feel of family, love, safety, and sanctuary.
Anybody driving past this house would get the feeling that those living inside it were loved — it gave you the warm fuzzies, as his sister would put it.
And that’s just what he wanted for his family.
He started up the stone steps, taking two at a time until he reached the front porch, then went straight to the front door, rapping on it three times before stepping back to wait.
He shoved his hands in the pockets of his jeans and grinned to himself as he heard kids yelling from inside. He turned away from the door and meandered a few feet away before turning back when he heard the door open.
“Damn it! I said shut it! And go somewhere else!” Havoc yelled, shoving his hand out in the direction of the interior of his home as multiple sets of little feet squealed and ran in the direction he pointed. Havoc turned his attention to Ronan. “Enter at your own risk,” he quipped.
Ronan laughed. “You got it good. You know you do,” he said, as he stepped inside Havoc’s and Analise’s home.
“Why didn’t I stop with Harley? Hmm? Tell me that one. She was precocious, but so easy to deal with. These two? Hellions!”
Analise swept past where they stood just inside the doorway. She paused beside Ronan to briefly hug him. “It’s good to see you, Ronan. And don’t let him fool you, he has so much fun rolling around with these babies. All of them, not just Harley.”
“I have no doubt,” Ronan said.
“You hungry? We’re about to start dinner. We’re late today, but it is what it is,” Analise said with a smile and a shrug as she continued into the kitchen.
“No, I’m good. I just had dinner with Giada and her boys.”
Analise was reaching for a pack of ground beef she’d left defrosting in the sink, but stopped midway as she looked back at Ronan.
“Who’s Giada?” Havoc asked suspiciously.
“That’s what I was going to ask,” Analise said.
“A woman. A special woman,” he said with a goofy look on his face.
Havoc canted his head just slightly, then stepped closer. “Is what I think’s happening, happening?”
“I don’t know. What do you think is happening?” Ronan asked.
“You found your mate?” Havoc asked.
Ronan couldn’t contain his happiness. His whole face lit up. “I did!” he practically shouted.
Havoc immediately held his hand up above his head. “Yes, indeed!” he yelled, as Ronan slapped his hand twice in an exaggerated high-five.
“I’m so happy for you, Ronan!” Analise said, hurrying back over to him to hug him again, twice more. “Who is she? Where did you meet her?”
“I met her at the shelter when Daniel was showing me around. I met the boys first, then met her after. I was immediately drawn to them, and the minute she appeared I knew why. She’s mine. That makes them mine, too. I got a whole family, y’all.”
“You got a whole family,” Havoc repeated, smiling and nodding supportively.
“I do,” Ronan said, unable to stop grinning.
“Wait. You ain’t finished school,” Havoc said.
“Yeah, and Dad’s pissed. I think Mom is okay with it since when I went back to see Giada today, she was already there and had made friends with her. Enough at least that Giada was instantly less suspicious when Mom introduced me as her son.”
“You quitting school?” Havoc asked.
“You’ve put in so much time and hard work. You can’t quit,” Analise said. “There’s no reason you can’t have school and your family.”
“Exactly!” Ronan said to Analise. Then he looked at Havoc.
“I went to Tulane today to talk to them about transferring my credits, and enrolling there. After they got a peek at my thesis, they gave me a probationary registration, and forced my place into some already filled graduate classes. My records combined with the thesis and my trajectory, along with the information they already had on me from when they offered me a scholarship out of high school gave the information they needed to push it through. But they can’t make it official until my sealed transcripts are received from the transfer department at M.I.T.
, along with any additional information they need to complete the transfer. ”
“You giving up your scholarship?” Havoc asked.
“Yeah. It doesn’t transfer with me because it was offered by M.I.T. for M.I.T., so I’ll be footing the bill until I can see if there’s anything available next semester. This semester it’s too late, though.”
“Well, why is Dad pissed? It sounds like you got it all covered.”
