Page 39 of Rock Bottom
“He has, because he wants to be able to honestly tell you he hasn’t gone in and looked. Also, he isn’t as skilled at it as he should be, and sometimes the human realizes something isn’t right while he’s in there.”
“Thank you for the chicken pot pie.”
“Chase killed and butchered the chickens this morning, and Cora put them along with the other ingredients into the slow cooker shortly thereafter. I merely told them what you’d like.”
“Chase? I don’t believe I’ve met him.”
“He lives in the original farmhouse you pass on the way to the main house. I’ll have Julian introduce you later. We have a bit of a working farm, and he’s the caretaker. The eggs in the refrigerator are from our chickens. Shapeshifters with the means to do so often raise their own livestock, so they have chemical-free meat to feed their animal counterparts when they don’t have time to hunt in the forest. Also, we don’t want to deplete the wildlife, so those who are allowed tochangeand run here must follow the hunting rules decreed by Cora.”
I made a turn to head to the bench I’d been sitting on, and he said, “Your things have been taken back inside. You’ll find them in your bedroom.”
“Oh. I’m sorry. Should I not have left them outside?”
“Perfectly okay. I understand someone was concerned about your guitar being outside when the temperature changed as the sun went down.”
I shrugged. “I’m careful with three of my guitars, but the rest — I guess I consider disposable? Not that I’ll use them and toss them, but if something happens to them, it’s no biggie to order another.”
“The bikers have their own charity,” he told me. “It’s a women and children’s shelter, for women who’ve escaped a bad domestic situation. They don’t just house them, they provide educational opportunities, clothing for job interviews, they help them find safe housing when they’re ready to go, and they do a lot for the kids as well. Your Will donates a great deal to them. At the present time, four of the kids are trying to form their own band, and I feel two of the four have some unusual talent. It seems to me that, if you were looking for a place to donate your time, this little band would be a good place for you to start.”
“Okay, like I said earlier, it’s creepy that you can go through my head, but with that being said, thank you for the information. Who should I talk to?”
“Angelica goes to the shelter on Tuesday nights to check in and see what’s needed. I believe you know her through the Girls’ Night Out events?”
I nodded. “Yes. I’ll text her and tell her you suggested I could help. Thank you.”
Chapter 14
Silver
Marco walked me to the kitchen, kissed Cora on the cheek, spoke to Kirsten a few minutes, and left. The countertop had three Crockpots out, the chalkboard between saying what was in them, with arrows pointing. The third apparently had biscuits, and I guess that made sense, because the chicken pot pie in the Crockpot would just be the inside part.
There was also a note about a salad in the refrigerator, with a large bag of croutons off to the left of the Crockpots. I wasn’t in the mood for a salad, but I made a note of it for lunch the next day, maybe.
I opened the cabinet overhead, pulled a large bowl down, tore two biscuits up and made a circle with them in my bowl, and began scooping out what I wanted from the other pot.
“I had no idea they made Crockpots this big,” I told them.
“It’s twelve quarts,” Kirsten said. “Technically, it’s a slow cooker, but we all call it a Crockpot, even though it isn’t.”
“We sometimes fill as many as five at a time,” Cora said, “when we have a houseful of shapeshifters. When it’s just us and a few extra humans, two is usually enough. Recipes that freeze well, like beef stew or chili, we make extra on purpose and freeze whatever isn’t eaten.”
“If you ever want something else,” said Kirsten, “feel free to choose from anything in the open areas of the refrigerator and freezer. If it isn’t in a bin, it’s fair game. We always have the basic breakfast foods — eggs, bacon, sausage. We keep the chief sandwich stuff — peanut butter, jelly, cheese, and all the condiments. The bread is in the breadbox.”
“Shapeshifters can’t stand deli meats because of the phosphates,” Cora said, “but there’s often roast beef or chicken you can shred and use on a sandwich. There’s a bin of potatoes in the cabinet to the right of the refrigerator. The point is, you aren’t restricted to what’s in the Crockpot.”
“Marco told me he’d told you my comfort foods, so thanks for making it for me.”
I wanted to make sure nothing else touched my mac-and-cheese, so I got a smaller bowl down from the cabinet and filled it full of the cheesy macaroni goodness. This was homemade goodness, not from a box. I put my plate on the table, and then got a glass and filled it with ice water from the front of the fridge. They had soda and juices, but I wanted water.
“It took a lot for me to stop jumping up and playing hostess,” Kirsten said while I was getting my water, “but we want people to truly feel at home here, and that means, once we’ve shown you where everything is, we let you fend for yourself.”
I sat and took a bite that included a little biscuit and a lot of the pot-pie mixture, and closed my eyes. It wasperfect. “Oh, wow, this is good,” I said once I’d swallowed.
“Marco doesn’t gossip about what he learns when he goes into someone’s head,” Cora said. “If he needs to share something for security reasons, he won’t hesitate to, but mostly, he keeps what he learns to himself. I’m his mate, and he shares some stuff with me just because I’m kind of a sounding board.” She tilted her head, considering. “Mostly, I’m in charge of my wolves and he’s in charge of his vampires, but when necessary, we can rule each other’s people, and we’ve had to a time or two. So, it’s kind of important we share more about our people with each other, so we can lead with knowledge.”
“You’re telling me he’s told you things about me?”
She pushed the saltshaker towards me. “He said to make sure you salt your food.”
