Page 7 of Edmond

He loved it when he could mess with her by asking certain questions of her, like asking her if it was allotted only an hour to play, fifteen minutes per quarter, and have only four quarters. Why the hell did it take so long to play a game. He then pointed out that the players didn’t use their feet all that much, so why was it called football. She did point out to him that the game had originated in Britain, and they did kick the ball more but he was having much too much fun to let her get by with that.

He did, however, learn a great deal about Mac. She was passionate when she believed in something. She was fair when she had to take sides, and she was compassionate about how his family compared to hers when growing up. In comparison, her life had been idyllic, while his had been a nightmare. Markus and Nancy even asked questions of him and he returned his curiosity too about them.

Edmond was surprised when, after talking to his new family, they brought up Caroline again. It was Mac who said that she thought her grandma was just playing with them. That the fits of crying that she did was her way of covering up when things didn’t go her way. Edmond thought that she might be right, pointing out that when things were getting out of her control she would bring on the tears. He thought perhaps that even Nancy believed it, too.

“As much as I hate to agree with you about my own mother, I believe that you’re right. She’s always been very manipulative when I was growing up. There were no tears, just mine, when she told me how things were going to go. Not in a way that I was a child and that I didn’t know any better, but she would point out how it would, whatever it was, affect her and her standing in the town. I wanted, when I was about fifteen to go to the mall—yes, that was a thing back then, where me and a bunch of friends would go there and hang around. Buy a soda or a pretzel, or even go to the movies. But she said that me doing that, just hanging around with my friends, would make her look like she didn’t have enough money for me to get what I wanted. Let me ask you, Mac, did I ever say that sort of thing to you?”

“I wouldn’t have asked, but I always believed that so long as I kept my ass together and not embarrass you too much, I was on my own. I think I learned a great deal at the mall. One of them was about commerce. If I wanted to hang with my buddies, I needed more money.” They both laughed, daughter and mom, and Edmond felt a twinge of jealousy that he’d never had for someone before. He thought that he could learn a great deal about parenting from the other couple, and he was happy that they’d be a part of his life from now on. Edmond looked at Mac when she said his name.

“Yes, love.” It occurred to him in that moment of time that he was falling in love. It was quick. He would say that, but it felt right as well. As a shifter wolf, he’d want his mate, but as a man, what he was most of the time, he also wanted a wife. Someone that would be there for him as much as he would be there for her. “I’m…I’ve never been in love before. Have you?”

“No. And don’t tell me that you are now, either. It’s not possible. We’ve known each other for what, five minutes? No, you don’t love me. You just want to get into my panties.” Her father laughed, and her mother seemed shocked at first, then laughed. “Well, what is it, love or my pink panties?”

“Both. However, I won’t get into whatever color your drawers are until you ask me to. I swear on your heart that I will never—” He told her that he was supposed to swear on his mother’s heart. “My mother doesn’t have a heart that any of us know of. But you do, and I’ll prove to you that I love you by not getting you or forcing you nor anything like that until you say so. Will that prove that I want more out of you other than a quick fuck?”

Her dad had to walk away. He was laughing so hard. Nancy just shook her head and said that she was going to go and find her husband, that this conversation was too much for her. But he could see that she was fighting humor, too. But he continued to stare at Mac, waiting for her to answer him.

“I suppose we’ll have to live in the same home to make this work, right?” He said that would be a good way to judge yes. “All right then, I’ll do that. But you’ll be begging me before I beg you. And when you do, I’m going to make you remember it for the rest of our lives.”

“Good. You have a deal.” He laughed when she looked confused. Like she was wondering what she’d just agreed to. When dinner was finished up, and everyone was headed to his home, he thought that this was going to be the perfect way to prove to his mate how much he really did love her. Either that, or he was going to be one dead wolf. And he had a feeling that she wasn’t going to play fair either. Her dad had told him how much Mac hates to lose a bet. He didn’t like to lose either, damn it, and this was going to be war. Edmond just hoped that he wasn’t going to be the fallen one when things were all done.

Chapter 4

The house was lovely. And for as much as it seemed to be old fashion, there was enough of the newer elements to it to make a very nice home to raise children. Even the kitchen, a place where she rarely roamed when she wasn’t working, was up to date and had a lot of gadgets sitting on the counter ready to be used.

“The table and chairs were found in the old barn out by the ranch house. I had no idea when we purchased the house that the barn had anything in it. Before I had it brought over here, I made sure that I wasn’t taking stuff that didn’t belong to us. The chairs were out there, too, but in the rafters of the barn instead of around it.” Edmond asked his brother, Devlin, if there was much more out there. “Not a great deal of it is useable. The realtor that I spoke to about it said that the house had been sitting empty for too long, and the rats and other creatures had been into things. “We didn’t have that trouble because of what we are, I guess.”

Then, there was the Apple estate that his brother had purchased. It was a great spread of land and a wonderfully old house that seemed to him to beg for someone to have the holidays in it. Edmond had decided that he was going to, if Mac didn’t mind to put as many of the older pieces in their home as they could find that Lica nor Brandy wanted.

He’d already had his bedroom set from the ranch house put in one of the rooms. Now, all he had to do was to find enough of the furniture to fill out six more bedrooms. After that, there was the office that he wanted, as well as a place for the pool he desperately wanted. Smiling to himself, he was surprised to find Mac in what would be the living room, smiling too.

He was glad to know that Mac liked the older furniture as well. And that she wanted to have a pool put in the backyard. And their backyard was massive, too. There were not too many trees around the area that they were thinking of putting a stone barbeque in. That place would be for having people over, mostly family and entertaining. They were going to work on that as they could afford it, he told Mac.

