Page 11 of Weston

“The faeries said that we were to lie here for another hour.I’m all for that, but they seemed to be overly worried that we’re going to be getting up and moving around.”He asked Rogen who she had spoken to.“Syrup.What an adorable name.He said that our bodies are going to take time to adjust to what has happened to us.What did happen to us?”

“To be honest, I’m not sure.I feel like I’ve been wrung out and then left in the sun to dry.How are you feeling?”She told him that was pretty much the way that she felt as well.But more on the hung out to dry in a blizzard.“You’re cold?”Weston thought about it for a moment.“You know what?I am, as well.I don’t think I’ve ever been cold since the first time that I shifted.”

“Who put us in bed?I mean, we were naked when we fell to the floor.”He didn’t remember falling to the floor but didn’t say anything.Wiggling his toes, he felt like he was pulling muscles from his head just to do that little bit of work.“You were told not to move, smart ass.Just lie still.”

“I have to pee.”She laughed at him then, telling him that she’d had to go for the last ten minutes.“Well, if I don’t get up soon, we’re going to have to get a new bed.I really need to get up.”

After swinging his legs off the bed, he had to lay there for an additional ten minutes.It wasn’t as if he hurt; he didn’t hurt any longer, but he was exhausted.He wanted to blame it on the most incredible sex he’d ever had, but he also knew that couldn’t be all that.He was just about as tired as he’d ever been.

When he was finally able to get up from the bed, he staggered, holding onto things as he made his way there.Once he was in the bathroom, he had to hold onto the sink or fall face-first into the commode.After using the toilet, washing his hands felt like it was too much.The sensation of water running over his fingers was akin to having his body turned inside out again.He barely made it back to the bed before he was ready for a long nap.

Waking up the next time, he was glad to see that Rogen was sleeping, too.He felt better than he had before, not nearly as exhausted, so when he got up to use the bathroom again, he didn’t have to hold onto things as he made his way back.Sitting on the side of the bed, he contemplated getting himself dressed or taking another nap.He convinced himself that getting up might cost him something, but he couldn’t lie around in bed all day when he had work to do.

The second time he made his way to the bathroom to shower, he did feel better.Rogen was still sleeping, so he took his shower quietly.If anyone were to ask him, he’d tell them that he was straight up fine when, in reality, he was just like a newborn, too tired to think beyond lying down again.

The kitchen was full of activity when he got there.Apparently, Mae, the cook, was helping the faeries make more jam and jelly.He didn’t know how well dandelion jelly was going to go over, but he did take a taste and thought that it was delicious.While he was being given his breakfast, Rogen joined him in the vast room.

“There are several things that have come up.Which would you like to hear first?”Pancake and Syrup were running point it seemed on things that they were to take care of.“The mistress of the lands, our queen, wishes a word with the two of you when you are up to it.She seemed to think that it would be a couple of days, but we were going to remind you when you felt better.I had not known you were ill.Is there anything that I can do to help you, sir?”

“I’m fine and am ready when you are to tell me what’s been going on.”He told him how Hank had been released in order to be watched in the event that he went to his parent’s home.“He isn’t coming here again, is he?”

“No.We have taken care that he will not come here again.We’ve made it so that he has forgotten that he wishes to live with you.For now, he is content to live in one of the hotels in town.They know too not to allow him to go without paying.Some of our kind have been running the business for some time now.”Weston nodded and asked why they thought that he’d go to his parents.“Mistress Sunny has made him think that it is vital that he finds them for his wellbeing.I’m not sure how that magic works, but she does have us keeping both our eyes on him, so he can’t leave without one of us following him.”

He did have a moment of humor rolling over him, thinking about how that conversation went about them keeping both their eyes on the man.The faeries were the best to have around, but they could also be the worst.He did so enjoy their ways of thinking too.

The rest of the news they had was things that were going on in the rest of the family.Archie had finally been able to move into the new leap house with his offices.The rules that he had for his own leap were making their way to all the people who were a part of it, too.The teaching of the leap too was going well as they were getting more work done, too.

“What do you know of the money from the Feds?Has anyone talked to them about it?”Syrup said that while the money wasn’t in the bank as yet, he knew that it was coming.He even knew how much was coming and told them so.“Good.That’s really good.We’ve already started getting someone to build the jail for us, so now we can talk to the people about the schools.There is a lot of work needed to be done for both places.”