“He doesn’t want me to jump into a ready made family. Or maybe he thinks I’m going to start working and just keep working and not graduate. Or maybe I’m just supposed to be the child that quietly does only what’s expected of me,” Ronan said snidely.
“I’m sure he’s just concerned,” Analise said.
“Maybe it’s because she’s older than me and has two kids.”
“Older? By how much?” Havoc asked.
“She’s twenty-nine.”
“Four years isn’t that much after you hit twenty-five,” Analise said.
“Yep. Look at that… you just barely made it to old enough,” Havoc said, grabbing Ronan and playfully putting him into a headlock and ruffling his hair.
“You know I’ll kick your ass now, right?” Ronan asked, trying to break Havoc’s hold on him.
“I know you can try,” Havoc said.
“We’ll help, Daddy!” a little voice shouted, as a three year old replica of Analise with wild red hair and green eyes attached herself to Ronan’s leg.
“Me, too!” another voice cried out. “I can whip him!” a four year old replica of Havoc, but with green eyes, declared just before he released a war cry and attacked Ronan’s other leg, complete with biting.
“Hey! Y’all are going to make me call my Wolf! You know he don’t play!” Ronan threatened.
“Yayy!” they both shouted.
“No!” Analise shouted. “Not now, not in this house. It’s time for dinner and we are not playing shift and attack Uncle Ronan.”
“He started it!” Ruger complained.
“Yeah. He always starts it,” Lola said.
“Seems to me that you two came running in here and jumped on him,” Analise said with her hands on her hips, glaring at her children.
“Harley won’t play with us. So, really it’s her fault,” Ruger said.
“Harley is minding her own business in her own room. So, now I’m trying to figure out whose fault it was other than hers,” Analise said, leaning over and looking them both in the eye.
“Not mine!” Ruger yelled as he took off at full speed toward the playroom.
“Not mine,” Lola mimicked running after Ruger.
Once they were out of sight Ronan and Havoc both laughed.
“How old are yours?” Analise asked, meaning the boys that would be his when he claimed their mother.
“Six and seven,” he said, still grinning from his interactions with his niece and nephew.
“Oh, that’s awesome! They can be besties with ours, and everybody else’s, too!” Analise said. “Are you going to finally build a house over here or are you going to keep staying in Remi’s?”
“That’s kind of what I was hoping to talk to you about when I came over here,” Ronan said, his focus on Havoc.
“What? Why you gotta talk? What do you want?” Havoc said.
Analise laughed as she went back to starting dinner.
“Who says I want anything?”
“Because obviously you do.”
“I want to build next to you,” Ronan said. “Between here and the end of the street where the pool is.”
“No! I bought up all this land on purpose so nobody could build next to me. I got tree houses and trails, and climbing forts and all kinds of shit on that side for the kids. Only an acre between that and the parking area for the pool. You can build there, but it’s only an acre meant to buffer us from the pool.
On the other side I got zip lines and hiding spaces and all kinds of fun shit for the kids. ”
“I know. But I really, really need to have her and the kids close to somebody that can keep them safe while I’m not here. I’ll be at school during the day, with a long drive. She’ll be going to work at the shelter, I’m assuming, if she wants to. And if she’s here near you, you can watch her.”
“Watch her? Like she’s two? I’m pretty sure she’d come at you for that one and I ain’t even met her yet.”
“Yes, you have. You know the receptionist at the shelter?” Ronan asked.
“Yeah. That’s her?” Havoc asked Ronan.
“That’s her.”
“Damn. She’s hot.”
Analise raised an eyebrow.
“Not as hot as mine, though,” Havoc amended, grinning at Analise.
“I just need to be sure she’s safe if I’m not around.
She’s on her own because she ran from somebody.
I’m thinking it’s worse than I originally thought because she tried to dissuade me from getting involved with her today.
She said it could be dangerous. And, yeah, I’m alright in the house that was Remi’s.
I’d have Christian and Addie on one side, and Kiernan and Abby on the other, and Shaun and Bailey across the street.
