Page 5 of Jeremiah

“No one baked at our house. I mean, someone would pick up something like a frozen pizza, and we’d have it, but not like any cakes or cookies. Stuff a kid loves.” He said that his mom couldn’t cook, couldn’t bake, nor could she make a cup of tea if her life depended on it. They both laughed and he told her the story about his mom making cookies for Joel for school. He still got a big laugh out of hearing that story.

“Your dad said that we should think about trying a different way to see if we’re mates. I’d not mind that so much if you wouldn’t.” Lexy asked him what he’d do. “Shift. Not here, but someplace where I have clothing so that when I shift back, the way it works is that I’m fully dressed. In the same kind of clothing.”

“I don’t understand. Why wouldn’t you have any clothing?” He explained to her about how if he were to shift in a hurry, his clothing would be shredded. “Oh. I guess…yes, I can see that. Like you did when Richy needed you to save him. All right. What’s stopping you? Wait, you’d need clothing if it didn’t work. See? I’m paying attention. I would, more than anything, like to know if you are my mate or not. I have no deep-seated need to have a mate or husband, whatever you call it, but I can see where one would come in handy.” He laughed with her and was really enjoying himself as they walked through the house making notes.

“What do you think of this house? I mean, I don’t want to move into it, find out that we’re mates and you hate the place.” She told him that she was going to make an offer on it if he didn’t. “Okay. I’m going to call my brother, Joel. He’s out and about today. Have him bring me something to wear then I’ll go into the master bedroom and see if I can redress when I come back. How about that?”

Her grin was a look that he could get used to seeing. She seemed to be really happy that he was willing to do this. After contacting his brother, he and his dad showed up at the house, too. While Lexy was showing the two of them around, he slipped into the master bedroom and gave himself a good talking-to. Christ, he was going to be so disappointed if he couldn’t get his clothing back when he became a man again.

Chapter 3

Lexy couldn’t help but look at Jeremiah and snicker a little. She’d been laughing until about an hour ago when his family found out what had happened. Christ, she could still see his dad, standing there with the most confused look on his face, trying to understand what she was saying to him. Oh my, she thought, she wasn’t going to get started again. She thought that right up until she saw Joel, Jeremiah’s brother, giggling again before going into the barn.

Jeremiah was her mate. But it hadn’t been an easy figure out. After waiting his turn in the master bedroom’s bath, he stood, what he was telling her there for five minutes, locking the door to the large room. After it finally clicked, he’d gone to the middle of the room and had shifted. All was well then. Just as he was getting ready to shift back, hoping he told her for his clothing to return, someone opened the door and stood there staring at him while he was his wolf. Needless to say, that hadn’t gone over well either.

The little girl, about eight years old, had screamed, bringing the entire household racing up the stairs. Being terrified, Jeremiah leapt into the tub, trying to hide from her, he told them, and had got himself tangled up in the shower curtain until he cut off his air supply when the curtain and the rings got tied up together around his neck.

As he was scrambling to get himself a breath, clawing at the curtain, he’d pulled the rod down along with the towels that had been hung up for use today. There was a plant that hit the floor at some point which tossed dirt and tiny flowers all over the place. The little girl, she never found out her name, thought it was blood as the tiny flowers were blood and started screaming all the louder. By then, Joel and her had made it up the stairs.

As he ran out of the house, hell-bent for leather, trying to get away from the child’s angry father, he slipped and fell several times down the stairs as he was trying to get away. Suddenly, a gun went off. There was another scream, and this time Jeremiah, still as his wolf was howling like he’d been killed running toward the front door, trying to get away from the gunfire.

Somehow, he managed to get into the kitchen, where, of course, everyone was gathered listening to the realtor talk about the home and ‘how quiet it was’ before a full-grown wolf leapt up on the counter, trying to get away, scattering cookies and punch all over everyone as the back door slid open and he raced out of the house.

It didn’t end here. Oh no, as the man with the gun chased poor Jeremiah across the yard, he slipped again, falling into the covered pool that was full of water and nosedive into it. Again, he was tangled up, and before he could get out of the other end of it, Jeremiah screamed again, tearing up the cover, and barely managed to get across the lawn in time for the man to see him racing toward the woods.

“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.”