Page 16 of Beau
“It looks like it’s set to rain all night.”He agreed with Danielle as they cleaned up the mess they’d made in the kitchen.As they were wiping down the counters, all he could think about was how much he’d enjoyed their lovemaking and was glad that they were finally going to be sleeping together.
He had to refrain from trying to get Danielle to go to bed at eight.He just wanted to sleep with her tonight and wake up with her by his side in the morning.When they finally did go to bed at ten-thirty, he was so exhausted that he nearly forgot they were going to sleep in the master bedroom as their first night together.Getting into the big bed made him appreciate the smaller bed he’d been sleeping in until now.Beau was lucky that he’d fit in the smaller bed he realized now that he had a bigger bed to compare it to.
“Do you have to work in the morning?”He had to think for a moment and told her that he diduntil noon.“I have to meet with your sister, Sunny.She’s going to show me how to use some of the magic that I got when we first started seeing one another.I guess now there will be more, right?”
“Yes.For both of us.The one thing that I might enjoy as much as you do is not having to change when we get out of the shower.We can think of something to wear, and we’ll be wearing it.Archie said that it was his favorite bit of magic.I can see myself using it for all kinds of things.Like having to change to go out to dinner.Or just getting out of the shower in the morning.What about you?Do you think you’re going to use it all that much?”
“I don’t have to shift or anything, but like you, I can see myself using it if I have to change for a meeting that I forgot about.Also, if I get something on me.That would be very handy.”He teased her about getting something on her and said he’d gladly lick her clean.“Behave.I’m still sore from earlier.Especially the backs of my legs.”
They curled up in the bed together and talked about the magic that Beau had.Danielle wanted to be able to be a cat, but he had to ask for permission for that.Just as he was dozing off, she reminded him that he had to help his brother Jameson tomorrow, too, with his moving.His house was finished too, and they were all going to help him move into it.He’d opted not to have furniture with his so that he could pick things up as he made his way around.
“Archie has a town meeting tomorrow.He doesn’t expect that many people to show up, but I told him that everyone would be there just to make sure that he really was taking over the job.”She asked how long he’d been mayor.“About six months now.He was appointed to the job when the FBI was called in to investigate the theft of the money that was earmarked for projects.They found the money, but since it is being used for evidence, it might not get to him anytime soon for him to be able to use it for what it was intended.Like the new parking lot for the school, not to mention the jail that needs new supplies like guns and vests.”
“That sounds like something that needs to be taken care of right away.I mean, what do they do if there is a robbery or something around here?”He told her what he’d been told about how some of the men were using their own guns.“That would be costly.We should do something for the station house that will get them their needs.”
“Weston is trying to get the taxes raised again so that they can get at least some of the things that they’re running out of.The vests that they have now are really old and are deemed useless.”She couldn’t believe it and asked what they were going to do when someone sued them for not being prepared.“Just for now, hope that it doesn’t happen, I guess.I don’t know what I’d do if someone were hurt while on the job.But it looks like they’ll be able to get some of the things on the tax money that they have now.”
Rolling to his side to hold Danielle, he watched as her eyes fluttered closed.She was asleep in no time, and he continued to watch her.Turning off the light on her side of the bed, by moonlight, he thought about all the things that he wanted to do now that they were in the house as a couple.Before, he’d been putting things off, like going through the barn and the two sheds that were on the property, but he wanted to go through them before it got too cold.They were calling for colder temperatures tomorrow, so he’d better get a move on if he was going to at least start on the barn.
When he got up to go to the bathroom after he realized how tired he was again, he got back into bed only to have Danielle curl herself around him once again.Closing his eyes, he was nearly asleep when he realized he’d forgotten to set an alarm to get up in the morning.Too tired to worry with it, knowing that he’d wake up in time, he went to sleep soundly and didn’t bother with getting up again that night.
His cell phone ringing was what brought him out of bed.He had ten minutes to get to the office and knew that he was going to be running behind all day with the way things were going.Glad for taking a shower last night, he was out the door eleven minutes after shutting off his phone.The rain had turned into slush last night, and now he was slipping and sliding all over the place while driving to work.
Fearful for Danielle to drive in the nasty stuff, he called out to her to tell her to be extra carefulon the roads.She told him that her appointment was canceled due to the weather, and she was happy for it.Sunny said that she’d come over when things warmed up a bit and help her with the magic that she had.Beau was very happy about that.
By the time he was at the office that they’d all purchased for their businesses with their investments, he was sitting at his desk at twenty minutes after nine.Late, but with the roads the way that they were, no one was moving around quite that early, so it didn’t look like he was going to have anything to worry about.Just moving his brother into his house later that day.