And they all have kids, and it’d be great for the boys.
And it’s beautiful — Remi built it to his tastes and he’s got great taste.
But it’s a guest house. I’d prefer to build my own eventually.
And I thought maybe I could put it over there,” Ronan said, pointing to the left, indicating the land between Havoc and the end of the street where the parking area, the cabana, and the community pool sat.
“I already turned down Emmalyn when she wanted to build next door. That’s why she’s across the street, more or less.”
“I want my home tucked over here,” Ronan said.
Havoc sighed exaggeratedly. “There are guest houses behind me on the first street off the highway, too. Take one of them. Or keep Remi’s.”
“It’s funny we still call it Remi’s, though it’s not anymore,” Analise said.
“Isn’t it?” Havoc said.
“I have no problem being in Remi’s in the short term, but I don’t want to live there permanently.
And I don’t want to be on the first street off the highway.
I want Giada and the boys tucked away in here safe as can be.
Nobody’s building on the river — only Brandt and Hellen have their houses back there, and I’d prefer not to live right on the water even if there was space. ”
“You don’t want to build back there anyway. Little biting ass baby gator children snapping at your toes when you try to wade in the river.”
Ronan laughed.
“You laughing, but wait until they make your toes bleed.”
“They don’t bite me. Collette and Juliette are darling babies. They just happen to shift into alligators like their father,” Analise said.
Havoc pretended to snarl at her.
Ronan laughed again. “I have to admit, those are two beautiful little girls, and with both Hellen’s and Lucien’s attitudes, there are some up and coming boys out there that are in for a serious heartbreak.”
“Without a doubt,” Havoc said. “Hey, here’s a thought.
Why don’t you build between the pool and Emmalyn and Barron?
There’s more available space between her and the pool, than me and the pool.
And it would put you across from us though catty-cornered, and could be more easily watched than right next door.
Between the pool and Emmalyn’s there’s about four acres give or take that she keeps just to have it, while I got shit built for the kids in mine. ”
“I don’t know why I didn’t think of that. It’s so obvious. I didn’t even consider that side of the street,” Ronan said.
“Because you’re thinking, I want my mate safe. I want to live by my brother,” Analise said.
Ronan smiled. “Probably.”
“So, live by me but across from me. Tell you what, if she won’t sell you any of her land, I’ll figure something out. But go ask her. She doesn’t have anything on it. She just keeps it wild.”
“You know? Now that I think about it, I’d rather live across from you, I think,” Ronan said.
“Well, go talk to her. She took a page out of my book and bought land on either side of her house, and behind, but I think it was just to show me she could because I wouldn’t sell her any of mine.”
“If not, I could always build over by the creek, out past Bane and Janie. I know Kaid offered the land when we all started growing up, but so far everybody’s moved over here,” Ronan said. “Except Daisy, and she’s got Joby’s old house so she could stay near her parents.”
“Naw. You building over here. It’s just a question of where.”
“Let me go talk to Emmalyn because I’d really rather be where I can look out of my door and see y’all. Not to mention I could look out of a window and see Emmalyn and Barron, too. That feels safe to me.”
“You know Emmalyn has become the Mrs. Kravitz of the neighborhood? She’s always watching everything and making sure nothing and no one is near that shouldn’t be,” Analise said.
“Mrs. Kravitz?” Ronan asked.
“Bewitched… nosy neighbor,” Analise said.
“Ah! Okay. Yeah. Y’all are a little older than me but I kinda remember that show.”
“Seriously? They’re on rerun on every classic cable channel,” Analise said. “And we’re not that much older!”
“Sure you are. And I don’t have time to watch. I’m usually studying.”
“How are you going to be a mate and a father when you’re always studying?” Analise asked.
“I don’t know. But I will.”
“Go talk to Emmalyn. If she says no, we’ll go see what needs to be marked out to give you room between us and the end of the street,” Havoc said. “And don’t stress how you’re going to do it all. You’ll do it.”