Page 8 of Melbourne
“My mom sent me here.While I don’t care for the way she put the two of us together, it sounds to me like you need someone to protect you.Will they hurt you if they find you?”She said she didn’t want to give them the chance of hurting her.“I understand that.If it helps you any at all, you’re immortal from the moment that you touched me.”
“Why would that be helpful to know that I can’t die from them?I’m betting that I can still be hurt, however.”He said that was true, but hurting wasn’t dead, and he thought that she’d like that.“I don’t know what to do about them hanging around.This is the second time I’ve seen them tonight, and I don’t like it.And what did I tell you about getting comfy around my place?”
“This is a very comfy couch.I bet the chairs are too.”He got up to test his theory about them and smiled at her.“They are, aren’t they?Where did you get them?When we get a house, you’re picking out the furniture so that we can have comfy stuff in the living room.”Rolling her eyes at him, she looked out the door again to see if they were out there.When she didn’t see them, she relaxed a bit, but then realized that she’d have to deal with the man.“Melbourne.That’s my name.Melbourne Walsh.You’ve spoken to my mom.”
“She’s very pushy.”He laughed like that was an understatement or something.“Did she give you the long version of what happened as to why we didn’t meet?”
“Yes, she told me about the interview that you had in your place.”He looked good sitting on her chair and decided that she’d had enough excitement for one night.She needed to go to bed.“I only came to meet you and to see where you lived.This is a nice place but a little cramped, don’t you think?”
“What I think is that it’s time you went home.And don’t come back.”He pouted, and she found that she wanted to suckle his lower lip into her own mouth to see if it tasted as good as she thought that it might.When that thought entered her head, she decided that she was more tired than she thought she was and stood up to have him leave.“I really have a long day tomorrow, and I need to get into my bed.Alone.”
“I’m not going to bother you at work, but my mom told me where you work right now.It’s very commendable that you hire ex-cons to work for you to give them a much-needed hand up in the world.”She said it was time for him to go again.“I’m leaving, but I wanted you to know that if you ever need me, you need only to think of me, and we can talk.We have a link that only the two of us share.”
“Why would I want to talk to you?”He said that she could be in trouble.“I’m forever getting myself out of one mess or another.It’s what I live for.But don’t hold your breath in looking for me to contact you.I don’t need anyone in my life at the moment.I have enough going on as it is.”He said that he’d reach out to her when he needed her then.“Whatever floats your boat.As I said, I’m a very busy person who doesn’t like to hang on the phone at all.Nor do I want your mind tricks.”
When he left, she finished her last load of laundry and went to her bedroom.She put her things aside for her to wear tomorrow and made her way to her bed.Sammy was a sound sleeper and could fall asleep in a moment, but tonight she tossed and turned.She knew that it had a lot to do with seeing her parents tonight, but didn’t know for sure.It could have been the big man who had invaded her home, too.
Finally getting up before the alarm went off, she put her clothing in the dryer and made herself some breakfast.It was only a bowl of cereal, but it would be something on her belly, and that was all she was looking for right now.Making sure to check the peephole once again, she was out the door and into her car in a few moments without seeing her parents.
No one at work knew she was the owner of the restaurant.She thought perhaps Donald, her cook, had guessed it, but since he never asked, she didn’t tell him.He’d been working for her since she opened, and they’d become friends.Not good friends, but friends all the same.She loved his sense of humor, and he liked her no-nonsense way of dealing with things.
~*~
Melbourne couldn’t believe his luck.Not only had he found his mate—with his mother’s help—but he’d figured out that she was as bad or good, depending on how he looked at it, as the other women in his family.He loved the fact that she was going to be a ballbuster.So long as she didn’t take her frustrations out on him.
As he made his way back to his home, he decided to keep an eye out for the couple that had scared his mate.He had noticed them enough to know how to pick them out; it wasn’t difficult to do that when they stunk of body odor and were dressed in clothing that had seen better days.Seeing them twice more, he had a feeling that while they were out searching for something—more than likely food, they didn’t seem to be looking for Sammy.He wondered just for a moment if her name was Sammy or Samantha.Not that it mattered, but it was something else that he didn’t know about her.
He did know a great deal more about her than she did of him, he was sure.All of it thanks to his mom and her not trusting anyone.She’d done a background check on her when she’d first found out that she was his mate, and he didn’t know yet if he was all right with that.He was sure that she’d done it on the other mates, but he was no less upset that she’d done it on his mate before he met her.
Just as he was getting out of his car at his place, he heard from his brother Dyson.Emma was working today, and he was bored.Telling him that he’d meet him for lunch later on had him wondering what he was doing now.
“I’m going to work on some projects for the family.I have two contracts to go over, as well as I have to inspect a building downtown before we buy it, and find out it wasn’t worth it later.Why?”He told him that he’d help him with the inspection, as he really was bored out of his mind with his mate gone.“You should have a couple of kids or something.That should keep you out of trouble.”
