Page 13 of Brewster

He was telling his man that he should have things closed up within two weeks when he realized what he was doing. Not only did he have a list of things that Bradford could do to expedite his move, but he also had a list of his own to call the bank and otherestablishments around them that they used. He’d even gone so far as to tell the staff they could have pay for another month after he was gone to help them along. Rance leaned back in his chair.

“She’s bamboozled me.” Bradford quietly left the room after not saying a word. As he was sitting there, thinking of what she’d done to him, he wondered at the others who had been in their group. Did she do the same to Kenneth? To…he thought of her bullying Yosef and wished that he’d had the presence of mind to ask about the others who surely would be there for the party.

It took him about two hours to get his mind straight on what she’d done to him. She’d not used compulsion on him. He would have realized that after ending the call. She’d only told him what he was going to be doing and didn’t take no for an answer. She didn’t even take maybe as an answer either. Wondering at the power of one so young, he laughed until he was crying. His thoughts on what she was doing to his friend Brew was making it difficult for him to walk. Much less breathe.

While making the necessary calls to close up his home, he would catch himself laughing about the young woman. He also wondered again and again if she was just all bluster on the phone or if he could be able to enjoy her wit when he met her. He had a feeling that not only was she keeping Brew on his toes, but she was more than likely keeping him laughing, too. He could almost hear her telling him about the call with him. Brew would be impressed first, and then his humor would kick in. He’d be having a good time hanging out with her like he was looking forward to doing.

By midnight, he had all the paperwork ready to be signed and closed off. He’d had a great deal of his father’s things finished up as well. It had taken him a long time to get his father’s things gathered up as he’d been living overseas and hadn’t thought of getting things prepared at all. He’d not only not left a will, but he’d not made any kind of arrangements for not just the housebut the other lands and places that he owned. Thanks to the vampire committee, it was just a matter of him signing his name to all his deeds to have them turned over to him. The money, a great deal of it as it turned out, was his as well after disturbing what he wanted taken care of. His staff and that of his mothers were let go when they decided that they didn’t want to be living in the grand house any longer. Then, he sat down to read over his will again.

He’d made one up and sent it off to his attorneys just after his father had died. The only reason that it was still in his possession was because he’d not sent it back to his attorney. He decided it was high time that he did that in the event that he got himself killed on the way to Ohio. He’d never been one to think that he was going to die because he never left his house. But with all the traveling that he was going to be doing, he had to think about those sorts of things.

There were already several changes that he needed to make in it so that when Brew was in charge of his estate should he turn to ash, he’d not throw up his hands in frustration and not do anything that he wanted. As he went over it, marking the changes, he thought about what it would be like to have a mate.

She’d be insane or have to be if she was his mate. He was entirely too set in his ways to bother with women of this century. They were independent. Mouthy and strong. They knew what they wanted and didn’t care if you got it for them or not. If they wanted it, they knew just how to get it.

They dressed how they wanted, too. He’d seen more different clothing on women in one day than he remembered seeing when women were walking about town. They used to dress up to go out. Took pride in what they looked like. He wasn’t saying that all women didn’t do that today, but the few that he did see that were out didn’t look like they’d brushed their hair, much less gotten out of bed in time to shower. He didn’t like the modernwoman of today.

Then there were the kids of today. While he could see the advantages of having a cell phone all the time, he didn’t think they understood that there was a whole life of colors, scents, and sounds that they were missing by having their faces buried into their phone.

There were incidents where they walked into trees, cars, and benches. He saw a baby, who was not very old, sitting in a stroller with one of the devices attached to their pram while the woman had one attached to her ears. It was a shame, he thought, that more people didn’t just close them off, put them away and enjoy life. That made him laugh.

He knew that he wasn’t enjoying life either. But he’d been around long enough that he felt that he’d seen it all, from cars to planes. He’d seen the fastest trains to jets zooming through the sky. There had been times when he sat on an ocean liner, the only way to travel from one country to the next for months on end. He’d seen things too.

The Eiffel Tower. Rance had been there when a president had been murdered. The stage had been playing their roles when someone came in and shot him. He’d heard of boats that carried hundreds of people and had a pool on the deck for them. Things were both strange and new. Things that even to this day, he didn’t think could be toppled but usually ended up being so.

Rance thought about traveling to Ohio. To visit or to stay would take him no more than a few seconds with his magic. He could travel by bus, car, or even plane if he wanted. Things today were terrifying and wonderful.

