All Consuming (Brotherhood by Fire #3) -Jaci Burton Page 0,96
have the dog and all.”
Kal could already imagine Jackson and Becks being parents to some amazing kids. And he’d been making plans of his own, at least in his head. “This is such a great idea, Jackson. I’ll move out.”
Jackson shot him a look. “We aren’t even married yet. You don’t have to leave right away.”
“I know, but I’m making some plans of my own.”
“Yeah?” Rafe sent him a questioning look. “Wanna share?”
“Not yet. Hopefully soon. In the meantime, we should all talk to Mom about making this house permanently yours and Becks’s, Jackson.”
“That’s not necessary. It’s a family house, since it belonged to Grandma.”
“I agree with Kal,” Rafe said. “If you and Becks are going to raise your family here, then it should be your house.”
Jackson shrugged. “Maybe. I don’t know. We should all talk to Mom about it. We all put equity into this house with the renovation. If we buy it from Mom, we should all share in that equity. That’s what we always talked about.”
“Hey, whatever you all decide, I’m good with it,” Rafe said.
“Yeah, same here,” Kal said.
Jackson nodded. “Like I said, we’ve got some time. So we’ll make a plan. In the meantime, don’t go running out of here, okay, Kal?”
“Deal.” With that settled, they finished lunch and went back to their paint work. When Kal finished at the house, he showered, then met with a Realtor and told her what he was looking for. She said she’d get some places together for him to look at.
Part one of his plan was coming together. Now all he had to do was wait.
WHILE HANNAH WAITED FOR HER NEXT CLIENT TO ARRIVE, she flipped through her calendar, her irritation growing by the minute as she counted the days. Three weeks had gone by and Landon hadn’t called. Not once. Not even a text.
She wasn’t at all surprised. But she was so disappointed, more in herself for believing for one second that her ex had changed. He’d sure made it sound as if he’d turned a corner, that he’d grown and matured.
She should have known better.
A leopard did not change its spots. And Landon’s were permanently affixed on his sorry ass. She was so grateful she hadn’t allowed him to see Oliver. A visit would only have built up his hopes, only to send them crashing down, once again.
Why didn’t Landon love their son as much as she did? Oliver was bright and intelligent and fun. She would never understand a father who didn’t want to be with his own child. She took a swallow of water and swiped at the tears that welled in her eyes.
Everything had been fine until Landon had showed up. She’d moved on, she had a plan for their future. And with one short visit Landon had totally screwed with her head, made her hope that he’d matured, that he could accept some responsibility.
It proved to her that the only person she could trust was herself.
Now the one thing she knew for sure was that Landon was never going to have contact with Oliver again.
She’d make sure of it.
CHAPTER 30
“THANK YOU FOR CHRISTMAS SHOPPING WITH ME,” HANNAH said as they loaded bags in the back seat of his truck. “It’s hard to do this on my own.”
Kal and Hannah had spent two hours at one of the large merchandise stores, which hadn’t been all that crowded considering it was a Tuesday night and there were still a few weeks until Christmas. He was thankful for that.
“Hey, it was fun. And thanks for helping me pick out gifts for some of the homeless kids.”
She leaned against him at the side of the truck. “You’re so sweet to do that.”
“Jackson and Rafe and Becks and Carmen and I all pitch in. We get toys and games for the kids, then we buy food and bring it out to the camp along with some clothes and necessary items for the adults. They should have a Christmas, too.”
She sighed. “They won’t go to the shelters or the places that serve meals?”
He shrugged. “Some of them will. Some won’t. The ones that won’t are those we want to make sure have a decent meal and a gift.”
They climbed in the truck, Kal pausing to check his phone, then headed back toward Hannah’s house. Before they reached the block, however, he took a left.