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.”