by Kimbra Swain
Snake in the Grass
Fairy Tales of a Trailer Park Queen, Book 3
Kimbra Swain
This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, businesses, places, events and incidents are either the products of the author’s imagination or used in a fictitious manner. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, or actual events is purely coincidental.
Kimbra Swain
Snake in the Grass: Fairy Tales of a Trailer Park Queen, Book 3
©2018, Kimbra Swain / Crimson Sun Press, LLC
[email protected]
ALL RIGHTS RESERVED. This book contains material protected under International and Federal Copyright Laws and Treaties. Any unauthorized reprint or use of this material is prohibited. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system without express written permission from the author / publisher.
Cover art by Hampton Lamoureux @ TS95 Studios https://www.ts95studios.com
Formatting by Serendipity Formats: https://serendipityformats.wixsite.com/formats
Editing by Carol Tietsworth: https://www.facebook.com/Editing-by-Carol-Tietsworth-328303247526664/
Contents
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Chapter 8
Chapter 9
Chapter 10
Chapter 11
Chapter 12
Chapter 13
Chapter 14
Chapter 15
Chapter 16
Chapter 17
Chapter 18
Chapter 19
Chapter 20
Chapter 21
Chapter 22
Chapter 23
Chapter 24
A Message From the Author
Other Books in the series
Acknowledgments
About the Author
Tears rolled down my cheeks. “It’s the most beautiful thing I’ve ever seen in my entire life. It’s big, sparkly and makes my heart thump,” I whimpered.
Levi looked at me incredulously. “Grace, it’s a trailer.”
“It’s a triple wide with a garden tub, so now you can keep your bare chesticled self out of my bathroom!” I replied.
“I’m all for that,” Dylan interjected. He stood behind me with his arm around my waist as the workers from the mobile home delivery service anchored my shiny, new triple wide in the spot where my last trailer had burned down on Christmas Eve. Damn Trolls.
“It’s huge!” I exclaimed.
“That’s what she said,” Dylan quipped.
“Oh, you think you are funny?” I asked.
“Nope. Just seemed appropriate,” he grinned. Juvenile penis jokes. Men.
Winnie was in Levi’s arms covering her ears as the big truck backed up with a squawking alarm. “I don’t know why you are worried about a trailer when you have Dylan’s house,” Levi said.
“Because, it’s Dylan’s house. Not my house!” I protested. I felt Dylan’s chest bump my back a couple of times as he suppressed a laugh. I’d lived with Dylan for the month since my trailer burned down and even though we really had no issues other than trying to figure out how to please a six-year-old little girl, I couldn’t wait for the new trailer to be delivered. There were times I actually missed fighting with him, even when it was fake, it was fun. However, not fighting had been heavenly.
“What are you going to do when you get married? Dylan, you moving into the trailer?” Levi scoffed.
“I go where she goes,” he said.
“Bullshit!” Levi declared.
We both laughed at him. Frankly, we hadn’t discussed it in depth. As far as we were concerned, here or there, as long as we were together it didn’t matter. But I had to have a trailer; that wasn’t up for discussion. The siding was a nice tan color with candy apple red shutters. Of course, they were fake, but it gave it that extra little something. High-class mobile home. I was a queen after all.
“Ooo Wee! She’s a beaut,” Tater said behind me.
“I’ve never seen anything so wonderful in all my life,” Cletus said.
“See,” I poked Levi.
“Yes, let’s go on the opinion of Beavis and Butthead,” Levi said.
Tater and Cletus began to mimic the cartoon idiot’s laugh perfectly. Dylan put his head on my shoulder as he laughed. “What put a stick in your craw, Levi?”
“Kady,” he said.
“I told you pegging wouldn’t be fun,” I said.
“Grace! I swear to God, you are the most vulgar woman on the face of this earth,” Levi exclaimed covering Winnie’s ears which were already covered by her own tiny hands. She gazed up at him and smiled not knowing what we were talking about. “There was no pegging.”
“Alright, ma’am. It’s down. You can go in,” the foreman said.
I clapped and giggled like a girl getting her first dolly. Dylan released me as I ran to the trailer. The workers barely got the temporary wooden steps laid before I bounded up them to the door.
“Can’t you control her?” Levi asked Dylan.
“Why would I want to?” Dylan returned.
“I heard that Levi Rearden,” I said as I stepped into the trailer. The guys walked in behind me with Winnie.
“It’s got that new trailer smell!” I gushed. “Come here, Winnie. I’ll show you your room.”
“My room is at Mr. Dylan’s house,” she said.
“Well, you have a room there and a room here,” I said.
“Two rooms?” she asked.
“Yes, ma’am,” I replied.
She clapped, giggling just like me, and we ran off to the front of the trailer together where I showed her the room.
“Can we decorate it?” she asked.
“Yes, how do you want to decorate it?” I replied, as Dylan stood in the doorway.
“Well, what do you want, Winnie?” he asked.
“It should be different from my other room,” she said. “So, I think we should make it a secret garden.”