Going up to his bedroom, closing all the curtains and windows, he laid down on his mattress. It wasn’t all that comfortable anymore. He couldn’t even remember the last time that he’d bought something new. He was going to do that first thing in the morning. Not only was he going to buy himselfsomething better to sleep on, but he was also going to buy him something to wear that wasn’t a suit. He’d been wearing black suits with a black tie for longer than he could remember. Christ, he was fucking old, he thought to himself. Too old for a lot of things.

Sleep eluded him. Getting up and walking to the window, he decided to have a seat there. Watching the deer that played in his back yard, he thought of times when that was all he could feed from. The natural wildlife had saved his life on more than one occasion. Realizing that he was getting miserable with his thoughts, he decided that he was going to think happy thoughts for the rest of the month he had until he was to show up in Ohio.

“Like that’s going to bloody happen.”

~*~

Brew loved the smells that were surrounding him. He could find the scent of vanilla and remembered a time when women would use it as their perfume. Going into the kitchen, he found Hattie baking cookies and his Calla Lily decorating them. She had a fine hand for it, he could see.

“I’m having a burger with fries for dinner. I know you won’t eat, but will you please sit with me while I have my dinner?” He said he would go to the ends of the earth for her. “Just to the dinner table is fine. Did I tell you that I’ve still not been able to get in touch with Yosef? I think that he’s avoiding me. That the others have told him that I’m pushy or something.”

“You are a bit pushy. Since I’ve brought you to my home, you’ve become very good at getting what you want. Did you really make the little boy that delivers our newspaper bring it up to the porch?” She pointed out that he was making an extra twenty bucks a week to do that. “So I heard. He’s quite the envy of all the children around town. Also, I heard that you hired a lawn crew for the yard. I didn’t think it was large enough for acrew.”

“I hired two men to help out and their sons. The two families haven’t had a job between them in ten years. I thought that if we could spread a little of having money around, more people would take pride in their own yards. You have to admit that some of them are completely overgrown with weeds and cars.” He nodded, watching as she put a happy face on one of the cookies. “I also hired some of the pack to help out around the house. Hattie has vouched for them, and it helps out the pack, too. They’re not drowning in debt, but it’s difficult for them to keep their jobs when everyone in town seems to have a problem with them being shifters. I had no idea that was still an issue.”

“We need a new influx of younger people in charge of things going on around the town. If you could do that, have some of the thirty something year olds taking over some of the offices, I believe we’d have a better town, too.” She asked him how old the mayor was. “I believe him to be in his late seventies. I remember him when he was but a child and I didn’t care for him then either. He’s running the town like it’s the eighteen hundreds, and he’s the sheriff in town.”

“I’ve also noticed that the library is having trouble with getting people to use it. If this keeps up, there won’t be enough people to fund the thing come election time.” He told her that he thought that it had been on the last election to have more money poured into it. “Did it pass?”

“I don’t believe that it did. That’s why the building looks as if a good wind would have it crumbling down atop them.” She asked him about books. “I don’t know the answer to that. I’m assuming that the same books are on the shelves as the day it was opened. You’re right in saying that people don’t use it much anymore, but I have complete faith in you and that you’re going to take care of it.”

“There are a lot of things that are on their way to the dumpster. Or something like that. Did you notice the grocerystore has burnt to the ground? Several years ago? The only place that people around here can stock up on things is the Dollar General, and that’s not exactly close enough for some people who need to walk there. Don’t even get me started on prices either.” They talked about how a grocery store had been planning to come to town, but Covid had hit, and all kinds of things that had been in the works had been put off. “Hattie was telling me that jobs are hard to get around here, too, since the basket company went belly up. I know there is one in town, but I don’t know enough about it to know if they’re hiring or not.”

“I don’t know either. I tend to stay out of the way of new businesses in town. I know that I should take better care of being informed, but I have been feeling sorry for myself and haven’t done much of anything around here. I plan to change that.” She thanked him. “You’re so very welcome.”

He watched as she spread icing on one of the broken cookies and popped it into her mouth. He didn’t want to say anything, but watching her eat made his cock hard. It didn’t matter what she ate, though when she ate fries, it was all he could do not to jump her. He would feel like she was taking little nibbles of him at the same time. He needed to stop making love to her hourly, she told him, as she was exhausted all the time. Brew just couldn’t get enough of her.

“Tonight, we’ve been invited to the mayor’s home for a tea party. His wife is having the tea party, and her husband is having a cigar smoke off. I haven’t any idea what that means, but you’re supposed to come with me. I don’t know what I’m going to do there anyway. I can’t stand tea no matter how many flavors someone puts into it.” He laughed, enjoying her honesty more than anything else about her. “There will be five couples, not including the Jacksons.”

“Who are they?” She glared at him and told him that was the mayor’s name. “Oh. I’m sorry. I did mention that I’ve been out ofthe loop for some time now.”

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