“I love you that much. I honestly do.” Jackson said she made his heart leap with joy by saying that. “You’re such a sap. I think I might have said that to you before.”
He chased her out of his office and then sat down to call Devon. He had his notes, and he wanted to make sure he didn’t leave anything out when talking to him. Jackson knew he was leaving himself open to Devon finding him something else to do, but he didn’t care. Just having one of them take over the task was something he was forever grateful for. Also, he wanted to figure out what sort of promotion Dillon had gotten.
Jackson liked the younger man. He had gone through hell and back and had come out on top. Not that he didn’t suffer at the hands of Sandra. He had, greatly so. But now he was in love, an emotion that seemed to suit him. Picking up the phone, Jackson was glad that Devon seemed to be in a much better mood than he had been. This morning when he called there, Devon had nearly bitten his head off. He wondered what had changed him.
“I’m sorry about this morning.” Jackson thought it was the perfect time to get the answer to the question he’d just asked himself. “Do you remember me telling you, a very long time ago, about the buildings that had to come down in the States? Grandmother and I own them in a partnership to help with the preservation of the buildings in the main capital area. Well, I got a late call this morning telling us that the buildings had been torn down in an effort to make more parking. Of course, I blew my top, and that didn’t go over well. So, they’re refunding me all the money I would have sold them for had I wanted. I doubt very much that they realize how much I paid for them back in the day, nor how much they’re worth now. Anyway, I’m sorry. Your call couldn’t have been timed any worse.”
After telling him everything he’d found out about the wisps, Jackson told him about Dillon and the gems Heart was going to watch over. Devon was laughing as he finished up. Jackson asked him what he thought was so funny.
“I don’t know. We have such an array of different magic now that it wouldn’t surprise me if she were the queen of all pixies. And that she and Dillon will have a million children to repopulate the world with them. What does a pixie do, anyway? I’m going to ask my grandma. She’ll know.” She would too, Jackson thought. “I do remember someone telling me once that they’re very mischievous and cause trouble. Maybe that’s just what Dillon needs. Someone to get him into trouble once in a while. I’ll get back with you on it when I speak to my grandma. Thanks for letting me know. And you’re right; whatever she or Dillon want out of the stash, it’s theirs. She should have been paid for her part in keeping them safe, and I can’t think of anything better than her taking it as she needs it.”
Jackson decided he’d hold off telling either one of them of the decree that Devon had laid down, stating that the money and stash they guarded would be theirs forevermore. Dillon might well be all right with it, but the pixie was still getting to know them. He’d just wait until the time was right. Jackson did wonder how many decades would go by before he found the right time.
After finishing up on his work for the day, Jackson went to find his beautiful mate. She had mentioned that she wanted to do some work in the yard earlier. Perhaps he’d take her on top of the mountain again, one of their favorite places to make love, and have a picnic with her. In addition to making love, he was going to try and convince her to stay up there with him all night. Jackson could not wait to see what the next fifty years or so would bring them all. He was looking forward to everything they encountered. So long as he had Nicole at his side.
Chapter 9
Noah wasn’t sure what to do with all his time. Bryce and her grandma, as well as her mom, had gone on a hunting trip. Unlike some hunting trips he’d heard of, the three of them were looking for plants they could bring to their own gardens. He’d always thought it a joke when witches would find herbs and such to make spells. But Grandma Bee was somewhat old fashioned in some ways. She loved to make up potions that she could sell to the humans.
“It’s not anything that will harm them. I do put a little magic in them to make sure the people are feeling more up. Humans can take so many things the wrong way anymore. I put a little cheer in my things so they’ll at least have a good few hours.” He asked her if she did that to him. “My goodness, Noah. If you got any happier, I think you’d burst. I would have thought having all these women under your feet all the time, you’d be having a fit.”
“But I love all of my women.” She winked at him. “I’m especially in love with my mate. She lets me sleep with her.”
“You stinker.” She had laughed about what he’d said to her up until they left. Then she took him aside to speak to him. “I want you to have those lovely faeries do me a favor. Can you have them bring us some blossoms? I don’t care what they bring to the kitchen, just so long as I can crush them up into some flavors for my potions. I’m thinking of making some lovely lotions for my shop.”
“You know they won’t mind that at all. But why are you telling me like this? I mean, usually, you shout to the world what you need me to do.” She giggled, and he smiled at her. “I’m not sure you’re aware of what that little laugh does to a man. It makes him feel like he should slay something for you.”
“You always have the perfect thing to say when I need it. I’m making some of the pretty things for Laura. You know that her and Austin spoke last night well into the morning. She’s a little down. I thought the two of us could work on it together.” Austin was Grandma Bee’s son, Bryce’s father. He’d been killed a long time ago when Bryce had been just a little girl. But he could come and visit them thanks to Roxanna. “She’s already made me enough jams and jellies to sell that I think she needs to change things up a little. I want to help her.”
“You know they’ll do whatever you want them to do. But I’ll have you some blooms here when you return. You will return, right?” He laughed when she did. “I love you guys, so have some fun.”