“I have a little bit of money that my grandparents left me. We could use that. It’s just been sitting in the bank, not doing anything since they passed away. Even my grandda Jacob left me a bit. Not like Brandy but it’s enough for us to get our house together and get a pool.” He told her that he worked for Brandy, but he didn’t have any idea how long that was going to last. Edmond thought that he would do a good job, but he didn’t know what he was going to do for her. “Then we’ll figure it out together. With the money that you got from them and the money I have, we can fix the things that we want in the house sooner rather than later. My parents did that. Waited too long to fix the house up when they could afford it. So, none of us got to enjoy the fruits of their labors. I’m not saying that we just blow it all on the house, but before we have kids, if you want any, I think we should have our ducks in a row first.”

“I love that idea.” Edmond asked her about the call she’d gotten. “I don’t want to intrude if it’s none of my business but I did wonder what happened with the call that you’d gotten earlier. If you don’t want to tell me, then it’s fine too.”

“I think you should know. And please just ask me when you want to know something. I might think, well, I might think that you aren’t that interested in my life. Just ask me. My brothers, of course, are out of jail. Grandma did it before she purchased a house. And she got one that has about six bedrooms in it. I think she believes that some of us, Mom and Dad or you and I, will be living there as well. That’s another reason for me to be happy that you have a house. I not only have grass under my feet when I want, but I don’t have to visit my family and have to be beholden to them to get a shower and a good night’s sleep. In saying that, I’m going to talk to my parents to see what they wish to do as well. I’m sure they’ll want to stay here in difference to my grannie.” He asked her if she thought that she’d be safe. “Safe? I don’t know why not. I mean, they’ve never harmed me before. Or do you mean now that grandma has been called out? I never thought of that. I don’t think she’s violent, but I don’t know her all that well. When Grandda Jacob was alive, my brothers never got along with him. Grandda died of a massive stroke when he was on a business trip. He was buried overseas because there was a great deal going on with the world then, and he wasn’t able to get anyone to agree with where he’d be buried. I don’t know how that was resolved. As I said, he was gone before I was born.”

“Do you believe that your grandmother had anything to do with his death?” Again, she said she didn’t know, but he, after only knowing her for a short while, thought that she was capable of about anything. “Would you mind if I asked your parents about it? I don’t want anyone to be harmed, and if she is guilty, it wouldn’t be too much for her to try again.”

“No, go ahead. It might be better if, like you said, we were able to find out now rather than later. I know that she’s been gone from the States for a very long time. Yesterday was the first time I’ve seen her since I graduated from high school. She didn’t even come to their funeral, now that I think about it.” They talked about things in the house as they all walked around together. Markus said that he’d like to help them in flushing out the house and Nancy said that she’d really like to give them what they had in their home that had been in storage all this time. “I think that I’d like some of the pieces that you might get rid of. Are you guys thinking of moving here or going back to Cleveland to live? Either way would be fine with me. Although I think you’ll have more fun here than there.”

“I believe you’re right, honey. I’ve already fallen in love with Edmond’s family. And that granny of theirs is a hoot. She sure doesn’t have any trouble saying what she thinks. I’m betting that the two of you hit it off well, Mac.” There were other families that were around here, too, that Edmond thought that the Pendletons would like as well. “Oh, and that nice woman realtor that the family has said that she could set your father and me up with homes to look at whenever we’re ready.”

Edmond asked them if they wanted to stay with them while house hunting. Markus agreed, but Nancy said it was too much for them. Markus said he didn’t know of a better way to get to know their son-in-law other than to stick close to him and his family.

“I know, but dear, we might be intruding on them getting to know one another, too.” Nancy’s face turned a nice shade of purple when she got embarrassed. Markus took a bit longer to get what his wife was saying, and he glared a moment at him before laughing. “You understand, don’t you, Mac?”

“No. If we want to have loud sex in the house, we’ll just tell you to go away. Or we’ll go away. But I don’t see that happening anytime too soon. Like you said, we’re getting to know one another right now.” She grinned at her mom before speaking again. “We might not do it right the first couple of times, so maybe we’ll be able to come to you for advice once in a while.”

Christ, he thought that her mother was going to blow a gasket. She sputtered around and seemed to have lost her ability to talk for a good five minutes before she just walked away. Telling Markus that she’d meet him in town was the last that he heard from her before laughing. Edmond didn’t think it was possible for Nancy to get any more embarrassed than she had until Mac asked her if she ever wanted grandchildren. Then they’d have to be doing it right.

When they were alone in the house, they decided to do another tour and, this time, take notes. She didn’t even tease him when he pulled out his list from before. But she used her phone and an app that allowed her to speak into it to take down whatever she said. She was making better progress than he was in making the notes, so he only wrote down the color of the walls in each bedroom and whether or not it had carpeting. That was going to be very helpful, too, she told him, as she hated carpets in the bedrooms more than he did.

They were having dinner that night at their home. The table and chairs were wonderful, but in order to watch much in the way of television, they had to sit in the same chairs. They were nice but not all that comfortable for watching television. Not to mention, they were using the same television he’d had at the ranch house that was only big enough for one of them to watch it at a time, he thought.

Markus called them a little after ten to tell them that after a long talk, they were going to stay at a bed and breakfast in town. But he said to him that he didn’t think that it would last all that long. He hated the wallpaper, and the woman was just too bright and cheery for her mother’s taste.