Page 2 of Weston

Even the thought of having a white carpet in a kid’s room gave her the willies.Toby had four kids of his own, and each one of them could tear up anything white in a matter of minutes and not even get themselves dirty in the process.

She was home packing up when she heard back from her sister.The entire Sheppard family was coming to them to talk about business and to meet their leader, too.Rogen wasn’t sure about that and told her sister that but it was a done deal.They were coming and were going to help take care of Danny, the shithead.She wanted to knock the shit out of him now, but she would wait on the bigger team coming.If they fucked up, she’d find a place to bury them as well.All of them.

~*~

Weston looked over the paperwork again and had to sigh.It wasn’t written in the bylaws of their kind, so how the hell was Franklin getting away with basically double charging for fees and dues when a person worked in another shadow, not to mention had pledged to the other shadow in the first place?It made no sense at all to him.Apparently, to Archie, either.And he was a shadow leader.

“I can’t find where it’s in his laws either.And I’m not sure that he could do it in the first place, as she is a part of my group.”Archie handed him the book that they’d unearthed from the previous leap leader’s office before tearing down the building.“According to the laws made by the king, the only one that can be charged for living outside of a leap is the leader if he’s in another territory without permission.And I can’t think of a single reason that should be happening.Can you?”

“No.Not unless it’s for something like what is going on now.And even that, it’s no reason to charge someone simply for getting answers about a job.”The Watson family was going to come up here and train a few of their pack on how to lay sheetrock.In the past month, not only had they gotten some younger people in the shadow, but they were willing to learn a new trade to be able to help with the construction of a couple of new businesses that were coming to town, too.“You don’t have to do anything either to get them to come here other than to make sure that they’re paid a reasonable wage.And it’s up to you if you want to charge them or not any fees.”

“We’re going to make sure they have a place to stay while here too.It’s the least we can do for their helping us out.”Weston asked him where they were staying.“We have some homes around town they can stay in while here.The women are the ones that are going to be helping out.Their brothers are coming for a little time off since it’s the end of the season for them.”

He thought about what Belinda had told him about Sandy’s spouse and wondered if he should mention it as well, so he decided against it.Danny would show himself while here, and that would be the end of him.Weston might well do it himself.He didn’t think men or women should beat up on one another.It was bad enough when they did it to their kids.

By the time he was ready to go home, he was exhausted.Mentally, all he wanted to do was to turn off his head, but his body, too, from helping move some of the filing cabinets around in his office, was hurting him as well.

By the time he finished up his dinner, he was sitting on the couch and watching the news.There wasn’t too much more he could take today, so by ten, he was in bed and about asleep.It was then that his brother Beau decided to contact him.He’d never turn down an opportunity to talk to one of his family members, but today had been a shitty one, and he just wanted to sleep.

“I won’t keep you long.I just have a couple of questions you might have an answer to.”He told him to ask him.“Calhoun is the brother that is going to work with the town on the advertising that we need, correct?If so, then I’m not sure what it is that I can do to help him.He’s really talented.You should see his work.”

“From my understanding, he’s only going to help out with the adverts that are to bring in more businesses.I guess Sunny and Carrie have a list of the ones that have contacted them.Amber has the workup on them so that we can hit all their selling points to get them here.”He asked him how that worked if they were alreadycoming here.“I don’t know, Beau.I only know that we have to have some kind of billing and a list of things on this thing to get them here.Just because they say they want to put in a business doesn’t mean all that much if they don’t know what their perks will be.”

“Good point.All right.It was something that just occurred to me.”He was dozing off when his brother spoke again.“What if one of them, the sisters, I mean, is my mate?Or yours?What if she’s the married one?And I end up killing her husband or something.”

“We’ve been told that he’s not her mate, so it’ll not matter, I guess.We’ll just have to cross that when it comes to it, I guess.”He thought about what his brother said about being mates.“I suppose we might any of us be mates to them.But I’m not going to stress about it unless I have to.”

“You’re right.I shouldn’t either.My house is being built, and if it comes to that, I can have the faeries finish it up if I need it quicker.I might do that anyway, just to get it out of the way.”He told his brother that he was tired and in bed.“Right.I’ll talk to you in the morning.Sorry to have bothered you, Weston, I needed to talk to you.”

