Page 15 of Life After Levi

“I’d have to agree fully. So, I know Vinnie spends a lot of time with Miriam and Dale. What about your parents?”

Sighing, I reply, “It was really hard on them when Levi died. They’re older than Miriam and Dale, if you can believe it, and are retired now, so they spend six months riding around the country in an RV and come back home around Halloween, so they don’t miss the holidays with Levinia, or her birthday.”

“When is her birthday?” he questions.

“Christmas Eve,” I reply. “She was about two weeks early because I was supposed to have a C-section in January, but in true Mathers form, she didn’t want to wait.”

“When is yours?” he asks.

I start laughing then say, “The Fourth of July. We’re apparently stuck on holidays around here or something. What about you?”

His laughter joins mine as he says, “Same as yours, only three years earlier.”

“So, you’ll never forget my birthday then,” I tease.

“I haven’t forgotten a thing about you that I’ve learned, Emerie, and I’m hoping that’ll continue.” At my puzzled look, he continues. “It may be too soon to classify my feelings, and I honestly never expected them when I made the decision to come here, but I like you a lot, Emerie, and I’d like to see where this attraction can go.”

“You don’t think it’d be weird?” I ask. “I mean, I feel the same way, but I’ve felt guilty for feeling like this, Damien.”

ChapterNine

Damien

“I thinkwe’re two consenting adults, we’re both single, and there’s nothing wrong with us dating,” I slowly reply. “Is it weird that in a way Levi brought us together? Maybe. But I’d like to think he would be happy that we found each other. He was my best friend, and he was yours. The two of us connected in a way that I never had before with anyone else. As long as you’re okay with it, that’s all that matters. Well, Levinia too, of course, because she’s part of you.”

“Can we take it slow?” she asks. “Levi’s the only one I’ve ever dated or been with, and I’m not gonna lie, there are folks in town who still talk about the scandal of me being pregnant in high school.”

“Are you shitting me?” I ask, angry on her behalf. “Why on earth are they stuck in the past like that?”

“Because it’s a small town and that’s what some of them do. They have nothing better to do with their time than to gossip and I was a hot topic for quite some time. My parents and his both fought with the board to keep me in school, Damien. It was a huge, scandalous ordeal around here. Swimming kept me sane because a lot of my friends ghosted me.”

“Did they think they’d catch pregnancy?” I question. “It’s not transmitted like that.”

“Ah, but I was a good girl from a good family so how could I ‘besmirch’ my family’s name in that manner,” I retort. “Levi was hailed as a hometown hero for serving his country, and of course dying while on active duty, while I was reviled like that chick that was inThe Scarlet Letter.”

“I’m sorry, Em. People can be assholes sometimes,” I say. “So, how are they around Levinia?” I’m already making plans to destroy anyone who hurts that little girl, who looks so much like her daddy it’s almost painful to look at her sometimes. She’s got a lot of his mannerisms as well as his slow, southern speech pattern, even though she’s not always grammatically correct.

“Yeah, they can definitely be that, although they act nicely toward me when I show up for an emergency. It’s hard to be the bigger person, but this is mine and my daughter’s home and it’s where her father was raised and her grandparents live, so I’m not leaving.”

She has a stubborn set to her jaw right now and looks positively adorable, but I don’t think she’d appreciate me chuckling at this point in time, so I suck my lips into my mouth to keep from doing just that and nod.

“Plus, both Dale and my dad let it be known that they werethrilledto have something to remind them of Levi besides the tombstone,” she adds. “Speaking of, I should take you there tomorrow if the weather is nice.”

“What’s your work schedule like coming up?” I ask. I need to check with the motel to see if they have any kind of long-term stay plan available, because outside of flying to Arizona to check in with my family, I want to stay in Possum Creek. I also need to figure out a job. While I got a rated disability which will give me a monthly pension from the Navy, I can’t sit on my ass the rest of my life.

“Um, I’m off again tomorrow, then the next two weeks are kind of scary,” she admits. “I’ll do ride alongs during the day and dispatch at night. Vinnie will be spending a lot of nights with Miriam and Dale since my folks are out of town. That’s the downside of them being gone half the year, I feel as though I’m taking advantage of Levi’s parents because they have to keep her so much.”

“From what I saw, they love that little girl with every breath in them. I mean, Dale has a kid-sized milking stand so she can ‘help’ him with the cowsandthe goats, and Miriam has an egg basket with Vinnie’s name on it. Plus, she has her own chicken!” I exclaim, causing Emerie to start laughing.

“You’re not wrong,” she stammers out. “She has her own room at their house, which is next to her daddy’s room. While Miriam cleans his room, everything is the same as it was from his last leave. Not only that, but Miriam is teaching her the basics of cooking, and by basics, I meanreallychild-proof. She got her a set of knives that literally only cuts food so she can slice the bread, chop the cucumbers, and massacre the tomatoes.”

Since I’ve been on the wrong end of trying to neatly slice tomatoes for sandwiches, I can just picture Levinia’s face when it devolves into a pile of seeds and juice and start laughing, which has Emerie joining along. We’re both laughing so hard that it’s almost second nature when she leans into me while wiping her eyes. Careful not to take advantage, I slide my arm around her shoulders and ask, “Is this okay?”

“Yeah,” she whispers, looking up at me. “Will you kiss me again?”

This time when our lips meet, I allow all the burgeoning feelings that are coursing through me to come through. So much so that by the time we’re done, we’re both breathless and I’m slightly regretting wearing sweatpants because my hardon is beyond evident. When her face turns beet red, I wave my hand over my crotch and say, “Ignore him.”

She snorts out a laugh and says, “Yeah, that’s not gonna be easy to do but I’ll try.”

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