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She’d have her own room in the new house. I knew which one would work best, but that wasn’t a decision I was making without Wren.
I moved Wren’s boxes from the back bedroom to the front room to make space for Sparrow’s crib. They stayed closed, stacked two high with Austen’s writing on the sides. In the new house, they’d go wherever Wren chose.
I hadn’t asked her about them yet. Buying a house didn’t give me the right to decide what to do with her things.
On Sunday, I went to Robin’s to tell Wren about the house.
Sparrow was in her high chair beside me, spreading mashed banana across the tray. Wren was rinsing a dish when I said, “Dutch told me to move back to Millfield. I said no. And I’ve bought a house here.”
She turned the tap off. “Say that again.”
I walked her through the conversation with Dutch, then told her about the house on the east side. She listened without interrupting.
“You bought a house?” she asked when I’d finished.
“Yes.”
“In Kettlewell?”
I laughed. “Where else?”
She stood with the dish in her hand and looked at me. I couldn’t read her expression, which didn’t happen often.
“I wanted you to know I’m here to stay, Wren.”
“Right.”
“I didn’t buy it to make you move in.”
Wren put the dish down.
“You want me there too,” she said.
“I do.”
She looked at me for a moment. “Is Dutch all right with this?”
I shook my head. “Not really. He thought I’d go back to Millfield. Venom’s never had a patched member living four hours outside its territory for good. He’s taking it to the table.”
“To vote on?”
“Whether I can stay here and keep my patch.”
Wren’s fingers closed around the edge of the sink. “Seb, I didn’t ask you to risk that.”
“I know. I chose to stay. Whatever the consequences, I can live with it.”
Sparrow chose that moment to slap her spoon against the tray. Banana landed on the front of my shirt. I looked down at it, then at her. She grinned and did it again. Wren laughed, and I couldn’t help laughing with her.
I took the spoon before Sparrow could reload it. She protested until I offered her my clean hand instead, then caught two of my fingers in her sticky fist. Wren found me a cloth and helped me get the banana off my shirt. For a minute we were too busy with our daughter to talk about Dutch.
I stayed until Sparrow was done eating. When Wren came to the door with her, the worry was back in her face. “I’ll see you Friday, Seb.”
“You will. Whatever Venom decides, I’m staying here.”
Back at the cottage, I checked Sparrow’s crib again. There was nothing left to do. I stood there anyway, imagining her asleep in the room I’d made for her. On Friday, if she woke, I’d be the one to go to her. I wasn’t trading that for four days a month.
Chapter 21