“Oh, how fun. How about butterflies too?” I asked.
“No, I want my garden to have foxes and deer like the ones that hear Uncle Levi play his guitar,” she said.
“Oh, like woodland animals,” I said. “That would be cute.”
“I love it,” Dylan said.
“Love what?” Levi asked joining us.
“Winnie wants to decorate her room in the animals that come to hear you play your guitar,” I said. Levi had been working hard on his musical magic. He had most of the forest around Dylan’s house enthralled. He and Winnie would sit on the back porch as he played. All manner of creatures would come to listen. I inherited Levi Rearden by accident. His uncle, a Sanhedrin operative, sent him to Jeremiah, my contact in the zealots group. Jeremiah dropped him off at my doorstep and had remained out of sight pretty much since. It didn’t matter. Levi was family now. No matter how much I ribbed him. I loved him to death.
“Can I have toys here, too?” she asked.
“Of course! What would a room be like without toys!” Levi said. I cleared my throat. “Shut up, Grace.”
“Shut up is not a nice thing to say, Uncle Levi,” Winnie scolded him. I giggled.
“You are right. I’m sorry,” Levi said, then rolled his eyes at me.
“Come see my bathtub!” I said, grabbing Dylan’s hand. Pulling him to the other end of the trailer, I opened
the door to an extra-large bedroom. Well, it wasn’t as big as our room back at his house, but it was huge for a trailer.
“We will have to christen this,” Dylan’s said nibbling at my neck.
“Not just this. The whole damn thing!” I said.
“Mmm, yes!” he agreed as his lips found mine.
I pulled back a little. “I didn’t mean now. Winnie’s here,” I smiled.
He sighed, releasing his hold on me. “Tease,” he said.
“Yep,” I replied opening the door to the bathroom. I jumped into the dry garden tub with my clothes on and pretended to bathe.
“I’m going to have to go in the other room,” he said.
“See if there is room for you too,” I said.
“No, Grace, not while Winnie is here,” he countered.
“Ugh! Fine! But you will test it out later with me, right?” I pouted.
“Maybe,” he said, walking into the other room.
I climbed out of the tub taking one last look to admire it. At one time, I wanted a tub surrounded by candles, but after Taylor had burned my house down with candles, I decided the next candle I saw would be too soon. Twirling the engagement ring around my finger, I remembered the night the candles were all around Dylan’s room. He went from dead to happy, sexy time in less than an hour. Such was life in Shady Grove, Alabama, where I was the Queen of the Exiled fairies.
Absurdity knew no bounds in this town full of misfits. The thirteen Yule Lads decided to move into town. The mayor and a business associate of Remington Blake’s got together and were building a huge apartment complex for the influx of new residents. I complained that it was an eyesore. We already had a trailer park with lots. Seemed to me an apartment complex didn’t keep with the character of the town. I was overruled. Which was fine, because before long, we would have a fairy council where I would be the deciding vote on all things fairy. The power was already getting to me.
“Grace, come on. You don’t want to be late for your first day at work,” Dylan called from the kitchen.
“I’m coming,” I groaned as I blew a kiss to my garden tub. “Be back soon, my love.”
Wrapping the white apron around my waist, I realized it was too big. “No, like this,” said Nestor Gwinn, the owner of the Hot Tin Roof Bar and my grandfather. He wrapped the ties around my waist twice doubling up the apron, tying it in the front. It was time to learn the family business. Sometime while sitting around Dylan’s mansion bored, I decided I wanted to work. Dylan had earned his money over the years, because as a phoenix-thunderbird mix, he didn’t threaten people like an unseelie fairy queen. He was able to work various jobs, and even though I didn’t know exactly how much money Dylan had amassed, I knew he was wealthy.
Now that I could, I decided to make myself useful, even if it was only bartending. Dylan assured me that tits would be enough to do the job. Nestor said it was more than just a pretty face. I just wanted to learn a skill other than seduction, plus this would keep me in touch with most of the townsfolk.
The Queen of the Exiles gig didn’t pay well. In fact, it didn’t pay at all. Perhaps when we held elections for fairy council, I could suggest a pay raise. Fat chance.
“Today, you watch, and dry glasses,” Nestor said as he threw a towel at me.
“You dry these glasses over and over,” I said.
“Well, at least you pay attention,” he smirked.
I still hadn’t been able to call him anything other than Nestor. He was my mother’s father. My mother was a siren and concubine to my father, Oberon, King of the Wild Fairies. Her name was Ellessa. I’d patterned my glamour after her. I spent most of my days as a young brunette with dark brown eyes, but when I dropped my disguise my true fairy form burst through. I was Gloriana, a winter queen, with platinum hair and turquoise eyes. The looks I received from my father. I stored power in an intricate tattoo on my right forearm which depicted a glittering ruby encased in a fancy filigree. When I transformed into Gloriana, the red stone turned to a deep sapphire, I wielded the power of the darkest cold night. That part of me walked the edge of evil, so I avoided it at all costs.
