Zodiac
The property was ours after the desperate owners snatched up my lowball offer.
I paid in cash. Escrow closed quickly. We hired a cleaning company to scrub the three houses from top to bottom.
Landscape guys cut back the overgrown bushes and trees.
I hired a company to clean the gated pool and install a canopy over it.
Finally, we moved furniture and basics into the larger guest house.
Elle and Sutter were in a great mood for the first two weeks, while Ford and Shay stayed in the smaller guest house. My guys were often over at the house. Clint and Ivy came down, bunking on the floor of the living room. I wondered what would happen after the party atmosphere ended.
Sutter was the first to break. His grandparents left at ten in the morning. By ten that night, he was scared and flinching at every noise. Elle cuddled with him on the couch and called her parents.
“Are you missing us, bud?” Ford asked.
Sutter nodded and began to cry. That was the moment when I started to rethink my ability to be a family man.
When I first met Sutter, I thought he was a stuffy nerd. Then, I realized he was a badass like his grandpa and uncle. As he cried that night, I saw a little boy scared of the darkness outside an unfamiliar place. He was my responsibility, but I didn’t know how to fix this.
I hated the heaviness in my chest. The only time I felt something similar was when Nova was shot. But back then, I shook off my guilt and moved on. I couldn’t do the same thing with Sutter.
“Do you want us to drive back down tomorrow?” Shay asked Sutter.
Sutter’s little face hid nothing. He was scared and homesick. The boy didn’t want them to come back. He wanted to go home.
“We’ll drive to Little Memphis this weekend,” Elle said when I only stood there uselessly. “Will that help?”
Despite nodding, Sutter touched the screen as if longing for his grandparents. I instantly started asking myself hard questions. Could I handle having Sutter and Elle here only part-time? Was I willing to walk away from my club and live in Little Memphis?
As I came to terms with what I was willing to sacrifice for these people, Elle and Sutter prepared for bed.
“Can he sleep with us tonight?” Elle asked, sounding nervous.
“Do you think I’ll say no?”
“I don’t know. Have you ever shared a bed with a kid before? You might want to wear a cup.”
Though I gave her a tight smile, I felt under attack. With anyone else, I gave zero fucks about their view of me. But Elle and Sutter held the power to make me feel like shit.
Sutter climbed into the middle of the king-sized bed and looked at me with his big gray eyes. He was clearly scared of me. Glancing in a mirror, I realized I was wearing a cold fucking expression.
“I feel guilty,” I told them. “You’re upset because I moved you here.”
“No,” Elle said as she climbed into bed next to Sutter. “We’re upset because humans get homesick. Don’t you miss your apartment?”
“No.”
Grinning at me, she asked, “Not even a tiny bit?”
“I guess I do miss walking downstairs to the clubhouse.”
Elle patted the other side of Sutter. “I miss my family and friends, but I also miss Little Memphis. I knew where everything was. I recognized people everywhere I went. The smells and sounds were familiar. It’ll take time for us to feel that way about our new home in Baton Rouge.”
Sutter exhaled deeply and nodded. He seemed to shake off his earlier fear. Elle’s calm demeanor got him thinking rationally again.
“I love you,” Elle told her son and then smiled at me. “I love you, Zodiac. But I’m tired and need sleep now. Tomorrow, we’ll spend another day getting used to our new home.”
Elle and Sutter looked so comfortable in the bed. They watched me with their matching gazes. I finally stopped assuming the worst and joined them in bed.
“It’s the dark,” Elle said in a sleepy voice as the TV played soundlessly in the corner. “It makes us forget all the cool stuff about our property. But once the sun comes up, we’ll see everything we love about our home. We won’t be so homesick then.”
Elle was right. The sun came up in the morning, and I awoke to find a sleepy Sutter watching me. We shared a smile before slipping out of bed while Elle slept.
I admired her for a moment. She was the best-looking woman I’d ever seen, and she loved me.
When she said those words, they meant something. Elle wasn’t in awe of me like a club slut. She knew what kind of man I was. On a daily basis, I got on her nerves. Elle was always willing to push back if my mouth bothered her.
But she still loved me. Her feelings were reliable. She gave up her home to make a new life with me. Not for the baby. She was here for me.
Over the next few weeks, the number of bad moods lessened. In the mornings, I rode with my club and checked on our assets. Mostly, I wanted to be seen out and about to keep our enemies from getting any ideas about me going soft now that I had a woman and kids.
While I worked, Elle and Sutter swam and studied. One day, they decided to paint Sutter’s room a pale blue. I came home to find a wall partially done. Elle had literally stopped halfway up the wall and decided to take a nap.
Her pregnancy and the humidity didn’t mesh well. She was constantly tired and queasy. I bought a couch for the main house’s living room. She rested on it in front of a fan while a couple of guys and I finished up Sutter’s room.
A month after we bought the place, we had managed to finish updating the kitchen, living room, Sutter’s room, and the main suite. We threw a housewarming party, and the Crimson Guard rode down to celebrate. Half of them bunked with us, and the other half slept at Exile’s place.