That had been yesterday. They were set to come home tomorrow. He hadn’t realized how much he depended on someone to be there when he was in the house. No wonderful smells were coming from the kitchen. No women’s laughter that simply made him smile to hear it. But he missed most of all the way they would brighten up a room like a tree did at Christmas time. He really did love these women.
Going into the dining room, he was about to back out when he saw what the faeries had been up to. But as soon as one of them saw him, he was caught. Going into the room, he could only stare in amazement at all the flowers they’d found for Bee.
“She’ll be surprised, don’t you think?” He nodded, unsure of how to tell Maggie that she hadn’t wanted a room full of them. “I know it’s a lot of blooms. Whatever she doesn’t take, we’ll use them to dry for seeds. We went a little overboard.”
“Yes, I can see that. But you can use them, so they won’t go to waste.” They had separated them into different baskets. Bushel baskets of them were even hanging from the ceiling, covering the floor, as well as simply hanging in the open air. “Are you guys still bringing them in?”
In answer to his question, three faeries came into the room and went to the only section of the room that wasn’t filled—under the table. While he watched, they put several different piles of the blooms there and left the room again. He wasn’t going to tell them to stop—let them have some fun. He looked at Maggie.
“What do you know about the containers that Grandma Bee uses? You know, to put her things in for the shop she and Lady Laura have?” She said that the faeries had made them for her. “I’m not saying you should fill a room with them, but I know she’s going to need more jars with lids. Also, I know each of you put a little magic on the things you help her with, so I’m asking you to put a little happiness in the ones that Lady Laura takes home with her.”
“We saw that she was sad today. Even going on this trip, she wasn’t as happy as we had wished.” Noah told her that was
one of the reasons for the flowers. “Oh, what a wonderful idea. She will have the best. Also, your lordship, we were wondering if we could go into the shop and spruce it up for the weekend. There are so many things we can do while they’re gone.”
“Yes, well, I’d ask Bryce about that. You do remember what happened when you tried to spruce up her car?” Maggie nodded and told him again they were sorry. “I know you didn’t mean any harm, but to have her entire car decorated from top to bottom, including the wheels, was just too much. Try and temper what you do with a little bit of that in mind.”
He knew as soon as she left him that it was going to be over the top. It was like everything they did for someone—too much never entered their minds. And over the top was the only thing they knew. Noah still found himself laughing about when Bryce had sent him a picture of the car they’d worked on for her. It was literally covered from the hood of the car to all the way around the wheels in flowers. Not only that, but the inside was made up the same way. Even to this day, they were still finding flower petals when they got in. And it reeked of flowers.
Noah was headed out back to take a fly-by when Cole pulled into the yard. He and Ryan had been helping with the book Roxanna was writing, and he told Noah that he needed a break. Before he could tell him what he was doing, someone pulled into the drive behind him. Neither of them knew who the stranger was.
“I’m looking for Bryce Frost. I was told that she lived here.” Neither him nor Cole answered the man. “I see. Tight-lipped, are you? Well, I have some money for her. Does that loosen your tongues?”
“Who are you, and who is it you’re looking for again? We didn’t catch your name in all that.” The man put out his hand, and Cole, who was closer, ignored it. “Putting your hand out for me to snatch off isn’t going to win you any brownie points. Answer the question, please.”
“Howard Kerby. I’m looking for Bryce because I have some money for her. It’s quite a sum of money too. Can you please tell me if she lives here or not?” Cole pointed out that Kerby had said he’d already been told that she lived there. “I’m looking for her so I can talk to her.”
“Talk to her or give her money? What is it you’re doing here, Mr. Kerby? And don’t lie to me again.” The man was fighting hard with the compulsion, and Noah had to laugh a little. “What is your name? Why are you looking for a woman named Bryce Frost?”
“My name is Howard Kerby. I’m looking for a woman by the name of Frost because I’ve heard that she’s a witch of some repute. I think interviewing her would put my story on the front page of every paper in the world.” The man fought harder than before in not answering Cole. “She’s been helping women around the area for years, and I want to know what she puts in her lotions that make it so people are too fucking happy.”
“So, you’re trying very hard not to tell us that you think your wife got some of her things if she indeed does that sort of thing, and it made her happy all the time. Why does that bother you so much?” Cole turned and winked at him, and Noah sat down on the front steps to watch this unfold. He’d forgotten that at one time, Cole had been a cop. “I think having a happy wife is the greatest gift in the world. But then that might just be me.”
“She’s fucking happy all the fucking time now. And I can’t get her upset.” Cole asked him why he’d want to do that to his wife. “Nobody should be that fucking happy. She sings too. Do you know how annoying that is to hear someone whistling all the time? Yesterday I told her I’d lost my job. You know what she did? She told me I’d get another one. Or, and I want you to know this too, while she was smiling like a loon, she told me that either I got myself a job or she’d toss me out. In that fucking sing song voice she has.”
