“Do you think that he’s going to make an offer on the house?” Lexy couldn’t help herself when Jeremiah’s father asked her that when his son cleared the last fence and was out of sight. “I mean, he will have the way out of the place down pat, don’t you think?”

  “Are you still having a good time at my expense?” She nodded, telling Jeremiah that she thought it would be the talk of the town. “Yeah, very funny. I nearly didn’t get out of the house with my ass still intact. And here you sit, having a good time at my expense. What would you have done if he’d killed me?”

  “You’re immortal.” That, of course, didn’t go over all that well either, so she had to stifle herself, laughing behind her hand while he paced back and forth in front of her. Bitching about the fact that no one had even asked him if he had his clothing back on when he’d crossed over the fence at the back of the property. “I did. I saw you with your jeans and shirt on. That did leave a lot to be questioned about when you left behind your duffle of clothing. It’s going to be at the station house when you wish to get it.”

  “If you’re done laughing, I wanted to tell you that we got the house. No one else wanted to put in an offer for it after it seemed to—how the hell did people come up with the idea that it was invested with wild dogs? I was the only one in the house at the time, and I’m not even a fucking dog.” Jeremiah glared at her then. “I don’t want my clothing back. The thought of going into the stationhouse to pick it up gives me the willies. They’ll ask me…they’ll want to know if I left anything else behind. Christ, I wish I’d come home like I wanted to.”

  Sliding out of the chair she had been in, there wasn’t even a way for her to make a good comment back to him. Lexy had to sit down on the ground. Then, when that wasn’t helping her be able to breathe, she laid out flat on the grass and laughed. It looked stupid, she knew, but she just couldn’t help herself. Her hysteria was full on and there wasn’t any way that she was going to be able to stop laughing anytime soon. Oh lordy, she thought, there was never going to be a time when she didn’t think of today and not be laughing about it.

  While wandering around the house that they had looked at second, she knew that while the house was more up to date, it wasn’t a home for her. The very fact that the other home had come to mean so much to her, especially after Jeremiah had told her while there that she was his mate, had meant too much more to her. The only reason that she did go look at the second house was because Joseph, his dad, had asked her to see if it was something that she could live in if the other house fell through. It hadn’t but she had made a promise and did what asked.

  “It’s going to need some work. I’m not saying that it’ll be difficult, I’ve already been promised that the house would be done by the end of the day, thanks to the faeries but there are things that I’m not sure of too. Like the carpets.” Jeremiah asked her if she wanted them out. “I think I do. I mean, I’ve never been a big fan of carpets. I like rugs more. I can change them out with the season rather than having to redo the entire house just to get a different look. Am I making sense?”

  “You are. I had that dilemma in my schoolroom. I had a reading rug on the floor there that I would bring home and power wash at the end of the seasons, but changing it out, too, became much easier when I went with the smaller carpets. I could move them around on my own, but it wasn’t as easy after I realized that I had about two dozen charges to move back and forth. We won’t have that here.” She loved the idea of a large area rug so long as it was moveable. “I agree.”

  The two of them went over the ideas that they had for both homes. She thought that they were only going to buy one and it was up to her and Jeremiah which home they were going to live in. As it turned out, the foundation was going to purchase both of the homes and use one of them as a visitor home.

  Apparently, they had several big hitters—as in people that would bring businesses to town—and they’d bring their families. The townspeople wanted to make sure that the companies liked the area as much as they were investing in it. The two companies that were moving to the area had stayed in the local bed and breakfast making the decision to build here because of the town being so nice.

  Lexy made her way to the house they were staying in about an hour later. She wanted to move in right now, but she hadn’t any idea how long it would take for the faeries to get the house in shape. She’d never, in all her life seen the little people and wouldn’t have believed they were around if not for Jeremiah introducing one to her. Her name was Butter. He told her that they got to pick their own name, and she was delighted with the little creature’s help. She’d been so much help that Lexy had a feeling that they were going to be moving into their forever home by tomorrow.

  “What about furniture, my lady?” She asked her what she meant. “I know that you have some pieces that you wish to have here with Lord Jeremiah. We can have them brought here in no time and put them where you wish. It will be no problem either for us to find other pieces of the same wood and style for you should you wish it.”

  “And how will this be paid for?” Butter explained to her that it would be made with magic and placed in the house the same way. “That’s splendid. But what about the people in town that are selling the same thing? If we make them without using real cash, won’t that hurt them?”

  “Yes, my lady. Good thinking. I will scout out the places that carry the things that you wish and alert you where you can get them. That way, everyone gets a helping hand rather than just the household.” Lexy thanked the faerie for doing that for her, and the two of them moved to the next room. Things went exceedingly well after that, and she couldn’t have been more proud of her first day with faeries helping her.

  The rest of the day and into the evening went well. In the morning, they were going to go over the gardens to see what they would plant for the coming spring. Fall items would need to be planted soon, and she had a wonderful time knowing that she was going to have peas, fresh ones, come spring. There were other things as well and she was happy to know that there would be fresh everything in the coming years.