By the time he was finished with his breakfast, he had another long list of things that he needed to get started on.The school was going to be built in the summer months so that there wouldn’t be any disruption to the class time.Also, they were going to be using some of the storage units that were being built to put the things in it that the new school wouldn’t use.Chalkboards and some of the other outdated items would be sold at auction at a later date.In addition to the things from the classroom, there would be things like the outbuildings that had been brought in to use for classes that would be sold as well.Little things and big things that would sell off, and all the money would go to the teachers to use to make their school rooms look good for the students.He liked that idea a great deal.

“The playground equipment has arrived.”He asked where the money came from for that.It had been put off until more money was found from the other mayor’s theft.“It was donated by the queen.It doesn’t say that on the invoice, but she did want to make sure that the children had plenty of things to have fun with in the warmer months.Children make their own kind of magic that we all get something from.”

Sitting in his office nearly two hours after he’d gotten up, Weston was ready for a long nap again.It wasn’t that he was that tired, but he was beginning to feel like he’d run a marathon.Just getting his computer turned on, Leanord, Rogen’s brother, showed up.He would do anything for her family, and even being busy, he’d drop everything to help them out.

“I want to find some farm that I can purchase.I have a buyer for ours at home.We all want to move here.”He told him that he knew of three farms that were up for sale, and then he asked him how much land he wanted.“Enough that Toby and I can farm it together.Enough, too, that we can hire some hands to help us out when the time is right.Having our equipment shipped here is going to save us a great deal of money, but we need to have enough land to support us and make the payments on the tractors and other equipment that we have.”

Weston had heard that some of the farming tractors that his new family had were expensive, buthe’d not thought that they’d be in the millions of dollars for everything that they had.He could also understand why they were having it brought here rather than to sell it off and start again.That alone made him think that the Watson brothers were bigger farmers than he thought they were.He also liked the idea that the two of them were thinking of staying in business so that they could provide for their families.

Weston went with the two of them, both Toby and Leanord, to look over the land.Most of the fields hadn’t been plowed in a decade, the expense being too much in this town.The two properties that they were most interested in were going on the auction block in a few days, and them having all the specs ready certainly helped them with information about the land.

“I’m thinking that we could get a better deal by going to the auction rather than through the bank.I know they have a minimum on it, but it’s not nearly as much as they’re asking for the land.”Weston had to let them work out the numbers for the land as he’d never had to deal with it before.“I think that if we wait too, we can get some of the equipment that is being sold off too.Did you know that one of the ranches is selling off their standing cattle, too?”

“I’m sorry to say that I don’t know much about what is going on in my little town.”Toby told him that wasn’t anything to be sorry for.If he didn’t know, then he simply didn’t know.“You’re right, of course, but I wish I could be more of a help to you about this.”

“You have been.Not just with this but with our sisters, too.Getting them started on some of the houses around here is going to make this a family effort.My wife is a teacher, and she’s hoping to be able to teach here in the fall.You’ve provided us with housing, which I don’t know if you’re aware of this or not, but it has made it easier for us to decide that we want to be nearer to Belinda and Rogen.You’ve done a lot for us, Weston.A great deal more than we’ve ever had from our previous town mayor.”He thanked him.“Now, if you could get us the information on your brother to join his leap, we’ll have everything that we need to get things finalized for us living here.”

Weston laughed when Toby told him that he was joking.It had already been set up for them to join the leap, and as far as he knew, they were also joining other things around town.The council for the town, a sort of nosey bunch that had their hands into everything, was now going to be run by Belinda, and he couldn’t have been happier about it.

They met up with Beau as he was leaving the YMCA from one of his classes.He was learning how to cook.Not to be a big-time chef or anything, but so that he could cook a meal for himself and his family if it came to it.He, in turn, was teaching Jameson and Nash how to cook, too.This week, he was learning how to grill vegetables on the grill and how to know when a steak was done.Things that he didn’t know either.

“I’ve been thinking about what you told me the other day.”He’d not known that Beau had been hanging out with the other two men.But then, Beau had always been the most social of all of them.“You were telling me that I could raise a couple of goats to get to my lawn, and I like that idea.Also, what you told me about them keeping some of the vining troublesome weeds out of my area.”

“We’re going to have goats for that same reason.”Toby laughed.“There is also the benefit that my wife wants to see about making goat cheese for us.She’s always been the one who could squeeze a dollar until it screamed.But she figures that since we have to have them anyway, why not profit off of them for some cheese.My kids love goat cheese.”

Toby had four kids, all of them under the age of ten, and he seemed to be the happiest man he’d ever met.Also a great dad.There was never a time when he wasn’t out in the yard with one of them having some fun.Weston wanted to have children, too, but he was going to be a great dad like his new brother-in-law.Toby was the best.

Chapter 6

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