Page 16 of Fangs and Fudge

“I still need access to Everly…and my money.”

She gave him a considering look.

“Okay. Close to here.” She scrolled through her phone as I flipped the cinnamon swirl pancakes I’d made. “There’s actually something two blocks over," she said. Two bedrooms, one bath. It’s a year lease, which is typical for the area.” She stated the rental price, which wasn’t horrible considering how much sat in my bank account. “I’ll make an appointment to see it.”

She drifted out to the living room, and Cross took her place close to me.

“You have a soft heart for animals, don’t you?” he asked, watching me.

“Yeah, I do. I always wanted a pet growing up.”

“Is that why you favor the wolves?”

I almost laughed.

“No. And I wouldn’t say I favor them. They’re nice, and they’ve helped out when there was trouble. Like family,” I said, echoing Shepard’s words.

Cross made a humming sound.

“Good news,” Vena said, coming back to the kitchen. “The landlady is nearby, and we can check it out in an hour.”

We quickly ate our breakfast, discreetly dropped off Miles’ car, and went to see the place. Like our house, it wasn’t much. The landlady, an older woman who looked like she was in her seventies, eyed the three of us.

“You all living together?” she asked. “You’re not swingers, are you?”

Vena nearly died on her choked laugh.

“No,” I said. “We’re friends.”

“Hm. So, who’s living here?” she asked.

I opened my mouth to say it would be Cross and realized the rental couldn’t go under his name. She’d likely want his information to do a background and credit check.

“I’ll be the primary resident.”

She looked me over then glanced at Cross.

“That mean he’s going to be staying over a lot?”

“When was the roof last replaced?” Vena asked, looking up at the shingles. “It looks pretty old.”

Properly distracted, they started talking about the house, and Vena very politely drove the conversation to indicate that it wouldn’t work for us. When all three of us were in the car again, Vena shook her head.

“We’re going to have a hard time with rentals, I think,” she said. “If the landlords see you staying there night after night, they’re going to want you on the lease.”

“Which means Cross would need an ID of some sort,” I said, already understanding her line of thought.

“The best solution is to have your sugar mama buy you a house,” Vena said with a grin at Cross.

She went back to her phone and searched for nearby homes for sale. We drove past almost a half a dozen, but none of them looked worth the money.

“He has the funds to fix them up, though,” Vena pointed out.

I glanced at Cross. “It’s your call, but if it were my money, I wouldn’t do it. You’d be sticking in more money than it’s worth in these neighborhoods. It’d be different if we were looking closer to downtown.”

“How far away is downtown?” he asked.

“With how fast you can move, does it really matter?” Vena asked. She talked him into checking out places closer to downtown until we worked our way close enough to a restaurant she liked.

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