189 - Brothers
*You ever go to a football game with a theater nerd? Or a whole family of them? Box seats for a playoff game and the twins are streaming a Broadway show. And of course, my father is singing right along with them. Pretty sure I’ve been voted out of the family. - Celt*
After three days in Staten Island, Camille and her family made the final four-hour drive up to Monroe. The podcast with Mitch’s interviews would be released on Saturday and he had already called his drama friends in Baton Rouge and told them to subscribe. He held his book that had pictures of him and the actors and their autographs throughout the entire drive, refusing to let it go.
When they arrived at Oma and Opa’s house, he sat between them on the couch and walked them through the different people. He was able to give a biography for each of the actors. Although neither of his grandparents understood half of what he was saying, they understood that it was important to him. Therefore, it was important to them.
On the way out to where their new house was being built, they stopped at Molly’s compound, and he showed the book to Sheree who was instantly jealous. During the short drive from the compound to the cul-de-sac with their house, the two of them sat in the back seat and continued to look at the book. As he pulled into the driveway, Darkness grabbed Camille’s hand and lifted it to kiss her fingers.
“I’m glad you reached out to James,” he told his wife.
Grinning she shook her head, “I’m not. You realize how hard that’s going to be to top for birthdays and Christmas?”
He chuckled as he shifted the engine into park. “I’m sure you’ll come up with something. Besides, New York and Broadway are only a few hours away. How often do Celt and them go?”
She grinned at him.
“I know, I know, not proper English,” he grinned back at her. “Then again, last time that I checked, y’all wasn’t proper English either.”
Leaning across the center console, she gave him a quick kiss, “So, I picked up a few things while I was in the south.”
He reached up and cupped the back of her neck and tipped her face up to him. His lips brushed over hers with a feather light touch. Keeping his lips against hers, he murmured, “Yeah, you did.”
Oblivious of the fact that the kids had already gotten out of the back seat of the Jeep, Darkness tilted his head slightly and claimed her mouth with his. She opened her mouth under the light pressure of his tongue probing for access. A soft moan escaped her as she tried to move closer to him.
The door behind her opened and someone tapped her on her shoulder, “Pardon me, do you have any Grey Poupon?”
Camille broke off the kiss as she started laughing. She moved away from her husband and slid out of the Jeep. Hugging her friend, she declared, “I hate you, Athos.”
“So, is that a no?” he asked as he hugged her back.
“Yes, you asshole, that’s a no.”
Camille was still laughing when he sat her back on her feet and offered his hand to Darkness. Smirking, he pulled Athos in for a hug and slapped him on his back. They exchanged friendly insults and then stepped away from each other.
“Get your cute little ass in here and make some decisions,” Cookie called out to them from the front porch of the nearly finished house.
Darkness held his hand out to his wife, and she linked their fingers as they walked up the slate paver walkway. They went up the steps to the wide porch where Cookie and his cousin, Kilo, were waiting on them. Camille gave the two men quick hugs, and they each kissed her cheek.
“Your other two kids have already picked out their rooms and Sheree has gone to show Mitch which room he should have.”
“She’s a demanding little bitch,” Sheree said if herself. “And I didn’t say that I was going to tell him which one should be his, I said I would show him which room *I would choose.”
Cookie looked up at the landing of the second floor near the loft area. “Girl, don’t you have enough rooms at your own house to choose from?”
“Not with the way that my parents keep filling them up!”
“She speaks the truth,” Kilo chuckled.
“She does,” Camille agreed as she approached the stairs and called up to her oldest. “Vin! Come down, I want to show you something.”
“Okay,” he called back down from somewhere down the hall. A moment later, he appeared at the top of the wide stairs. “What the hell did you do? Take pictures of the house in Baton Rouge and say I want this?”
She shrugged, “Yeah, pretty much. Come on down, I want to show you something before you get settled into a room up there.”
He came down the stairs and grinned at her, “So, do you have a secret room somewhere?”
“It’s in the basement,” she said as she headed for the kitchen, “but that’s not what I wanted to show you.”
She opened a door that led into a small mud room with a set of cubbies on one wall and bare wood stairs opposite them. As she climbed the stairs, she looked over her shoulder and asked, “I’m guessing that this is one of the decisions that we need to make?”
“It is,” Cookie said with a chuckle as they all followed her up the stairs. “The windows for the walkway should be in next week; we had to send them back because they were leaking.”
They walked across the elevated walkway to the semi-detached garage. Reaching the garage, she took a short flight of stairs up to a small landing with another door. Currently, there was no handle on the door and she pushed it open.
Above the three-car garage was a two-bedroom apartment. The common room had an open floor plan with an island for the kitchen sitting at an angle to the cabinets. Throughout the space, the subfloor was exposed and the sheetrock was unpainted.
“You have to decide what you want done in here,” Camille told Vin.
“Me?” he asked, his voice thick with confusion.
“Cookie?” she asked. “Do you mind?”
“Sure,” he walked over to the kitchen area. “This is your illustrious kitchen, it’s dry fitted for standard size appliances. You have to pick which ones you want; you also have to pick counter tops and all your paint colors.”
“And flooring,” Vin smirked.
“You don’t like the plywood look?” Kilo chuckled. He moved over to the island and gave it a little shove. “Right now, it’s on locking casters, but we thought you might like to be able to move it out of your way.”
“There’s two bedrooms,” Cookie pointed to the two doors, “each with a full attached bath, balcony off the back looks over the creek. There is also a closet that can hold a stackable washer and dryer.”
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