Page 20 of Dyson

“I agree. That boy, he’s a good one. Any woman and some men would consider themselves lucky to have such a person in their corner.” Grandda saw a friend of his coming out of the store and left them there. He really was having a grand time doing his little job for the community.

Hand in hand, Dyson walked home with her. She told him about the interviews that she’d done, and he asked her questions about the twins. They were looking for people with their own rigs so they’d not have to put out that kind of money.

However they were going to have trailers to have around so that they could pick things up quickly and have them delivered where they needed to be. Purchasing ten large freezers for the foundation had helped a great deal, and they were hoping to keep them filled up for anything that came along. Amy was helping with that and Layla was in charge of where things were to be taken to.

So far, the only room they had that much space in was the pack house. Fowler was making sure that they were being well compensated for their help and that of the storage as well. They even shared the food that they got with them for their time. They had been contacted by two other food and storage warehouses to get leftovers, and Emma thought that it was wonderful. No more wasted food like they had before.

“It broke my heart to know that they would just toss the food out when it got to be too old to sell. Tabby told me that most of the time, the stuff is good-looking, too. It’s just that when you calculated the time it took to have it loaded on a truck and then delivered to the store, it was too late for them to get it out on the floor for a very long time.” Dyson said he’d not thought of that, the store turnover. “She said that there are a lot of things that have to be calculated into selling fruit especially. If it’s too ripe when it’s loaded on the truck the first time, it might well be rotten when it gets to them even.”

“Something to think about the next time we’re in a store. You know, how long it’s been on a truck from first being picked.” He shook his head. “Isn’t it funny how you never thought of these kinds of things before, but now that you know about it, it’s all you can think about.”

“I know.” They were nearly home when grandda called. He was going to be playing chess with some buddies of his and would be home late. He also told them that someone was going to be bringing him home. She loved that old man and was happy to see him out and about with springs in his steps.

Chapter 8

“May I help you?” Emma smiled at the door, knowing that someone was looking at her through the little hole in it. “I’m not going to open the door until you tell me who you are.”

“Emma Walsh. We spoke the other day when I interviewed the two of you. I don’t know if you’re going to remember me or not.” She heard the door unlock then the door opened. “I’m sorry if I’m too late. I didn’t think of the time when I came here.”

“It’s fine. We were just enjoying a nice comfy bed for a change. We don’t normally take a hotel room when we have work to do, but we were told that you guys were going to let us know tonight if we got the job or not. To be honest with you, I’m thinking that with you coming here, it’s a nice way of letting us down. But hey, we weren’t looking for a job when we did this, so—”

“You have the job.” The squeal that Danielle let out was ear-bursting. The two sisters hugged and jumped on the bed like they were in preschool or something. “I’m glad I came by to tell you rather than you having to hear about it on the phone. This was wonderful.”

They both hugged her as well and encouraged her to jump on the bed as well. It was fun and enjoyable to be around this much excitement about a job. It was Shelby who spoke first.

“We were getting sick of the hit-and-miss of a job. More and more people are becoming drivers, and it’s getting hard to find a job. We’re both so thrilled to be able to work for a company. You have no idea.” After they settled down, she handed them their contracts as well as some of the perks that they were going to be getting. “I really appreciate being able to haul both ways. It costs so much to have to come back from a job empty.”

“You’ll also be happy to know that we’re going to be helping out the warehouse that’s in Tennessee. She’s going to be putting another plant up here to reach the New England states. It’ll be a lot of driving at first, but we’ll settle that down once things are in place here.” They both looked over the contract. “There is something else that you need to be aware of. The Walsh family aren’t human.”

“Yeah, we figured that out on our own. Both of us are wolf shifters, so it matters little to us that you’re not.” Danielle smiled at her. “We have a bit of magic of our own, so if you were going to tell us that we got some from this job, that would be all right with us if we didn’t mingle with our stuff.”

