“Betty’s recipe never fails,” Lloyd had said proudly as they’d all stuffed themselves with one of the two incredible loaves they’d made.
“Good enough to take to your mom’s tomorrow night for their anniversary dinner?” Jane had asked, nerves evident.
He’d leaned over the cutting board that had only crumbs on it and had kissed her right in front of her grandpa.
Jane had grinned at him. “I’ll take that as a yes.”
“Everyone’s going to love it, and you,” Levi had promised, and meant it.
“What’s not to love about a big family dinner?” Lloyd said. “I don’t remember much, but I know how much I miss those.”
Jane had paused. Looked at Levi, who had nodded, then drew a breath. “You can go with me, if you’d like.”
Lloyd smiled. “Really?” he’d asked softly, hopefully, also disbelievingly.
“Really,” Jane had whispered back.
Now Levi looked into Peyton’s eyes. “Did you bring Apple Jacks?”
She gave a slow shake of her head, ponytails bouncing. “Momma said no more food outside of the kitchen cuz of Jasper.”
At her side, Jasper panted a happy, ever-hopeful smile, completely unrepentant.
“I’m going to be an astronaut,” Peyton said apropos of nothing. “I’m going to be the first human to land on Jupiter.”
“Sounds good,” Levi said. “But you can’t actually land on Jupiter. It’s made of gas and has no solid surface. Same with Saturn and Neptune.”
She nodded sagely. “Grandma says I’m going to be as smart as you. Which means I’ll find a way to land on Jupiter.”
“If anyone can do it, you can,” he said.
She beamed at him with her two missing front teeth. “You’re smiling this morning.”
He was.
“Just like yesterday morning.”
True story.
“And the morning before that. Why are you smiling in the mornings now?”
“Are you six, or thirty?”
“I’m six, silly,” Peyton said, giggling, and began climbing the couch to get to him.
“Peyton!” Tess yelled from down the hallway. “Are you bothering Uncle Levi again?”
“Nope!”
There came a snort from the desk. His dad.
“I really love my community bedroom,” Levi said, just as it occurred to him that after tonight’s dinner, he was pretty much free to leave. He was healed from his concussion. He’d found the source of the money leak, and they had a lawyer involved now. It was only a matter of time before Cal had to face what he’d done.
But he knew he wasn’t going back to San Francisco. At least not permanently. There was land for sale not too far from where he’d taken Jane up on the Tahoe Rim Trail.
It was a great investment, but that’s not why he wanted it. He wanted to build a house that he could someday raise his kids in. And maybe one of them would come back as an adult and bitch about sleeping on the pullout couch bed . . .
Not that he was ready to share that yet. Hell, he’d barely come to terms with the idea himself.
“Do you know what your mother is doing?” his dad asked.
“Not my turn to watch her.”
“Smartass. She’s rearranging furniture for tonight’s anniversary dinner. She’s so excited, she’s already dressed for it, and is it because she and I are celebrating the big four-oh? No. It’s because we’ll finally get to meet Jane.”
Welp, that did it. Levi’s smile couldn’t hold up to that. He rose to his feet. “Don’t you mean you’ll get to meet her for the second time? Yeah,” he said at the flicker of guilt behind his dad’s eyes. “I know you went to the hospital to meet her. Just like Mom coaxed her into the humane society with a fake email.”
“Not fake,” his mom said, coming into the room. “It was a real email. She got her adorable rescue cat treated at a discount.”
“How did you even know she had a pet?”
“I didn’t. I got lucky.”
Levi shook his head at her. “You met her under false pretenses.”
Tess appeared in the doorway, and Levi spared a hard look for her as well. “None of you told her the truth about who you are.” Shaking his head, he went to walk past his sister, but stopped and looked her in the eyes. “What do you think is going to happen when she shows up later and finds all her new friends here? How is she supposed to feel about you guys and the deception you pulled off? Or me, for that matter, since I didn’t blow the whistle on any of you.”
His mom’s expression was pure guilt, but she lifted her chin. “Maybe she’s going to think you’re so well loved that we just wanted to make sure she was good enough for you. Because it’s true, honey. I’ve waited a long time for you to find someone after Amy. And once you did, I had to know that she was going to be good for you.”
His dad just nodded. In fact, they all nodded in unison like a pack of bobbleheads of the Three Stooges.
Levi just shook his head. “I’m going to shower. You all might want to work on what you’re going to say to her when she arrives. I have my own groveling to do.” Because he’d made his own mistakes with Jane, and at some point he was going to pay the price for those mistakes. A price that would undoubtedly be high.
As in losing her.
An hour later he was in the back booth at the Stovetop Diner, at what he’d come to think of as his temporary “office”—much to his mom’s dismay, as she’d hoped he’d make a place for himself in the store’s office. And he went there too, but the diner suited his purposes better.
He liked the organized chaos going on all around him, and yet not involving him. He liked the owner of the diner, who happened to be one of Mateo’s cousins. He liked the way everyone left him alone to his own devices. Mostly, that is. Because just then Mateo slid onto the seat across from him.
At least he was bearing gifts in the way of two plates loaded with bacon, eggs, and pancakes. He slid one to Levi and then waited for him to take his first bite before saying, “Heard you put a bid in for that property up in Hidden Falls.”
Levi choked on that bite.
Mateo smiled. “You’re finally doing what I’ve been trying to get you to do for years. You’re coming back.”
Levi managed to suck air into his taxed lungs and eyed his oldest, very smug-looking friend. “Want to tell me how you know about the bid I put on those fifteen acres less than an hour ago?”
“Ah, man, you know how it is. Everyone knows everyone. Hell, it’s Sunrise Cove. You can leave your car unlocked, but there’s no such thing as privacy.”
Levi just looked at him. “Leave your car unlocked and you’ll get a bear.”
Mateo smiled. “God, that was fun. What were we? Seventeen? And you left a bag of chips in your dad’s new car, not a week after he’d bought it, and a bear climbed in and ate the chips and his steering wheel.”
And his console. “He nearly killed me.” Levi scrubbed a hand down his face. “Good times. And how do you know about the land? And don’t tell me a bear told you.”
“Okay, fine. The real estate agent you’re using for the purchase is my cousin’s sister-in-law’s mom. And yeah, yeah, I know, I’ve got a lot of cousins.”