I started drying glasses as Nestor described how to make drinks. I sipped on a cup of coffee too. Nestor’s coffee was a magical soothing elixir that he only shared with family. It was only a few months ago I was alone in this world with no known family, besides my dachshund, Rufus who had abandoned me for Winnie as his favorite person.
But from the moment Jeremiah Freyman dropped Levi into my lap, I’d gained a misfit sort of family. Dylan Riggs, my fiancé, was once the sheriff of this town. He had just applied to the state to be a private investigator. Nestor was my grandfather who served me drinks for years, but never told me of his relation to me until recently. His girlfriend, Mable Sanders, was the local gossip fly and spy for my father in Shady Grove. Finally, little Miss Wynonna Jones was my daughter. Not by blood, but by heart. Her mother passed away on Christmas, and Winnie became mine. She missed her mother and wore a special key around her neck given to her by a Yule Lad that connected her heart to her mother in heaven. I didn’t think the key had any special magical properties, but a child’s belief in a mother in heaven was more powerful than any blizzard I could conjure. Winnie was human, but we loved her as our own.
“Where’s Levi?” Nestor asked.
“Well, I’m not sure. Yesterday at the trailer he acted like he and Kady were on the outs again, but he disappeared early this morning from the house. I know he was anxious to get back into the trailer and away from us. He probably went to buy some furniture for his room,” I said.
“Those two are never going to work out,” Nestor said.
“I tried telling him that, but there must be something about her. It’s not like there aren’t any other choices," I replied. “The contractor working on the apartment building has a really cute daughter. Levi just turned his nose up at her. Whatever. I try to stay out of it.”
“Grace, you know I love you, right?” Nestor said.
“Um, yes?” I replied not sure where he was going with this.
“Don’t be mad at me, but Levi compares every woman to you. Until he finds his own, fairy queen, he won’t be happy,” Nestor said.
“Bullshit,” I said.
“It’s true.”
“Levi is not in love with me,” I said.
“No, no. Not in love with you. Just the model which he bases all his relationships on,” Nestor said.
“There are better models,” I said.
“I agree,” Nestor replied. I tapped him on the arm as he grinned.
The bar door swung open, and our first patron of the day showed up.
“Mighty fine new ‘tender you got there, Nestor,” Remington Blake said. He was with the apartment contractor. Remington and I had a fling a few years back before I moved to Shady Grove. He was my lawyer now. He’d stayed away since I moved in with Dylan, but he always took the chance to flirt. It wasn’t really flirting because it was the flowery language he used with all women. Not just me.
“She’s okay,” Nestor said. “A little rough around the edges.”
“I like it a little rough,” Remy said winking at me. I was thankful Dylan wasn’t here. He’d punch him out just for flirting. Remy couldn’t help it. He was Star-folk, a child of the great Native American legends. Only Remy grew up in New Orleans, so he had a debonair personality that derived from the exotic tone of that city. I didn’t know a woman that could say no to him, except me. “Let’s have a little whiskey for me and my friend here.” I watched Nestor pick up two glasses, putting ice in each. He poured dark liquor in each one. I hadn’t drunk much since Dylan came into my life permanently, but the sweet smell of whiskey permeated my nose. It smelled so good.
“Afternoon, Mr. Babineau,” I said greeting the contractor.
“Afternoon, Grace. How are you this fine day?” he asked in his jovial manner. He and Remy both crawled up toward Alabama from New Orleans. When the town wanted to build the apartment comple
x, Remington suggested Mr. Niles Babineau. I wasn’t sure who was funding the monstrosity, but I couldn’t hold it against him for building it.
“I’m well, except for learning this new job,” I said.
“You will make a fine bartender. I’m sure of it,” he smiled sipping his drink.
“She makes everything fine,” Remy flirted.
“Remington Blake, you are so full of shit that your eyes are brown!” I laughed.
“That may be, my dear, but when I'm right, I'm right,” he said finishing off his drink. “When is this council meeting?”
“Tomorrow night at the community center,” Nestor answered.
We were finally getting together to discuss a fairy council for the town. We had so many new inhabitants that we desperately needed to get everyone on the same page. There needed to be rules and limitations. Otherwise, we would have the thirteen days of Christmas all over again. I never imagined I’d be interested in having rules. After my experiences running from the Sanhedrin, I hated the restrictions they put on me. Now the Sanhedrin could back off the fairies in this town because we intended to police ourselves. The council and I would handle issues as they arose. Just hopefully quicker than we dealt with the Yule Lads.
“Alright. I’ll be there to give legal advice, of course,” he grinned.
“That would be great,” I said.
The bar door opened again as a young woman entered. Her Asian features were muted, but her large almond shaped eyes gave away her heritage. Around her, I saw the faint glow of a fairy. She was slender with long copper locks that shined like a new penny. She nodded to us as she found a seat on a stool.
“What can I get you, Miss?” Nestor asked. Remy and Niles eyed her closely. She was strikingly beautiful. Her unique features would have every fairy man in this town going nuts, which made me think of Levi.