Page 117 of Coast

“How many rooms is this?” Velle asked, turning in a circle.

“Five bedrooms.”

“Five,” Velle repeated. “You planning to make more babies with Zo?”

Before her, it wasn’t even a thought I entertained. I mean, beyond the occasional concern that—despite meticulous and constant condom use—someone might have an accidental pregnancy, no.

That said, watching Zo with Lil’ Bit, experiencing us as a trio, created this overwhelming feeling ofrightnessthat I couldn’t deny, a desire for more of it.

“Maybe,” I said. “We haven’t really discussed it.”

Zoe was still recovering from the trauma involved with her surprise pregnancy, the end of her relationship and her career, then learning to try to eke out a living while taking care of a newborn.

She was still regulating, learning to get used to feeling safe and supported.

We could talk about that sometime down the road. As for me, I was at a place where I was open to either option: more kids, or just Lainey.

“Well, there’s time. At least Lainey can have her own room here. And peace and quiet.”

“Nah, Lil’ Bit is gonna miss the crazy at the club. She eats that shit up.” And the attention. She was constantly being scooped up and entertained at the clubhouse. It was going to be a big change for her to be somewhere else much quieter.

“Well, you’ll still be over there all the time. I’m assuming you haven’t talked to Zoe about this yet?” Velle asked, waving around the house as we moved out onto the back porch.

“No. I wanted to make sure it was livable before I even suggested it. But I got a feeling she’s gonna be game. She’s in nesting mode.”

“She can really spread out here. You know, it’s missing something, though.”

“A pool,” I agreed. Lainey was a complete water bug.

“Yep.”

“When are you going to tell her?”

“I was waiting to get your opinion. Do you think it’s weird?”

“Depends.”

“On?”

“Does she know about all this?” he asked.

“More than anyone else does.”

“Including that you still own it?”

“Yeah.”

“What’d she say?”

“She asked if I’d been back. And when I said no, why.”

“I dunno. I think so long as it doesn’t feel weird for you, she’s gonna love it. But if you don’t feel right here, you can both choose to sell it and start fresh somewhere else.”

“Yeah. That’s what I was thinking. I wanna get a crew in here to clean and paint. But once that’s done, I’m gonna drive her over here.”

“Well, that’s the perk to the club, man,” Velle said with a smile. “You got a built-in cleaning and painting crew.”

I hadn’t thought of that.

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