Cole laughed with him. Noah was having a lot of fun over this man’s misfortune of having a happy wife. Cole finally asked the man why he thought this Frost person had anything to do with it. Mr. Kerby ran his hands through his hair, something it looked as if he had been doing a great deal, and told him he just needed for her to stop selling the shit to her.
“Did it ever occur to you that your wife is just simply happy?” Kerby said again that no one was that happy. “Then perhaps it’s you. That your sour mood is making her try and make up for the fact that you’re nothing but a sour puss. Are you?”
“You’re confusing me.” Cole just stood there. “Are you going to tell me if she lives here or not? I have to find this woman. I’m going to give her all the money I have and tell her not to sell it to my wife again. That’s not right that she’s doing it in the first place.”
“Perhaps you should find whatever it is you swear is making your wife happy and use a little on yourself.” Kerby just stared at Cole. “Couldn’t hurt, you know. Besides, you might like having a smile on your face once in a while. I’m sure it’ll take some practice on your part.”
Cole came up and sat down on the steps while Kerby just stood there. “You’re not going to help me, are you?” Cole told him that they had. That if he couldn’t stand his wife singing, he should join her. “That’s not what I want.”
“I guess it just sucks to be you then. You’d better be finding a job, however. I don’t think, since she’s so happy all the time now that Mrs. Kerby is going to stand for you to be unemployed. I’d think on that really hard if I were you. You should go to a few of the places in town that have help wanted signs on the door.”
“You’re a right bastard, you know that? I don’t know what the big deal is for you to tell me where this woman lives. Christ, you’d think it was some sort of national secret or something.”
Kerby stood there for several more minutes, then finally got into his car. As he drove by the two of them sitting on the porch, he flipped them off.
“Well, that was certainly entertaining.” They both sat there and laughed until Noah told him he was going out to have himself a little flight time. As they went to the back yard, they talked about having faeries in the house. “You should see the flowers the women are going to come home to. I don’t think it will be anytime soon that Bee asks them to gather things for her again.”
Shifting and taking to the skies, they said very little to each other. Flying was something that Noah didn’t do all that often, and he decided he’d make sure he tried to do it more often. It was relaxing. Not to mention, he could empty his mind of all his worries while up here. As a dragon, Noah knew that all problems would just be too small for him to worry over.
After another hour of being in the sky, they both landed on the ground in his back yard. Noah invited Cole to dinner, but he declined. He told Noah that the only reason he’d come over in the first place to see if he wanted to take a flight with him.
“I need to get going anyway. I have several things going that I have no desire to finish up.” Noah asked Cole why not. “That will mean I don’t have anything to do tomorrow. Having Dillon around to do the things we all had a hand in is taking away from what I used to do. Not that I want the job back, but I have to figure out something for me to do that takes up some time. I never thought I’d say this, but I’m bored not having a job.”
“I know just what you mean. I’m jealous of the women. They have an agenda that keeps them going all the time. You know, finding things to make and put into a shop. I need something like that.” Cole cocked his head at him like he had just thought of something. “What is it? Whatever it is, I want in on it.”
“We’ve been bitching for months now about the shit we’ve accumulated in the big warehouse. It’s doubtful to me that any of us want whatever is left in there. I know for a fact that I’m not going to take it. There are four empty buildings side by side, just off Main Street. What do you think about dragging all that shit there and selling it off? Hell, if it needs to be cleaned up, we can do that too.” Noah loved that idea and told him he did. “We could make a little money on it and put it towards one of the million charities that we have our hands in. The last time I
was in there, I saw that even Heart had put some of the things in there from her parents’ home. I could care less if we didn’t make a dime so long as we have a place to go every day. What do you say?”
Before either of them could change their mind, they went to the four buildings. Sure enough, someone at one time had connected the four of them, and that was when they hit on the idea of setting up each room with a different time period. Noah thought they could keep the place fresh all the time with the amount of shit just the two of them had.
The clean up was done by the time they were bringing over the first truckload of stuff. The faeries, it seemed, were as bored as they were and cleaned the buildings from top to bottom in less time than it had taken them to pick out a room for the stuff. Even after unloading the things they’d deemed good enough to start with, the faeries had brought over some of the other pieces. Christ, they were going to have fun with this; Noah just knew it.
By the time Bryce and her grandma and mom joined them, they were well on their way to having two of the rooms set up. After telling the faeries their plan of keeping one room for each different time period, they would bring those things over for them. He could tell that Bryce loved it when she squealed like she did when she figured out a new spell. Noah was just happy to have someone taking it seriously. He’d been worried about that.
They hadn’t been home yet. Noah had hoped they’d see the dining room before he got back. But they decided to have dinner in town and then look over the other things that were still in the warehouse. Christ, Noah thought, this was going to keep him busy for a while. At least he hoped so.
~*~
Matthew stared at Honey for a few minutes before it sank in as to what she was telling him. Shaking his head, he was almost afraid to have her repeat herself again. She was getting fussy with him. Leaning back on his hands, he asked her to tell him once again what she’d come to see him for.
Cole: House of Wilkshire ― Paranormal Dragon Shifter Romance Page 12