“Anytime, little brother.We can have breakfast in town if you want.”After making arrangements, he closed his eyes and decided to try to will himself to sleep.

When that didn’t work, he got up and decided to have his house out of the way as well.Faeries didn’t sleep, so he was all right with getting them going.The only thing that he’d wanted was the option to change things up if his mate didn’t like it.They were more than happy to do that for him.

It only took them a few minutes to finish up the house.His bedroom wasn’t the master suite, and he was all right that they’d made it up to be neutral for his mate if he ever got one.As it was now, he was thinking along the lines of finding someone who wanted to go out and have a good time, knowing that it wasn’t going to go any further than that.He was happy to be dating in his leap, where no one cared about commitment.

By the time it was time for him to meet his brother, Weston decided to get dressed up.He was not in a suit, but he did wear a tie with his jeans.It felt right to be looking better than just a pair of jeans and a tee shirt for a change.

The restaurant wasn’t all that busy, so he was seated right away.Looking over the menu while waiting, he decided to have the endless biscuits and gravy.They served it with fresh coffee or tea, and he could get up to three sides if he wanted.Of course, he got all three sides of the hashbrown casserole with orange juice and fresh sliced tomatoes for his salad.

When Beau showed up with Nash and the others, he was thrilled beyond words.All six of them could put a dent in some biscuits and gravy, but he was overjoyed to be able to talk to them.His day was starting out much better than he could have imagined.

No business was discussed, but they did check their phones when they went off.If it had been scheduled, this time with them, none of them would even have done that.But they were busy men with a great deal going on at all times.

Archie was the busiest of the six of them.He had taken over their leap, but they also knew that his mate, Carrie, was getting close to her due date, and they all wanted to be there for the next generation to come to the family.There was Wills in the family, but he was the oldest kid he knew at ten.It would be fun to have not just little ones in the family but perhaps little girls around, too.They were keeping it secret as to what Carrie was carrying right now.

They’d only had to wait on food once, and it wasn’t so bad.The biscuits were fresh, as were the potatoes they got.He also knew that they’d all tip well and also slip some money to the kitchen staff for helping them out.Apparently, Archie had called ahead to let them know they were all coming in for the special this morning.He loved that they liked to do things locally.

The meeting with the Watson family was going to be on time, and he seriously thought about going into his office just to take a nap.Being up for over twenty-four hours was more than he thought he might be able to handle what with all the carbs he’d had for breakfast, too.Just as he was going into his office and closing the door, a man showed up, saying that he was there to go over the perks they were going to give him for allowing his wife to work with his leap.

“You must be Danny.”He asked how he’d known that, seemingly very proud of the fact that he’d heard of him.“No, not in any way that you’re thinking.I just knew that one of the sisters is married to a human that isn’t her mate.”

“Yeah, my wife, Sandy.Rogen is her sister, and she’s a real ball-buster if you ask me.”He didn’t but didn’t comment.“We’re trying for a baby right now.Well, I guess I’m going to have her see the doctor soon.She must not be as fertile as the rest of them are.One of them brothers has seven kids or something like that.”

“Four.They have four, and it’s doubtful that there is anything wrong with Sandy other than you’re not her mate.But that’s not why you’re here, is it?You mentioned perks.What were you thinking?And just so you know, there won’t be any monetary perks unless you’re working too.”He said that wasn’t fair as the job was keeping him from his wife.“And?That has nothing to do with us.We’re already putting the family up with housing and staff if necessary.Sandy is working for us and making a good wage.Whatever else you need isn’t anything we’re going to worry with.”

“Maybe she won’t work then?You might not understand this being single, but she does what I tell her so that she doesn’t get knocked around.”All he did was stand up so that he could see the fear on the other man’s face.“I was just joking.God damn it, it was a joke.”

“It’s time you left.”Nodding, the other man stood up.“And there will be no bothering Sandy when she’s working for my brother either.She’s here to do a job, and unless, as I said, you’re working too, then you’ll stay out of the way.”

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