“Uh-huh.”
I laughed. “No, really. That’s all it was.”
“Are you that oblivious? Coach wants to give you some pipe, alright.”
Alex walked over with two ice creams. “I could get two with the money you gave me!”
I ruffled my son’s hair. “Just because you can get two, doesn’t mean you needed to.”
Alex shrugged. “You can have one, if you want.”
“Hmmm. A SpongeBob popsicle with gumball eyes. Tempting, but I think I’ll pass.”
“I gotta go.” Kat leaned in for a hug and whispered in my ear. “Hope his pipe is really long.”
I laughed. “You’re nuts.”
***
That night, Alex and I were getting ready to eat dinner when Levi walked in.
He sniffed. “Did you fry chicken or something? It smells great in here.”
I lifted the basket of golden brown chicken from the kitchen counter and tipped it so Levi could see inside before I set it in the middle of the table. “I did. It’s your grandmother’s recipe. I found a book of them when I was cleaning out room eight today. They’re all in her handwriting, too. Would you like to join us?”
He licked his lips, staring at the chicken. “You sure you have enough?”
“I learned from last time and made enough for a small army. Sit and eat.”
He pulled out a chair before I’d finished my sentence. It made me happy that he seemed to enjoy a home-cooked meal. I’d always loved to cook, but the only man I’d ever done it for was Tanner. While he liked southern cooking, he was always concerned about eating healthy and gaining too much weight. Levi, on the other hand, seemed less worried about that. I set out mashed potatoes and green beans, and he filled his plate to the brim.
“Do you always eat like that? Or is it just because it’s the off-season?”
Levi’s brows drew together. “Eat like what?”
“I don’t know. You seem to eat whatever you want.”
He bit into a drumstick and shrugged. “Food is fuel. I’ll burn it.”
I realized I’d forgotten to put out the butter for the mashed potatoes, so I grabbed it from the fridge. Walking back, I held up the stick. “You make it sound so easy. I might as well glue this thing to my hips, because that’s exactly where it will wind up.”
Levi’s eyes dropped to my hips and flickered back up to meet my eyes. He didn’t say a word, but bit into his drumstick a bit more aggressively. Oh my.
I cleared my throat as I sat and changed the topic. “I have someone coming tomorrow to give us an estimate on fixing the pipes upstairs.”
Levi had capped them after the flood, but they needed a permanent repair before we could turn the water in that part of the house back on. Luckily, we didn’t need use of the second-floor bathrooms.
“Oh yeah? Is it Morrow Plumbing? Pete Morrow’s father’s company?”
“No, actually. It’s called Universal.”
“Never heard of them. Are they local?”
“I’m not sure. They were recommended to me, and I just called and made the appointment.”
“I thought Coach was going to fix it,” my son chimed in. “Didn’t Travis’s mom say Coach Brick has a pipe he wants to give you?”
My eyes flared wide. I’d been chewing a piece of chicken and started to cough.
Levi’s eyes narrowed. He looked between Alex and me. “The coach wants to give you his…pipe?”
I pointed to my throat as my face reddened. “Swallowed wrong.”
Levi seemed to lose interest in his food as he waited for me to explain. I washed my chicken down with a glass of water, glad I at least had a reason for my red face.
“I don’t think that’s quite what Travis’s mom said, Alex.”
My son was oblivious to the innuendo. He shrugged and kept on eating.
“Coach Brick is a general contractor,” I explained. “He offered to give me some referrals for the contractors we need.”
Levi studied my face. “Uh-huh.”
“He also gave me an air conditioning company to try. Did you see the estimate that the first company gave us?”
“Yup. It’ll drain almost the entire operating account, and we won’t see a dime more if we wind up selling the place since the buyer plans to tear it down.”
“We’re selling The Palm Inn?” Alex asked. “It’s going to get torn down?”
I hadn’t explained that as a possibility. “We’re still trying to figure that out, honey.”
Alex shoveled mashed potatoes into his mouth. “I like it here.”
“Don’t talk with your mouth full of food. But I like it here, too.”
Alex looked over at his uncle. “Do you not like it here, Uncle Levi?”
“Of course I do. It’s just that…sometimes as adults we have to make decisions that aren’t always based on what we like.”
“What are they made on then?”
“Well, lots of things. Money and time, for example. A place like this takes a lot of both to keep running.”
“So you don’t make a lot of money playing football?”
I sat back and enjoyed my son’s impromptu inquisition.
“I do, buddy. But—”
Alex frowned. “Oh, I get it. You’re too busy. You’re going to go back to being a cruncle, aren’t you?”
Levi looked to me for help. When all he got was a grin, he rolled his eyes.
“How did we get from the pipes to me being a crappy uncle so fast?”
I chuckled. “I’m not sure, but I’m glad we did.”
Levi shook his head. “Why don’t we talk about neither? What plays do they have you running at football camp?”
For the rest of dinner, the boys talked football. I was impressed at how much my son had learned already. He’d memorized most of the plays and was able to describe them to Levi using the right terminology. Just as we were finishing, one of Alex’s friends knocked at the door and asked him to ride bikes.
“Can I, Mom?”
I looked at the time on my phone. “For an hour. And no going off the block.”
Just like earlier today, he bolted before I’d finished my sentence.
Levi and I cleared the table. I set our plates in the sink and turned on the water to rinse them. “These are the little things I love about living here,” I said. “Never in a million years would I tell my son he could go outside and ride his bicycle unsupervised in New York City.”
“Yeah, I get that.”
As I loaded the dishwasher, Levi leaned against the counter next to it. He folded his arms across his chest and lifted an inquisitive brow. “So…the coach wants to give you his pipe?”
I waved him off. “That’s just my friend Kat being cheeky. Jeremy was being polite and offered to help with referrals for The Palm. He’s a general contractor, so he has a lot of contacts. Kat is making it more than it is.”
“You sure about that? Men don’t generally offer a woman help without wanting something in return.”
“So you’re saying there’s no such thing as nice people anymore? Everyone just wants to get in each other’s pants?”