As the day wore on, the mess that had greeted him when he got up dried up and didn’t look all that bad when it was time to close up the shop.Weston had come by with Wrangler and Wills, his son, and brought him lunch, so it was a good afternoon.Wills was always a hoot to be around, so he enjoyed talking to him about school.He was a good kid, and everyone was glad to have him as part of the family.By one-thirty, he was on his way home with having a very productive day in getting things squared away about their investments.
Since their father had taught them on the side about investments, the six of them had been doing it without their mother knowing.She didn’t want them to have a job that she didn’t control, and especially not any money that she didn’t give them.So they’d all been investing their money and turning it into millions behind her back.She would have beaten them, no matter how old they were, if they ever did anything that she didn’t approve of, or had her dad hire someone to knock them around.It had been difficult living with the two of them, as she wasn’t the least bit afraid of them being bigger than her.She’d been a nightmare when they’d been growing up and had caused them all kinds of fights between the six of them to the point that they hated one another.It was a bad time for them until she was killed at the courthouse during her trial for murder with her father.
Danielle was in the kitchen with their cook when he ventured home, and he kissed her on the mouth when he found her.She told him how she was making sure that everyone was working well together now that the faeries had found their own homes in the house and were living there all the time.There were a great many of them in their home, so they had to make sure that they were following the rules that they’d figured out for them.
“We were talking about the freezer and how, since she’s been here, Tess has been able to put away some of the things that you can only have in the summer.Like her peach pies and zucchini bread.There are other pies as well as some freezer jam that we can have in the winter months, too, that will be great to have.”
“I’ve been thinking about some homemade bread with soup all day.”Pasty told him that was what they were having.Potato cheese soup with homemade bread.“Sounds wonderful.After moving Jameson into his place, it will hit the spot.It’s still a little cold out, but not freezing yet.I can’t wait until dinner.”
Since Jameson said that he wanted to treat them to dinner, they were all going to meet at their house to have soup and bread.It was his favorite kind of soup to have, and the homemade bread was going to be perfect with all the creaminess of the soup.He was going to work extra hard on getting the place moved into so that he could come home and have dinner.At least that was his plan.Who knew what they were going to be running into with a new house on the land.
Chapter 8
Jameson was laughing at himself as the last piece of furniture had been moved in.There was so very little of it in the house that he wondered why he’d even bothered with getting it without stuff he could move in.
But he’d fill it out.Tomorrow, he had an appointment with an estate lawyer to go over the things that had been left over from when his client had died.The other attorney said that he could buy anything that was left after the kids took what they wanted, which turned out to be very little.
“They’d gotten what they wanted in the way of money, and the rest of the treasures were just junk as far as they were concerned.One granddaughter took the desk that had been in the office for decades, but she said that she didn’t have any room for anything else to put in her place.Sad when there is so much that gets tossed away because of greed, don’t you think?”He agreed with the man, telling him that he’d been picking up things at estate sales for a long time and had them in storage for when he got a house.“Most people don’t want houses anymore.They want condos where they don’t have to do anything but live there.Someone else to mow the lawn and get the snow off the driveway.”
“I honestly love shoveling the driveway when the snow comes in.”Thad, the other man, said he was nuts.“I usually get tired of it by the fourth or fifth snow that comes in, but I still make sure that I get it shoveled out.I don’t care to have the snow build up on the drive so that I can’t get out at any time I want.”
“I usually walk to work so that I don’t have to mess with a car.Sometimes when it’s raining badly, I regret not having one, but usually I can get back and forth to my home before most of the people that I work with can even get out of the parking lot where we work.”Jameson agreed that it was a good perk for walking.“You walk too?”
“I do.Especially in the summer months when it’s too hot to mess with anything else.I can get in my miles before the end of the week, and that’s been a gift I love as well.”Thad asked him how much else he’d done to keep in shape.“I run a great deal year-round.”
He didn’t tell the other man that he and his cat enjoyed running year-round, but he did tell him that he can run at least seven to twelve miles a day when he’s out.That was what he was looking forward to the most: having his own place to run around the yard in.He figured that he’d get to run more with his brothers, too, since all their houses were on the same track of land that their father had left them.
Jameson tried to get out with his cat at least five times a week.It made him feel better about himself, not to mention all the exercise that was a benefit from being a shifter.There were lots of perks he thought of being a shifter.Mostly it had to do with feeling himself at least once a day, even if he had to shift in his condo and stretch out.One thing that his father always taught him was never to neglect your cat.It wouldn’t do well if he weren’t there when you needed him in a hurry.
“You really don’t have that much stuff for a house this size.”He told his brother Wrangler that he was working on it.“You’d better be working harder, little brother.You’re the last one without a mate.I would imagine that she’ll be coming along soon now that all of us have one.”
