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“I guess it still wouldn’t have been enough to fix this place up. Izzy said that it was a wreck inside when she and Dad moved into that garage apartment years ago.”
“Where was all the furniture when they lived in the apartment?”
“In storage. My grandpa brought it all back when Dad bought the house and he and Mom got married.”
“Your mom and dad never talk much about themselves. There’s a lot I don’t know about them.”
“You’re not the only one,” Amy agreed, rolling her eyes.
Amy wasn’t sure why Lex laughed but she gave him a wide smile when he did. It’s funny, she never usually talked this much to anyone, even Izzy or Harry.
“The bed and dresser that you picked out are both really old too, I think,” Amy said. “I’d need to have a ladder to get into that bed once the mattresses are on top.”
“That’s kind of what I liked about it,” Lex admitted.
“So, you have a bed, a dresser and a desk. We should look for a couple of chairs while we’re at it. Mom just might want to pick up a couple of new ones. I’ll ask her if there’s another dresser like the one you picked out, and maybe a nightstand, because most everything out there matches other furniture that we already have around the house.”
“Sounds good,” Lex replied. “I’ll wait until after we have everything in the bedroom before I go back and look at the rest of those other things that matched the lamp.”
“They’d look nice on those shelves along with some books.”
“At the rate I’m going when it comes to reading, it might be a while before I’m ready for those,” Lex confessed.
Amy scrunched her nose. “I have an idea that might work for you. We can try something that Izzy did to help me when I was learning to read. But right now, let’s go eat.”
Chapter Sixteen
Despite the circumstances, they all settled into a routine during those next weeks of summer and Lex felt happier than he ever remembered. Strangely, it seemed like everyone was making it their mission to keep him busy. He usually spent a few hours with Gabe early morning, learning how to read, before Gabe would head off to class, leaving Lex with some homework for the following day.
Gabe seem to think that he’d had some schooling since it hadn’t taken Lex long to familiarize himself with the alphabet. What Gabe found odd were Lex’s writing skills. He didn’t seem to have too much trouble learning how to write, but Lex was a doodler when he had a pad and pencil before him.
Gabe seemed to think that the combinations of letters he was making on the blank pages of paper could be something Lex had learned in the past, possibly even some other language, so Gabe told him to keep it up until he had a chance to have someone who was knowledgeable about languages check out what he was writing.
A few nights when he had trouble sleeping, Lex ended up in the living room again in front of the piano. Each time, he’d been able to play something different, so it hadn’t been a fluke, he supposed. Although he wasn’t sure why he didn’t want to tell even Zane, he still wasn’t ready to share his secret with anyone besides Amy.
Maybe because it was Zane’s time to shine, and Lex didn’t want to take anything away from that. It was amazing how much Zane had been able to fine tune his talent in only a month with some proper training. There was no doubt in Lex’s mind that Zane was going to become famous. Now Danielle Loughlin was certain she would be sending him on tour with Eve this fall.
Harry had been tutoring Zane, who Lex wasn’t surprised to discover was actually pretty intelligent. Although Lex couldn’t understand how he managed to do so well since he’d been locked away at the farm for so long.
There was a mystery there, even for Lex, although Zane had mentioned that he’d been living with someone for a while before he’d returned to the streets.
The DNA tests had resulted in no information about Lex so far and it was the same for Zane and Caleb, but hopefully the results would eventually give them a familial match so that their lives wouldn’t be shrouded in mystery forever, even if it meant discovering something disturbing about their pasts. Apparently, little had been revealed about Harry and Amy’s pasts as well, although Gabe followed up regularly.
Zane was working hard with Danielle and Eve, not only on perfecting his voice, but also refining his expertise on the guitar.
It was a warm day in July, and Harry had left for the day to spend some time with his girlfriend Eve. Danielle Loughlin had stopped by to perform some kind of mysterious transformation on Zane.
Everyone but Lucy and Izzy was shooed out of the house for a while, so they’d all be surprised when they returned.
“We might as well get some work done in the winery,” Amy said, turning to Lex and Caleb as the dogs followed at their heels. “I can’t believe we’re already going to be opening in a month. Mom hasn’t been taking any extra catering jobs because she’s getting her menu perfected for the café.”
“I can’t believe that I haven’t been inside the building yet,” Lex said as they headed towards it. “I didn’t even realize that the winery would also be serving food.”
“Up until now, there’ve been snacks and appetizers offered with the wine tasting when the place has been open during the spring and fall. I think I might have told you this, but mainly, we’ve been selling wine for Dad’s family winery in California, which he owns a share of.”
Amy continued, “It’s nice that we have your bedroom painted. Now we just have to get someone here to help move all the furniture.”
“Can’t we just do it ourselves?” Lex asked.
