Page 10 of Colby
“I’m not ready for sex yet.I mean, I’ve been talking to a wolf friend of mine, and he was telling me some things that would happen now that we’re mates.”She asked him about the point of him going rogue.“He said that his kind will go mad if they can’t have their mates around them and have to be put down.”
“We don’t have that.Lions are very laid back when it comes to mates.However, unlike lions in the wild, we only take one mate, and it’s the forever kind of mates.I wouldn’t anyway, but I can’t lie to you, not even a small fib.If you ask me something, it’s going to be the truth, so be prepared.Also, I won’t have an affair.You’re the only one for me for the rest of my life.I won’t ever cheat on you either.You can take that to the bank.”She asked him why that was.“I don’t know, honestly.It could have something to do with the fact that we fall so hard in love with our mates that there isn’t any room for anyone else.I know you don’t want to hear this right now, as we’re taking it slow, but I’m in love with you.I understand that it will take you time to get to know me, but I couldn’t be more in love with you if I’d known you for a thousand years.And I’ll love you more each day that we’re together as well.”
“Thank you.I think.Honestly, I don’t know what to think.But I can now.Before you touched me, it was like I wanted to bite everyone’s head off, and my skin felt like it was peeling off me.”He said that he gets that way, too, when he can’t talk to her.“I do feel better after I talk to you.I don’t understand it, but I guess that’s the way it should be.All right, let’s go to the next house.”
The second house was no better than the first one.The rooms were much too small for even the basics in a bedroom.There wasn’t a dining room, and the eat-in kitchen was the only place to have a meal.Even that was too small for what she had in mind.When she felt herself getting overwhelmed, a new word for how she was feeling, she could just reach out and take his hand into hers, and she felt it all melt away.
The third house had potential.But it would take a lot of work to get it up to standards.Colby said it might be easier and cheaper to start fresh with a new build.She kind of liked that idea, too.As they went to the office of the realtor that was going to work with them, she saw a house for sale by owner.Pulling into the long drive, she didn’t like the way that front porch was cluttered.Knowing that she’d not do it that way, she got out of the car and reached for Colby’s hand.It was that or yell at the people for making such a mess of the first thing people would see when they came to visit.
“It’s all fine.”She nodded once at him and put a smile on her face to see the people coming out to greet them.“We can make it into anything we want.”
She looked at the house without the clutter.And it was too.There were about a dozen chairs on the front porch, as well as about that many more baskets filled with flowers.While she had no qualms about having flowers on the deck area, there were just too many of them for her to be able to see what potential things had.There were places to sit on the decking, but it was just too crowded to enjoy it.
“We’ve only just put it on the market today.You’re the first to see it.”They were invited into the house, and it was much the same as the porch.Even the walls were so crowded with pictures in frames that they overlapped one another.The living room, the first room that you saw to your left when entering from the main hallway, looked like it had been a store for used furniture; there was so much in it.“We had to wait until we had it looking good before we invited anyone in.”
The entire house was decorated with the same crowded motif.The kitchen was the most heavily crowded room with roosters, cows, and pigs all over the countertops and on the walls.She could see herself working in the room without all the décor, and she was happy about that.They must have spent a fortune on all the new things in the house to make it look homey to them.To her, it just looked like a train wreck, and she hated to think about that toward the people showing the house to them.
“How much acreage is there?”That, Emma thought, was a good question.She’d need to pull her rig someplace as the front of the house held no area where she could do that.After being told that it was about five acres, she thought that she could work with that, but it was the barn that was next to the house that caught her attention.It would be nice to be able to park her rig someplace other than out in the open, where it might devalue the property.
Emma was impressed with the price of the house.The couple older than them said that they wanted to sell it and move to Florida, where their children were.Why would anyone want to live there when they had all the warmth and wonderful weather that they had here was anybody’s guess, but then she loved where she was from more than anything else about the state.
Leaving the house, she couldn’t decide if it was someplace she wanted to live or not.There were a lot of things about it that they both loved, but she couldn’t get over all the clutter.Like it was hiding something that—when Parker appeared in their back seat as they were preparing to leave, startled them both.
“The foundation is in poor shape.”She nodded, not really having any idea what that meant.“The foundation is what holds the house above ground.This one is falling in, and the clutter, as you called it, was just a way for them to hide the cracks in the walls and floors.They hope that people will be so distracted by the amount of shit in the house to notice that the house is falling down on itself.”
“Well, that’s not right.”She agreed with Colby.“No wonder it’s not sold.I guess it’s been close a couple of times, but the sale didn’t go through.I’m assuming that someone did an inspection on the place and found what you said to be true.”