“I’m afraid that’s too late.” She put out her hand, and two of the faeries that she’d brought with her landed on her hand. “This is Bobin and Robin. They get to pick their names when they’re assigned to a person. They’ll be with you at all times when you’re driving. It’s not to spy on you but to keep you safe. I don’t know how much trouble you’ve had at being women drivers but these guys will help you out of any situation that you might find yourself in.”

The two women looked at each other. She could tell they were talking to one another but what they were saying, she didn’t have a clue. When they finally looked at her, she had a feeling that they did have a problem with other drivers when out.

“About two months ago now we were at a truck stop when Shelby was jumped. Lucky for her, she was a wolf, or she might not have been able to get away. Since then, we’ve had two more attacks on us, and it’s been scary. We have never had that kind of issue before. But like we said, there are more and more drivers out, and some of them aren’t as nice as the company they work for thinks they are.” She asked if they had reported them. “You have a code around truckers. You simply get back to them in a more personal way. Getting them fired only makes it worse. We took care of all three of the attackers, and we’re better off for it.”

She didn’t want to know and was glad that they didn’t tell her. It made her realize that she needed to get with the local pack and see what sort of things she might be missing by hiring shifter wolves. Or any shifter, for that matter. Did they have different rules than each other when it cameto protecting themselves? Was it all right to take justice into their own hands? She didn’t know but thought that it might be best if she found out.

When she was ready to leave the two women, she made her way home. Dyson was working late at the house, and when she entered, his office lights were still on. Grandda, she was sure, had gone to bed a while ago. He was an early riser and went to bed early as well.

“How did it go?” She told Dyson that it had gone well. That they were excited to have the faeries as well. “Good. I’m assuming that they’ll be ready to start in the next couple of days. Layla told me that she has three more places where we can pick up day-old things. Also, the local grocery store is going to allow us to have all their fruit that is beyond selling. So long as we don’t sell it.”

“I wouldn’t do that. We have too many people that are in need of a boost up and selling them things that we get for them would just be wrong on so many levels. How did your meeting go with your grandma?” He told her that it went very well and that she was on board with letting the faeries help with a couple of projects that they had going on. “Good. Getting them to help with the building of the new offices for the school and the grade school upgrades will help a great many people.”

“Before I forget. Grandma invited us to have dinner with her tomorrow night. I told her that I’d ask you but didn’t foresee any trouble with that. I’m glad that we share a calendar, Emma. You’ve no idea how much that’s saved me over the last two days.” She told him that it had her as well. “Also, something else. There are some inspectors coming to the warehouse that we’re using for food distribution. I don’t think that they’ll ding us for much, if anything at all. Again the faeries are making sure that the place is in tip-top shape every hour so that nothing is going to be harmful for the people that are getting things from it.”

“It helps too that there are no mice within a hundred miles of the place.” Dyson laughed and said that did help, yes. “I need to get with the pack about some things that came up. Nothing that would involve us, but I need to understand a few things about shifters of their kind. I’m going to do the same for any shifter that we hire, but I just found out that the Pennebaker women are wolves.”

“I knew that. I’ll have to show you how to figure out the differences between humans and shifters soon so that you’re not blindsided.” She said that she’d like that. “All right. Anything else before we go to bed? I’m exhausted and could probably sleep for a month without stirring. It’s been a very long few days, and I’m ready for some downtime.”

“I am as well. We don’t have anything in the morning, so how about we turn off our phones and wake up when we want to instead of when the alarm goes off?” He thought that was an excellent idea. “Good. You should tell your family too. Just so they don’t contact you for anything other than an emergency. All right?”

Emma was actually excited to be going to bed and not having to be a slave to the alarm going off on her phone. As she was getting ready for bed, simply stripping down to nothing but her bare skin, all she could think about was how warm she wanted to be and to sleep the sleep of the dead. Her body ached to be rested. It was nearly noon when the two of them woke up. It was back to work but she felt so much better for it.

~*~

Dyson was getting his desk cleaned off when Emma joined him in his office. Grandda had left, telling him that he had a few things to look into before dinner. Whatever it was, the older man was having fun with his new ‘job,’ and Dyson couldn’t have been happier for him.

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