Page 18 of Did It Have To Be Gnomes?!
After a few seconds, I joined in, and then the two of us were laughing hysterically as Miles pulled up to a gated mansion.
Chapter Six
Miles
Taking a deep breath, I calmed myself before I rolled the window down to press the intercom button near the gate. Winter chuckled a few times beside me, but he calmed down too.
“How can I help you?” a voice asked.
“This is Miles Curbelo from Carry A Faerie. I have a coworker with me. Ms. Cohen should be expecting us. I met with her earlier this week about the gnome problem.”
“Come on up, Mr. Curbelo. Thank you.”
The gate buzzed and began opening, so I rolled my window back up and pulled up the long driveway until I got to the curvenear the front door. I wasn’t sure if Martha Cohen would want me to park here or somewhere else on the property, but when no one came out to tell me otherwise, I turned the car off and hopped out.
“Pheeew-y. This place is huge.” Winter gave me giant eyes as I walked around the car to join him. “No wonder you wanted some help. It would’ve taken you the entire three-day weekend by yourself. Actually, you wouldn’t have been able to finish before Tuesday. Jesus, this place is ginormous.”
I snorted. “Yeah, and you haven’t even seen how bad the infestation is. I’ve never seen one so… active.” That was an understatement, but Winter would see that for himself soon enough.
“Really?” His eyes got impossibly larger.
“The gnomes weren’t even trying to hide from us. They completely ignored us when the owner showed me around. It was kinda wild.”
He grunted. “Well, I guess you’re gonna have to show me this wildness.”
With a snort, I led the way up the stairs to the front door. The same butler as before answered and ushered us in, saying, “Ms. Cohen is busy at the moment, but she informed me to have you head straight back and get started, if you’re amenable?”
I nodded. “Sounds good. Is there a better place to park? I have a lot of supplies I need to bring in, so if there’s a back door I can use, that might be better.”
“Of course.” He gave me directions, so Winter and I went back out to the truck, drove around the very large house to a side parking lot—who the hell needs an actual parking lot at their home?—where the staff apparently parked.
The butler opened the side door and waved us over, so I stopped my truck as close to the door as I could get, then we got back out and started unloading the gnome traps. Since weneeded to plan, I only had Winter grab two traps, and I did the same, so I could show him around before we really got down to business.
It took me a moment to orient myself after coming in through a different door, and I opened the wrong room twice before I found the first room Martha Cohen had shown me the other day.
Sure enough, the gnomes were still running around, playing, and having the time of their lives, completely ignoring us as we watched from the doorway. If I didn’t know better, I would’ve thought we’d just walked into the miniature version of a frat party. They were literally screaming and meeping and jumping and swinging all over the damn place.
“Ho-ly shit.” Winter let out a soft whistle.
“Right? I’ve never seen anything like it.
“Me either, and I’m pretty sure I’ve been doing this longer than you.”
I eyed him as he watched the gnomes. He was pretty, that was for sure, and I cleared my throat to rid myself of those thoughts while we were on a job. “How long have you been doing this?”
“About ten years. I think it’s closer to eleven now, actually.”
My eyebrows shot up. “Really?”
He nodded. “Yep. What about you?”
“I started Carry A Faerie five years ago.”
He met my gaze. “You didn’t work in extermination before that?”
I shook my head. “Nope.” I wasn’t planning on telling him what I did before this either. At least not right after what he’d confessed in the car. I didn’t want to freak him out.
His head canted to the side. “What made you start a supernatural pest control business?”