“No it won’t.I’ll just be hanging out with you guys while I drag my kids around with me.You’d love it.Being an uncle to my kids.Someday soon, I’m going to be a daddy and you’ll be so jealous.”He told him that he’d beat him in getting his mate with child.“You have to find her first, don’t you?I mean, that’s the way that it works.”
“I did find her.She and I met just tonight.Mom told me about her, and I went to see what she’s like.You’re going to love her, she’s just like the others.”He asked him why he hadn’t announced it to everyone yet.“We just met, and I’m making sure that she and I get off to a better start than the rest of you guys did.Fowler really messed up, and I don’t plan on doing anything like he did.”
Fowler, his oldest brother, had assumed that he was going to have to train Amy to be a good woman to be around.Not only that, but he had it in his thick head that she was going to want all hismoney, too.Not only had she saved him from certain death by reattaching his head when Grail had tried to remove it, but he’d had to save Amy from being killed by their great-grandma when she was set to remove her head.
Grail was a dragon, the same as mom and they were.However, Grail was into black magic, and it had turned his dragon black as the magic he was using.One night when Fowler was feeling sorry for himself and out on his own, Grail snuck up behind him and removed his head, but for a one-inch flap of skin that held his head onto his shoulders.Amy had killed Grail, then set Fowler’s head back on his shoulders so that he could heal.If not for that small flap of skin, Fowler would have surely been killed, and they would never have found out what their great-grandma had had plans for them all.
“Come on, let me go with you.If I call out to Emma again today, she’s going to brain me, and that won’t be pretty.I’ll even do most of the work for you.”He suggested that he go inspect the building while he did the contracts.“I can do that.But I’d rather hang out with you instead.That way, as soon as we’re done, we can go have lunch together and you can tell me all about your mate.”
“All right, but I have those contracts to look over, and you can’t be pestering me while I’m doing it.I’ll brain you and I’ll make sure that your pretty face isn’t anything that Emma ever wants to look at again.Promise me that you’ll behave yourself.”He promised that he’d be as good as gold.“Good.I don’t have time for you messing with me when I have to get them finished up.Then I want to go and see what kind of trouble I can get into with my mate.She’s beautiful and I want to get to know her.”
“I promise I’ll be good.”He could tell that his brother wasn’t going to be helpful or good, but he was sort of keeping him from finding his mate right now and asking her all the questions that were going around in his head.He wanted to know all about her and her comfy furniture.“If you give me one of the contracts, we can get them finished sooner.”
In the end, he did give his brother one of the contracts to read over.He knew where they were from; the city was asking for funding for two new cruisers for the town.One of them had been in an accident late last year, and the second one was just worn out.The contract that he was reading over was for new baseball fields put in this fall, so that by the time spring rolled around, there would be better grounds for the kids to play on.He was excited about that as he’d played ball on the same fields when he’d been a teenager.
“I suggest that mom and dad have a look at the new cars they want and maybe buy used.There is so little crime in his area that I don’t see a need for something that will get speeds of over a hundred miles per hour.For the price of one car, they can get two used ones, and that would suit the town better.”He agreed with his brother and then asked about the baseball fields.“We just put in the football fields this past fall.I don’t know that they need all the fields replaced so much as they need them to be redone.Replacing seems like a great deal more work than just having the fields leveled out and redone.Maybe that would be a project for five years down the line.Or not.It might save money by getting it done now and not having to do it in five or so years.That’s a close call.”
“I think it would save time and money to just get it finished up and upgraded.The way the fields are looking now, someone could get hurt with all the kids who play on the fields.Plus, with the added money that we’ll be putting in, we can have four fields laid instead of only the two, and that will save the kids from having to play late in the evening when they have a double header.I remember playing some of those until it was too dark to see.Even the lights didn’t help all that much when it was nine o’clock when we finished up.”Dyson said he liked that idea much better.“I do as well.Especially when it comes to getting four fields instead of just the two that we have now.I hope mom and dad like the idea.”
After writing up their ideas on the contracts for the city, the two of them went to the building on Main Street to have a look.His first thought was that it was in good enough shape for what they wanted it for, but upon closer inspection, getting into the basement and attic of the thing, they both thought that the building needed to be torn down and started over.It was in such bad shape.Not only would they have to tear it down, but he thought that using it as a training building for the fire department might be a terrible idea, as it might well fall on them, too.Yes, he thought that tearing thebuilding down would be safer for all those concerned.They headed to lunch after letting their parents know their decision on the building.
“I’m hungry for a sub.”Dyson loved double meat subs from the ice cream place just down the road from where the building had been.“How about we have two subs each and finish it off with a banana split each?”
“Sounds good.”Just as he was sitting down, he could feel the first touches of someone trying to reach out to him.He didn’t know why, but he thought immediately that it was Sammy and that she had changed her mind about needing him.But he realized that she was stressed, and he waited for her to get in touch with him.When she didn’t, he asked her if things were all right.
