Page 12 of Horn in My Side
Dewberry Falls had become her home.Why should she have to leave?
Maybe I can find another job.
The boutique down the street always needed a hand during busy days.There were also plenty of caregiving jobs available, or she could walk dogs and clean houses to make ends meet.
Or I could finish my nursing degree.
There was always that option.She could go live with her dad for a bit too; he said she was always welcome to come home—wherever home was, anyway.Currently, Jed Gonzalez was a traveling nurse, but he kept a three-bedroom house in Coreopolis, just outside Pittsburgh.She could go back and ask the admissions office at Pitt about re-enrolling or go to a community college.Starting school again at thirty years old would be humbling, but it wasn’t like she would have a choice.
However, the thought of living with her dad again didn’t sit well with her, but she wouldn’t be able to afford to go to schooland pay for rent at the same time.And it wasn’t that she didn’t love her dad.She did, very much so.But there was an entirely different reason she couldn’t live under his roof again.
There was a shadow over their relationship, one he had no idea existed.This looming phantom was of Jasmine’s own creation, a secret she kept over the years.Her father loved her, she was sure of that.It was just difficult to reconcile that with what she’d overheard that day after her grandfather’s funeral.
It’s not fair,Jed had said.It’s because of Jasmine, isn’t it?The Inheritance should have been passed to me.I showed—
Ding ding dong!
The bell signaling someone had entered the shop startled Jasmine, and instinctively she rushed out to the front, calling, “Welcome to Fantastic Tails and Magical Scaa—o-oh!”
She stopped herself in time before she lost her balance, both her mouth and her feet stuttering as she saw who it was—Mal.He stood by the counter, looking tentative, and infuriatingly attractive all at the same time.
Jasmine groaned inwardly, remembering how he had answered the door in nothing but his towel last night.His chest and torso were perfectly formed and his bare arms were like sculpted rock, just as she imagined.It really did look as if he was greenall over,as that towel around his waist had barely covered his most important bits.
“Hi,” he said, knocking her out of her very inappropriate thoughts.
Squaring her shoulders, she walked toward him.“Hello, Mal.Do you want to take a look around?I could show you the back office where all of Vrig’s things are.”He seemed to prefer the direct approach, so she dispensed with the niceties.
His dark eyebrows furrowed together.“Yeah.Something like that.Jasmine, could we—”
The doorbell once again rang and she snapped intocustomer-service mode.“Good morning!Welcome to Fantastic Tails and Magical Scales,” she greeted.“How can I help you today?”
A well-dressed, middle-aged cyclops woman took tentative steps inside.“Hello.We’re looking for a pet.”She gestured to the young boy next her.Jasmine guessed he couldn’t have been more than ten years old, at least in human years.
“Mom and Dad said if I got straight As, I could get a pet,” the boy said.
Smiling, she bent down to his level.“And did you?”
“Yes,” he proclaimed, the single blue eye in the middle of his forehead brimming with pride.“Even in math.”
“That’s awesome.”She quickly glanced up at the boy’s mother and recognized the look of apprehension on the woman’s face.Children were Jasmine’s favorite customers, as she loved the pure happiness and awe in their faces whenever they entered the shop and left with a new pet.However, they often proved to be the most difficult, or at least the adults were, and it was a challenge to find a creature that suited both parent and offspring.
“Do you have any idea of what kind of pet you wanted?I’m Jasmine, by the way.”
“I’m Alexios,” he said.“I was thinking a chimera,” the boy said, which earned an exasperated sigh from his mother.
“Have you taken care of a pet before, Alexios?”
He shook his head.
“Not even a goldfish?Or a hamster?”
“No, Mom and Dad wouldn’t let me.”
Alexios’s mother spoke up.“We lived in an apartment in Bayview City up until July.There was never any space for pets.But then we heard about Dewberry Falls and the fantastic school district, and that the community would be welcoming, so we decided to move here.Best decision we made.”
Jasmine grinned at the woman.“I’m glad.This is a greattown.So,” she said, turning back to Alexios, “chimeras, huh?”Choosing her words carefully, she began, “They are pretty fun and you can do all kinds of activities with them, but multi-headed creatures can be a challenge for first-time pet owners.”
“See, Alexios?”the mother interrupted.“Even she thinks you’re much too young to have such a big pet.”