“Pretty much.But in another five years, probably less, the house would be one earthquake away from falling into ruin.”She didn’t want to think about what would happen if anyone was living in the house when that happened.It would mean certain death if the house fell on someone.“You’d be right in saying that.However, you’ll be happy to know that someone else, another witch, put a spell on the house that makes people feel uncomfortable in the house, and it never sells.You guys might well have felt that when you were looking around.”
“I did.”Colby looked at her.“Remember me telling you that the house felt like it was magical but not in a good way?That’s what I was feeling.”
“I couldn’t get over the amount of shit that it cluttered around the entire house.It was like it was all a garage sale and they were making sure that there was something for everyone to buy.”The three of them laughed about that, and it was funny to think that the place had been overdone to make sure no one could see the underlying problem.“Will they ever sell the place?”
“Doubtful.People are less trusting than they used to be, and in this case, it’s a good thing.”They all agreed and were on their way to the office when Parker told them that she’d given them both a bit of magic to be able to see behind the lies that people told about their homes.Parker continued with an idea.“I have about a dozen houses that are on the market right now by owner that you should have a look at.Not all of them, but enough that you can find a place.Did you know that the house right down the street from your brother Denver, is for sale?It’ll be a good buy for anyone looking for a nice warm home.”
“Should we just purchase it now?”Colby was joking, but she thought that if Parker recommended a house, they really should just buy it.“What’s the address, and we’ll go and see it?”
After getting the address, they made their way there, telling the realtor that they’d met her there.Even before they saw the house, she knew that it was going to be their home simply because she trusted the grand witch.She’d not steered her wrong so far.And had kept her from getting killed when there was the accident with her truck.
The house was a little larger than she had thought she’d want, but it ticked off all the things that she had wanted in a home.There was even a pool in the back yard and enough room for her to park her rig in the large metal barn in the side yard that was as beautiful as the house was.Inside, there wasn’t any clutter, but a nice empty house where there was room for all kinds of their own things, and she loved it.As they were touring the kitchen, the realtor said that it had been upgraded sometime in the last year, and it looked it.She was in love with the entire home.And she couldn’t wait to make it their own.
~*~
Colby got the loan for the house and even had saved up enough money for a sizable down payment on it so that they’re payments weren’t going to be much more than he was paying in rent toward his condo.He would have gone into debt more since Emma seemed to really like the house, just to have something that she could love.He’d not been kidding when he told her that he was in love with her.He felt his heart beating only because of her.
Since the house was empty and they were getting the loan, they could start to move in as soon as they wished.The people who had owned the house were so excited about the house selling so quickly that they offered to pay for a semi to move them.With Emma’s help in knowing how to drive a semi already, it was going to be a breeze to get their things to the new house.Not that either of them had all that much in the first place.He had his bed and dresser, and that was about it.She hadn’t anything but her bed, too, but she was planning on leaving that with her mom so she could have people over if she wanted.They didn’t even have a dining room table to use.
Colby had to go out tomorrow morning on another fishing trip.His second mate, Charlie, was going to be manning the ship once it was out, so he could get better at running a trip.When he was able to afford more boats, he was going to have to have someone who could run trips, too, and was glad that his partner was ready to get the second part of his plan ready.
This way, he didn’t have to do all the work either.Once he was trained, he’d be able to take out twice as many trips, and that would be great.The Tucker Foundation was going to help him with the second purchase, and he couldn’t have been happier about that either.
When his cell phone rang, he always got a jolt of fear that someone was going to be calling to take over his trip to hide a body.Parker had taken care of that for him, but it was still hard for him to remember that he was safe when it rang.Answering the call, he was surprised that his grannie had called him.
“We’ve got some things going on around here, and I was wondering when you can come back out and give us a hand.Your grandda had purchased some new roses to put out, and we thought ofyou coming to help.”He said that his next day off was in three days.“Perfect.The new soil will be arriving on Wednesday, so that will be timed just right.I’ll make you dinner, and you can spend the night too if you wish.”
“Yes, I’d love that.”He was going to have to work around his schedule a little, but he wanted to help his grandparents.As soon as he told her that he’d seen her on Thursday, she simply hung up.It was just like her to do that, too.Once she was done with the conversation, she was finished with the call too.He loved that about her.Grandda did the same thing, only he’d say goodbye sometimes.
For the rest of the afternoon, he ordered supplies for the trip that was going out tomorrow.He would have to get Charlie to do it too, so that he knew what was needed or not, but for now, with the one boat, he was glad to be getting it done.As soon as he was finished with the order, he began looking over some of the things that they’d put on a list that they’d need for the house.When he got back from this trip, he hoped to have all that was needed shipped to them, and it would be one less thing to have to worry about.
