Chapter 93: Neo's Place
*She will always return to the man who gets her, the man who lets her be wild, the man who doesn’t act like she’s too much. – S. McNutt*
Reese drove Jolene to Neo’s new house. The one that he told his friend nearly two years ago not to buy. The one that required all new plumbing and electric. Got held up with asbestos removal. And lead removal. Termites.
Just when he thought that he was good, the foundation cracked.
It was still under construction in part of the old house. But the bottom floor was ready, or at least livable.
The house was a turn of the century manor house with ten acres, two ponds and space for an airstrip and helipad. Not that he had either, but Neo had plans.
The only reason Reese had agreed to back the venture was a rent-free hangar. His six-seater Cessna was not that big. It got him where he wanted to go. And any further than its range, he rented a charter plane.
“Wow.” Jolene said as they went through the large masonry and wrought iron archway. He slowed the Tesla down so she could get a good view of the house as they topped the hill.
The three-story house sat down in a valley. It wasn’t a deep valley, but the main drive curved away from it in a small grove of trees. It turned and crested the hill so that the first look you had of the house was breathtaking.
She leaned forward, eyes wide and mouth hanging open.
“Whoa.”
“Who lives here?”
“For now, you do.”
“Reese,” She started as he pulled up to the portico.
“It’s not me. It’s Neo.” He smiled and put the car in park. “OK, a little me.”
He took off his seatbelt and turned towards her.
“I love your family. I really do. Pretty sure that you do too.”
“Yeah.” She admitted quietly as she turned towards him.
“But you need some time and space to heal. You can’t do that with everyone hovering over you and afraid they’re going to break you if they say something wrong.”
Jolene blushed as she looked down.
“There’s nothing wrong with that.” Reese assured her. “Jolene needs to get to know Jolene again.”
He grinned at the man behind her as he stood in the doorway.
“Come on. He’s been dying to show me this place for weeks.”
“Okay.” Jolene said as she turned to open the door.
“Jolene. I’m not going to make you wait for me to open the door. You need to have authority over your decisions. But I want you to know, chivalry is not dead.”
Jolene nodded slowly at him and then opened the door. A hand with an open mouth snake tattooed on it appeared in front of her.
“Let me help you.” Neo offered. “I know exactly how shitty it is to try to move around one handed.”
Reluctantly, she placed her good hand in his. Stepping out of the car, she heard Reese moving around to the back of the car. He appeared again with her bag slung over his shoulder.
“This is Casa de Neo.” Neo said as he guided them into the large house. “I’ll show you your apartment, and once you feel up to it, I’ll give you the grand tour.”
Again, she nodded. He let go of her hand and led them down a long hallway to a door with a keypad lock.
“The code right now is 1313. We’ll change it to whatever you want.” He punched in the code and opened the door. “Your mom said that you loved Nightmare Before Christmas. That was the general vibe we went with.”
Jolene couldn’t help the tears that began to fall. She heard her bag hit the floor just before Reese gently pulled her to him.
“Come here, princess.” Reese soothed.
As she buried her face in his chest, she saw Neo take her bag to the attached bedroom. A moment later, lights started to come on around the room.
Moving away from Reese, Jolene swiped at her eyes with her good hand.
“We can change it, if you don’t like it.” Neo said from the kitchen where he was getting her a bottle of water. “It’s just paint to me. But it’s where you’re going to live. We want you to be comfortable.”
She looked around the apartment and was overwhelmed by the kindness she was receiving. The walls were a light gray with black trim. The purple velveteen couch sat in front of a round glass coffee table.
The couch had several throw pillows and two blankets over the back. The two wing back black chairs also had a couple of pillows.
“I know, the pillows are probably a little overboard.” Reese grinned. “Like an idiot, I turned my teenage niece lose on Amazon. There’s more in the bedroom.”
“She likes NBC?” Jolene whispered as they walked towards the kitchen and dining table. The lower kitchen cabinets were glossy purple with black granite countertops. The drawer and doorknobs were white porcelain painted with different characters.
Neo chuckled at Jolene’s question. “That girl breathes Tim Burton.”
“She does.” Reese admitted. “But she has damned good talent with a paint brush.”
Pointing at the knob with the mayor, Jolene whispered, “Did she do these?”
“She did.” Reese smiled with pride. “And the mural in the bathroom.”
Neo pointed at the second door with a grin. She walked over and opened the door. The walls were a light lavender. The wall opposite the vanity and mirror had Sally as she stitched herself back together. The square mirror had an intricate frame painted directly on the glass.
Painted backwards on the wall, so it read correctly in the mirror was a quote from Augusten Burroughs.
*I myself am made entirely of flaws stitched together with good intentions.*
“I love it.” Jolene said quietly as tears filled her eyes.
“Good.” Reese smirked. “She conned your brothers into putting the dresser and shelves in the bedroom together. Just do she could paint them. We can get you different furniture if you want.”
Jolene went into the bedroom and found a black dresser with different scenes painted on the drawer fronts. The matching shelving unit had vertical murals on either side.
“It’s great. She’s really talented.”
“She is.” Reese agreed proudly.
“We’ll give you some time to settle in.” Neo suggested as Jolene hid a yawn. “Take a nap if you want. My apartment is on the other side of the hall if you need anything. My office is at the front of the house.”
“Your apartment?” she asked quietly.
“This is going to become our new office. Where we are now, is going to be training facilities.”
Reese leaned down and kissed the top of her head. “Why don’t you take a nap, princess?”
Covering another yawn, she nodded her head.
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