Page 6 of A Clutch for Hutch
“Yeah, why not? And since I made this all by myself, you need to ooh and ah and be properly impressed.”
“Got it, Boss.”
I showed him what I’d been doing, and it wasn’t until I started describing all the details as we walked through it that I fully grasped just how large the building was. Not so much in physical space. That I knew, as the one who built it, but in the number of plants that could thrive in here. I was officially becoming a gardener, or maybe a farmer.How much do you have to plant to be a farmer?I wasn’t sure.
“All right, I’m gonna let you go. I have…well, nothing to do, but I’m tired of being on the phone.”
“Burns…don’t ever change. You’re the best.”
“I won’t. Promise.”
I hung up with him and went back inside. I’d been going nonstop for weeks now, getting everything cleaned up, painted, new covers put on electric sockets, showerheads swapped out, new appliances, new furniture, curtains hung, and on and on. Not everything was new. Some of my favorite pieces were from a local thrift store.
My home was finally starting to feel like mine, something my old penthouse never had. In a way, it had always felt like I was staying at a hotel. A fancy one I didn’t need to check in and out of, but it was that impersonal. This was so much better.
I went to the fridge to see what I should cook for dinner. Burns was right. My cooking wasn’t good, and the more I looked at the ingredients, the more I thought that it would be best to go out.
“How about we go for a little fly, and then we’ll get ready and go to Animals.” Like my dragon would ever turn down spreading his wings.
We took to the air, loving the desert wind against our scales and enjoying the changes visible from above that. I had a feeling home ownership would require constant repairs, upgrades, etc., but I didn’t mind. I’d had so much fun doing it.
I climbed under the hot water, showered off the day, and thought about what I was going to order for dinner, and if maybe it was time to consider taking up with one of the omegas who tried to chat me up the last time I was at Animals.
I’d never been one for one-night stands or even dating. I’d always been waiting for my mate to just show up, like a little shifter-wrapped present from Fate. But I was getting older, and maybe it was time to realize that that wasn’t going to happen for me. Maybe it was time to just…not quite settle but look for happiness where I could find it.
I turned off the shower, shook my head, letting the water go everywhere, and tried to get my pity party for one to go away. If Fate sent me a mate, I didn’t want to be tied down with somebody else; that kind of hurt would slice through any shifter. No. I was going to do just like I always did, and say thanks, but no thanks, because whoever my mate was out there waiting for me, they were worth the wait. I could forget my loneliness with a few games of darts. Maybe make some friends. And if not, maybe Goldie’s bears were there and would let me hang. We got along pretty well last time.
And even if I came back feeling as lonely as I felt now, the food was better than here, and my belly would be full.
Chapter Six
Dirk
Family vacations should all be this great. My niece and nephew had just reached the cuddly and adorable stage, and seemed to like me. I spent my days at their home, holding them, singing to them, reading them books they couldn’t possibly understand but that my brother-in-law said were good for their development.
Whenever he wasn’t paying attention, I set those down and grabbed the big, colorful picture books or the ones with silly rhyming couplets and read to them about dogs who were friends with frogs and what it was like at the bottom of the ocean where all the fish were friends. There was a theme there, and I had to believe friendship was also good for their development.
They smiled, giggled, and spit up on me, and I loved every moment of it. My brother and his mate liked that I was willing to change diapers, even if they were blowouts, and amuse the babies while they took a nap.
They were both very busy with their jobs, but Hoover had taken the week off, and Grant was minimizing his work while I was there, so we had a lot of time to enjoy one another and even got out a few times to a local lake and a park. It would have been a pretty perfect week, even if that was all there was to it, but I had something else hanging over my time at Animals.
The reason I went into the club the moment it opened at night and stayed until the doors closed. I couldn’t stand the idea that I might miss him. Hoover asked me to hang out and watch a game one night, and I made an excuse and left to head back to Animals. I couldn’t miss my mate if he showed up.
I’d never forgive myself, and maybe Fate would find me unappreciative and take him back.
My digs for the week were super nice, tucked into the mountain in a series of caves that I learned had been ancient cliff dwellings for Warren Ursa’s family hundreds or maybe thousands of years before. But the decor held nothing ancient, at least in my room. It had obviously been redecorated recently, a roomy studio apartment with a skylight that brought in the sun or moonlight where there were no windows and it might otherwise have felt too dark or stuffy. The temperature was in the sixties in my room day and night, the mountain holding in the cool when it was very warm outside. I had a large comfortable bed covered with a hand-woven blanket, a nice chair for reading or relaxing, and a bathroom that had the feel of a grotto. When Karma, the wife of the owner who had been responsible for Animals current openness to everyone, showed it to me, she apologized that there were no larger apartments open. I assured her I found it charming and wouldn’t want anything different.
Animals itself was a more recent build and had things like air-conditioning and extremely high-tech lighting and sound systems in place. Live bands played most nights, but they also had DJs who could get all the patrons out on the floor shaking their booties.
Or whatever the term was—I got most of my modern culture from books, so sometimes came across as a little out of date, I knew.
Karma greeted me each evening when I came into the club, made sure I was happy with my room, and reminded me that there were meals served for staff and guests in the kitchen at no additional cost. I had the impression my brother was not paying any cost for my stay, and I had asked how much the room was, intending to pay myself but was brushed off. Essentially, I was a guest of the house, like a high roller in Vegas. All-inclusive for zero dollars.
Warren and Karma were not only married in the human way and mates but were so in love, it took my breath away and made me yearn even more for my mate to return to the club.
“I wish I could find him for you,” Karma said one night. “But I don’t know who it is. We have so many people come and you have no physical description at all?”
“Just a scent and it was faint. Like exotic woods and a trace of spice.”
