Total pages in book: 135
Estimated words: 128061 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 640(@200wpm)___ 512(@250wpm)___ 427(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 128061 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 640(@200wpm)___ 512(@250wpm)___ 427(@300wpm)
“They need to paint or wallpaper or whatever they’re doing,” I said, reaching one of the smaller sitting rooms that hadn’t been touched yet. “The floors, too, I think. So yeah, they are taking the furniture to storage for now. I think some of it might come back? But the majority will be sold off or donated or who knows.”
“A waste,” Mr. Tom said with a sniff. “Furniture these days lacks in quality. We’ll have to replace it within the year, just you watch. We’re throwing money away.”
He’d been grumbling about all this since Naomi first showed up, probably annoyed that she was the one making the decisions. We knew better than to engage.
Patty knelt next to the coffee table with various cards spread out in front of her. Nessa and Sebastian stood nearby, looking down at the table. Austin sat in a chair a little removed, watching me enter.
Hollace pointed down at a chair. “It’s cool if I sit on this when I’m sweaty, right? They’ll all be dumped anyway?”
“Not if I have something to say about it,” Mr. Tom blustered.
“You can sit,” I told Hollace, crossing the space to run my fingers over Austin’s knee in hello before I took my place at the coffee table. “What’ve we got?”
“Okay—” Patty paused as Naomi poked her head in, sweeping her gaze across the room.
She zeroed in on Austin. “Are you busy? It’ll only take a moment.”
“Oh!” Patty jumped with a huge smile on her face. “I keep seeing you here and there, always in motion, but we haven’t gotten a chance to properly meet. I’m Patty!”
Patty reached Naomi and opened her arms for a hug.
Without warning, Naomi punched Patty’s chin and snapped her head back.
Austin jumped up as Patty paused in confusion for a second…and then she launched at the other woman, fists flying.
“Oh crap! Mom, no!” Ulric ran in as Austin reached them, catching one of Naomi’s fists intended for Patty. Niamh started laughing. Ulric pushed in between the two women as Austin grabbed his grandma by the shoulders and forced her back.
“Let it go,” Austin told his grandma in a low voice. “Control yourself.”
Ulric stood in front of his mom with his hands out. “Mom, stop attacking people!”
“She punched me,” Patty replied. “I hardly think this was my fault.”
“He meant hugging strangers,” Austin offered.
Patty wet her finger and smoothed a piece of hair back into place.
“No, I didn’t,” Ulric said, “though why did you think to hug her?” He dropped his hands at his sides, exasperated. “Since when are shifters huggy people?”
“A good many of the more mature women in town treat physical touch as a normal form of social interaction. I just assumed it carried through.” Patty harrumphed.
“I’m not sure which I find more offensive,” Naomi said, “your calling me old, or your trying to hug me. I think the latter. Anyway, if I can get out of this unfortunate net of social interaction, Austin, might I have a quick word?”
“Yeah, sure.” Austin glanced back at me with a tortured look before following her out into the hall.
Niamh was still laughing.
“Can we please get this over with?” I said, starting to fray. “I have a bunch of spells to learn and items to choose for the winery.”
“Just try to get along, okay?” Ulric whispered to Patty. “It’ll make things easier.”
“Of course. But honestly, Ulric, the woman punched me. What was I supposed to do, stand there and take it?”
“What did you expect? You tried to hug her. There are non-magical women in town, you know. They’re probably the ones who go around hugging people. You might’ve mistaken them for shifters.”
“Oh no, I don’t think so…” She didn’t sound too sure, though, and for her, that was as much as an admission of guilt.
He gave me a tortured look when returning her to the table before mouthing, “Sorry.”
“Okay, what have we got?” I tried again, ignoring Nessa’s shaking shoulders as she tried to hold in her laughter.
“We’ve sent out the invitations you approved yesterday,” Patty said.
“Those were for the production cairns Austin has an interest in?” Nathanial verified.
“Yes,” Patty replied. “We put both of their cairn names on the invite, so they know they’ve both been invited. They will each take the first of the three dates, of course. They won’t want the other cairn to have Jessie’s undivided attention. It’s a little unorthodox, but it’ll get the job done.”
“And the first of those dates is in three weeks?” Nathanial took out his phone.
“For the production cairns, correct, three weeks. The larger cairns get a different set of dates. It will leave the alphas one week to discuss business with the production cairns before the big dogs come in—if the high-status cairns choose the first date, as well.”
“And how likely is that?” Nessa asked, all humor gone. “How likely is it that the more powerful cairns will turn up on schedule? Or…you know…at that first invite date?”