Page 36 of Pixie Problems
I sighed, feeling content. “I love you guys.”
“We love you too, trouble. See you soon.”
We got off, and I looked at Naut who was staring at me as though I were a curious specimen that he just couldn’t figure out. “My grandparents are coming.”
It felt like things were finally starting to look up.
Chapter11
Dice
It turns out, Naut didn’t really need to visit a place to teleport there. He had something like a GPS built into his DNA, and all he really needed was the location from someone’s mind and he was good to go. In the weeks I’d worked with Rhys at The Laughing Elf, he’d had to run home once to check on Doom before he could drop me off at my townhouse. So Naut had just gotten the location from me, and boom, he knew where to go.
I never did find outwhyhe went.
Guess it didn’t matter now.
Rhys was leaning against my new shop door when Naut and I arrived. He had on a formfitting blue henley, dark blue jeans, and his black leather jacket. With his arms over his defined chest, his purple-gold eyes looking way too intent for eight-o-clock in the morning, and his silver hair professionally mussed, he made my heart zing.
I very firmly told it to be quiet.
“You use the animal you’re rehabilitating to get around town?” He shook his head. “So sad.”
“Shut it, geezer.”
He gasped at me. Seriously, like a Victorian momma from the eighteen hundreds. It was hilarious, and I started chuckling as I put my palm against the glass door.
“You already have some magical protection on it?” Rhys asked as I flipped the light switch.
“Yep. I paid a witch to come by last night and lay some spells on it.” The lights came on, and I purred in contentment. There were copper hanging lights set up over various locations throughout the shop. I’d also paid an electrician to come by and set those up as I’d hunted around stores and bought the things I needed.
It was a large empty room right now, without furniture or anything homey. There was a skylight on one end for all of my plants and herbs to hang or be shelved under, and the rest was just open space.
Naut went sniffing around, this being the first time he’d come inside, and I just dumped my purse in a corner. I grabbed my cleaning things from the back where I’d stashed them and got to work scrubbing. Rhys, without me having to direct him, grabbed a rag and some cleanser and jumped right in.
I liked that about him. He saw a need and just moved to fill it, without anyone having to direct him, or prod him with the end of a stick.
As we worked and waited for furniture delivery, he sang in a throaty but raspy tenor a song about never being able to go back home again. After a few bars, he trailed off into silence, and I glanced over at him, scrubbing the base board of the east wall. “You okay there?”
He nodded, looking thoughtful. “You know it’s not true, not being able to go home again, right?” I said.
He looked sad for a moment, before he did that thing where he hid it behind a jokingly sly smile. “Uh uh. Before anything comes out of your mouth, just know, that if it’s a joke to deflect something painful I will lose a little respect for you.”
His sly smile melted off his face quicker than ice cream in the summer sun. “Everyone hurts over something, Rhys. I respect your right to privacy.”
Rhys nodded.
I think I’d surprised him because he didn’t speak again until the trucks started arriving. I threw my rag in the bucket and got up off my knees to direct what was supposed to go where. We had a few minor mishaps, but nothing earth shaking.
When the people and trucks left, I looked around, investigating every nook and cranny with delight. Over by the skylights there was plenty of plant shelving and hooks for my plants. There was even a nice system of thirty small boxes that attached to the wall that I could label and put dried or fresh herb cuttings in for customers. Near and around these were more shelves that pulled out, drawers, a large counter that had various things like weighing scales and potion bottles on it. Behind the back counter was a copper cabinet that had three levels and was cylinder shaped. I opened the cabinet door and smiled as I turned the turn-tables inside. The turn-tables allowed me to access all of the items in my stock, even those on the back shelves.
I laughed in delight over the middle island. It was white oak and was about as tall as my chest, and then there were a few smaller islands, lower to the ground attached to it. Each had open shelving on them for displaying things, and closed shelving for the more sensitive ingredients.
I spent a good hour familiarizing myself with everything, feeling amazed that this was happening to me in the first place. I couldn’t believe a life-long dream was about to become a reality. I was the first person to admit that I was a little cynical. I couldn’t help feeling like I was waiting for the other shoe to drop. But maybe the other shoe wouldn’t drop this time? I hoped, anyway.
Rhys and I went out to get burgers for lunch, and then I went home for a bit. I had another delivery in the evening that Rhys promised he’d be at, and I wanted to get in a nap beforehand.
I hadn’t been sleeping well. Between the crazy coyote pack that I kept waiting to show up at my door, the new town, the new business, not having my grandparents near . . . There was so much in my life that was chaotic right then, and it was making me a raging insomniac. I wanted sleep so badly I was almost desperate enough to ask someone to knock me out with a two-by-four.