  “I’ve never been one to have fresh things around the house. This is so exciting for me. Especially having the fruit.” She told Butter that she was an elephant and the faerie thought that a grand thing. “We’re large, you know. When I shift, which isn’t all that often, I have to be extra careful that I don’t smash into things. I remember once when my dad shifted too near the house and knocked an entire wall out. The insurance company had an awful time in getting around to paying us for it.”

  “I’ve seen elephants at the zoo, my lady. But they were so sad that it broke my heart to see them captured the way that they were. Some, I’m to understand, never get to leave the place they were born in and raised.” Lexy told her how her grandfather had lived with a traveling circus up until he’d met her grandma. “Oh, I bet that he was very clever.”

  “He would have loved all this room here. When I was growing up, I was told all the stories about his time there. A couple of shifter lions, too, were a part of the troupe. I think, too, there might have been some wolves that, while not a part of the circus, they were there to protect the people present at night.” Shaking her head, she thought of that story. “Grandma, she didn’t much care for the people that were around at the time. I think that it broke my grandda’s heart when he had to choose either her or the circus. We don’t have mates, not like Joel does, so they divorced sometime later, and grandda disappeared.”

  “Did he join the circus? Wouldn’t that be romantic?” Lexy didn’t have the heart to tell the faerie about how it was difficult to get food and water when traveling. That most of the animals would end up nearly starved by the time they were to the next town. The advantage of being a shifter, they could work at jobs to bring in money for them to use over the animals that were caged up nightly. She told Butter some of the things that they had to endure. “That’s so sad, don’t you think? And to not know where your next meal is coming from would have been frightening, too. As faeries we can make sure that the ground is giving and fruitful for all the creatures around here. I’m glad that you told me of the story, my lady. I will remember it often when I see the animals that are trapped at the zoos. I shall make sure that they have a bit extra in their enclosures from now on.”

  If nothing else came of her telling the stories of her kind, she was happy to know that some of the elephants would have a little extra in their bellies that night. Smiling, she wondered if that was the reason she’d seen so many flowers around the enclosures around the places where animals were kept. It was a wonderful thought and one that she was going to look into to make sure that they were well taken care of.

  When she was headed up to bed that night, having stayed with Joel and his family one more night, she sat in the window seat and looked around the back yard. She’d been told that there were lions about, that they were part of the leap that was nearby. Today, she’d met and enjoyed talking to not just the leap leader but also the man who was in charge of the few of her kind that were around.

  He’d spoken to her dad about taking over the parade, what a group of elephants were called, and Dad seemed excited about it. But in the end, he didn’t take the position because he wanted to be able to come and go as he pleased while the parade would need him daily to sort out the differences that were on going around the area. Mostly to do with being unable to shift when they wanted and to wander around.

  ~*~

  Jeremiah was having a good time being the principal. He thought perhaps he should have spent a bit more time in his offices, getting work done, but he was learning a great deal about the students and the teachers that had been hired. The two newest teachers, Ms. Jamestown and Ms. Lenord, weren’t as friendly as the others, but he thought they’d come around sooner rather than later. At least, he hoped so.

  “Mr. Jeremiah? Do you have a moment?” He smiled at Ms. Wentworth, the new secretary that he hadn’t had a hand in hiring. He asked her what he could do for her, forcing a smile on his face nearly every time that he had to deal with her. And that’s what it felt like, dealing with her. “Well, we need some volunteers to come in and make our job just a little easier. The other school that I was at, we had a dozen of them working in the office all the time, and they simply made my job much easier. I would like to propose to you that you put it out there that we need some help and see what you can get.”

  “And what is it that these people would be doing? I’m assuming that they would help out the teachers and such.” She looked at him like he’d just been caught in the cookie jar and then told him that they would have to get their own volunteers to do that sort of stuff. That she couldn’t go it all. “All right. I will need some help, I guess, in determining why we would need a dozen volunteers in this office. I mean, there are four of you working in here now, correct? I don’t see the need for all those extra people when I’ve noticed that you and the others seem to have a great deal of free time. Enough, I’ve been told to do some shopping online.”

  “That’s not anything you need to concern yourself with right now. And we need that many so that they can answer the phone and deliver things to the teachers. Running around so that we have free time to answer any questions that the students, or even yourself, have.” He asked about the teachers. “What about them? I mean, I suppose they might have a question or two at the beginning, but we’re not going to be able to be running around doing their job for them. No, these women would be just for the office.”

  “I still don’t understand why you would need a dozen of them. And you might want to realize too that men would want to come in too that—” She put her arms over her ample bosom and told him that men would mess things up. They had no place in the school anyway. “Are you telling me that you think that I’m going to be messing things up?”