Sutter showed off his new play set and explained the ideas we’d come up with for an observatory in the old barn. Though his homesickness still hit from time to time, he loved his new room with the murals painted by Ojai and Vanessa.
“I wish they’d fall in love,” Elle told me that night about my club brother and her cousin. “They’re both pretty blonds who paint. Can you imagine how cute their kids would be?”
Unfortunately, Ojai and Vanessa shared the same energy as Vanessa did with her brother. I didn’t see them making a baby in the future.
But I understood why Elle wanted another Crimson Guard chick in Baton Rouge. She missed having a dozen friends in and out of her life every day. Alabama was more like a fun aunt than a pal.
I also sensed Elle didn’t trust discussing relationship details with anyone connected to the Black Rainbow. She was very protective of my image within the club.
The Void hadn’t stirred up trouble in months. By the time Exile and Lula got married before Halloween, I felt comfortable having the entire Black Rainbow club in Little Memphis for the wedding. The ceremony and party were at the Sorority House.
“Is this something you plan on doing one day?” Ford asked me.
“Buying your daughter a house wasn’t enough? Now, I’ve got to buy her bling, too?”
Ford smirked. “I’m old-fashioned.”
I chuckled at the idea of Ford Reed being a stuffy old school guy. My gaze flashed to Elle on the back porch with Cher. She looked happy surrounded by her people.
“I’ll get on one knee and say the words, but she won’t want a wedding until she can fit in her old clothes.”
“Fair enough,” Ford said and smiled at Shay nearby. “You’ve neutered yourself real well so far. I’ll trust you can stick the landing.”
The next day, the Reed family and their friends continued the celebration by throwing a grilling party at both Ford and Pax’s houses.
People spoke over the fence separating the yards.
Exile and Lula could barely keep their hands off each other.
Elle noticed their horniness and decided to fondle my ass.
“Stay still,” she instructed. “I’m trying to make a point here.”
“Is your point that you can give me a boner with your parents nearby?”
Elle smiled up at me and stared into my eyes. “No, it’s that you’re the hottest man in the world and I’m thrilled to have access to everything you’re packing.”
“Oh, then, I approve.”
I kissed Elle with the heat she was seeking. Exile and Lula walked over to complain.
“Stop stealing our limelight,” Lula bitched at Elle.
“Your time in the sun is over. We’re the hot couple now.”
Clint appeared behind me with Ivy at his side. “We’re so secure in our relationship that we don’t need to slobber on each other in public.”
“Someone’s frigid,” Elle taunted her brother and won snickers from Lula. “Poor Ivy goes to sleep in a dead bedroom each night.”
Ivy texted the term “dead bedroom” before gasping and insisting, “No, we’re still wild hot for each other. Here, let me climb Clint and suck on his tongue.”
Clint laughed when she jumped up and forced him to catch her little body in his arms. They began kissing sloppily.
“Gross,” Elle muttered and then reached for my jaw. “I think we can be grosser. Let’s do this thing.”
A contest broke out between the three couples. Sutter ran away in horror. Ford threatened to get the hose and spray us down. Shay and Bebe started chanting for their respective kids.
Finally, Boone showed up to end the contest. “Guys, you’re making people want to vomit. Pax nearly threw up his potato salad.”
While Elle grinned at me like we’d been praised, Boone lingered, seeming nervous. Finally, he focused on my VP.
“Hey, Exile,” Boone said and stepped back as if ready to run. “Your sister is great. She’s sweet and sexy, so I’m going to ask her out.”
Exile scowled at me first and then shook his head. “Not yet.”
“No, it’s cool, man. She slipped this into my pocket at the wedding,” Boone said and revealed a paper with the smiling face of Eddie Murphy. “Nova’s sending me signals I can’t ignore. Just wanted to let you know.”
Boone hurried away while Exile frowned at Clint as if he should have stopped his friend.
Elle instantly threw salt on Exile’s wound by insisting, “Nova would be lucky to get plowed by that wonderful man.”
We all looked at Nova, who stood in Pax’s yard with her girls and Vanessa. She wore a casual smile until she realized we were all watching her. I chuckled when she panicked and fled into the house.
“We’ve got new competition,” Elle told Ivy and Lula. “We’ll need to bring our A-game from now on.”
Despite the women’s amusement, Exile fumed over his sister having a suitor. He had always been such a weird baby when it came to Nova. Clint reassured Exile that Boone was a good guy. I reminded my VP how his sister had never been properly fucked.
As drama brewed at the party, Elle stopped poking at Exile and focused on me. Once Sutter knew the sloppy kissing was over, he walked outside and joined his mom. The boy rested his cheek on her belly and felt his brother move.
I wrapped an arm around Elle and caressed Sutter’s head. They smiled at me in unison. We’d gotten past the difficult part of living together. No one walked away. Nothing tore us apart.
For the first time in my life, I understood what a real family felt like, and I was willing to sacrifice everything to keep us together.