  “Well, to be honest, Mr. J., You are right now, and I’ve asked you a single thing. Just put it out there that we need some women to come in and help out around the office. I’ll take charge of them; that way, they won’t be doing things wrong from the start.” She huffed at him. “You see right now? You’re making things difficult when all you needed to do was say that’s fine. I’ll get right on it.”

  “How about I say no? I’m not going to go out and find you a dozen women to come in here and take over the office when I’m paying you to do your job. I can, however, find a replacement for you and the others who believe that you are going to sit around and shop. Not on my watch.” He crossed his arms over his chest and smiled. “Now, I like that better anyway. Which is it going to be? You or the others?”

  “Well, I suppose it’s a good thing that I’ve already put the word out that we’re going to need help in here. And you should realize too that the office is the place. Without me here and the others that I’ve brought in with me, you wouldn’t know anything that’s going on. I would really hate to have to have you replaced because you don’t know what’s going on.” He asked her if she’d just threatened him. “You take it the way that you wish. I’m just saying that I have the ear of more than one board member, and they agree that having you in here, a newbie to this area, has no more sense than that father of yours running around town fixing things for the downtrodden. If he wants to help out someone, he should be taking over the fire department and making sure that they do what they’re told too.”

  “You’re fired.” He didn’t wait around for her to say anything back to him but went to his office and called his dad. Not only that, but he also called the school board and told them that he’d just fired his secretary. Come to find out, Ms. Wentworth hadn’t been hired at all and was right now trespassing. He reached out to his father, telling him to bring the police, and sat at his desk.

  Watching the monitors he watched as Wentworth sat back at her desk like nothing had happened. Within a few minutes, the police showed up, and she wouldn’t buzz them in. Getting up, his anger right there on the edge had him going to the front of the offices and opening the door for them.

  “He’s no right to have me arrested.” Joe, chief of police, now said that the school board was pressing charges. “They’ll hear from me. You just…why is he even bothering with the things that are going on in this office anyway? He’s being out of line, is what he’s doing. I want you to take him away.”

  “You know what I’m sick of? I’m sick of people just thinking that if they want to work here, they can tell me that they are. It doesn’t work that way. I’d like to say that I’m thrilled to be firing you, but since you were never hired in the first place, I can’t. And don’t think that I’m not going to press charges either since you threatened me, but I’m going to do it right now.” He was nearly to his office when he realized that he had no idea if any of the staff that was in the office actually worked for him. Getting the list emailed to him, wishing that he’d done it sooner, he had the other seven women taken out in cuffs and then taken to jail. This was getting—

  “Take a deep breath.” He glared at his father-in-law and then thought better of it. When he laughed, Jeremiah wanted to stretch out his wolf and tear up the office, he was that angry. “You’re just fine, son. I’m going to answer the phones in here as I’m on my break right now. We’ll juggle things around like that for today then have the other people coming in on Monday morning. I have the list that you were sent.”

  “Why do people think that I’m so stupid that they can just walk all over me? They can’t keep doing this. I can’t be treated this way. I’m a grown assed man that knows that I can be a little sappy but this? This is beyond stupid acting.” Larry said he didn’t think anyone else would once it got out that he was pressing charges. “This is a nightmare if you ask me. I would like to have…do you think that this will ever be a normal job? I don’t. I just want to have a normal school day and get the children what they need.”

  By noon, the desks were manned and he had four people working the office. There was a need for the four of them, too, he’d found out. With them making copies and delivering them to the teachers when they needed things, it started to flow right. But tomorrow was a brand-new day, and he was expecting nothing to go right then.

  When the school buses pulled into the circular drive to pick up and deliver the kids, he was feeling less stressed. He was still having some moments where he would have to go to his office and just stand there, but for the most part, things were going better. When the last teacher was out of the building, having gone home rather than stick around, he sat in his office playing a game on his computer. It was that, or he thought that he’d go insane. A knock at his door had him telling the person on the other end to come in. But he was tense and prepared for everything when the door moved open. It was Lexy and her dad standing there, telling him he was going to dinner with them.

  Arriving at the pizza joint, his favorite music was playing through the speakers. His niece brought him his drink and told him that she loved him. Thinking that was the best way to end his terrible day, he drank down his tea and leaned back. His family, showing up a few at a time and leaving, told him that he’d handled things well today, and they were proud of him. Lexy sat down next to him when he was alone again.

  “I’m not so proud of myself, just so you know.” She asked him why not that no one had been killed nor did they have to close down their doors because something terrible had happened. “All true, but I think I might have handled things a little differently with Wentworth. She told the police that she figured I’d have my head so far up your bottom that I’d not notice for several months that the place was being run by her. She even told the officer who arrested her that she was going to replace the teachers too that weren’t part of her ideal classroom. That would have been the five males that we have working. She has a thing about male teachers, I guess. She thinks that they should just do the jobs they were given since the beginning of time. While I have no idea what that means, she also has a thing against married women teachers. I believe she was born in the wrong time frame.”