7. Phil
Phil
I startled at the snick of the lock settling into place. Dillon rolled his eyes at me and settled his tiny fists on his hips. He looked too cute to be intimidating. I bit the inside of my lip and held my tongue.
“So, what’s your story?” Dillon’s chin jutted forward, and his dark brown eyes narrowed seriously.
“No story,” I answered while trying to figure out where to start.
There wasn’t a lack of choices. The house was a mess.
“What you see is what you get.” I offered another smile.
Ruthie stared blankly back at me while Dillon’s eyes narrowed further.
Trust wouldn’t come easy. I wasn’t sure why. Regardless, I’d find a way to manage.
“Uh-huh,” Dillon answered sarcastically.
Action seemed better than small talk. “Could you show me where the washing machine is?”
Dillon cocked his head to the side. Weres generally had thick heads of hair, and Dillon was no different. Regardless, his hair was scruffier and more unkempt than it should have been.
“This way.” Dillon waved his hand, and Ruthie and I followed.
The machine looked in working order. I wasn’t sure why it had been abandoned with clothes left floundering.
“Dillon, could you collect your dirty clothes and bring them in? Ruthie’s too. We’ll get a load started.”
Beyond a huff of annoyance, Dillon did as I asked.
With the laundry started, I decided the kitchen was the best area to tackle next.
Dillon followed, and of course, Ruthie shadowed him.
I hummed as I got the lay of the land. I checked in cabinets.
Sedrick hadn’t given me a lot of direction or rules.
Yesterday, when we’d negotiated my contract, he’d said I could do what I wanted as long as the house was clean and orderly. I took him at his word.
“What are you doing?” Dillon finally asked after several minutes of silence.
“I’m checking what your uncle has, where it’s located, and if it can be organized better.”
Dillon huffed again, and I got the feeling that was his default expression. “I hope you don’t think I’m gonna help. Ruthie either. We aren’t the maids. That’s your job.” Dillon sneered the last as if being a house cleaner was something to be ashamed of.
“That’s fine.” I ignored the snub. It was our first day together.
“I’m more than capable, and this is something I enjoy doing.
” I was near giddy with joy. My wings fluttered with my happiness.
Pixie dust sprinkled around the kitchen.
Thankfully the children were far enough away that they weren’t bothered.
“You really are weird if you like cleaning.” Dillon sounded awed and a little baffled.
I laughed. “I suppose to some, but I like it.” I more than liked it. I felt settled in a way I hadn’t experienced in years. “What do you like to do?” I asked while I ran the water in the sink. I could think on where I wanted to place things while I washed.
With my back toward Dillon, I couldn’t see him but imagined his shoulder shrug. Silence was my answer. I turned my head just enough to get an eye on Dillon and Ruthie. They both looked so . . . forlorn, as if they were lost.
Changing the topic at least a little, I asked, “Do you go to school, Dillon?”
Dillon’s voice was closer when he answered, “I used to. Uncle Sed said he’ll enroll me again next year. I got out of the rest of the year since Mom and Dad—”
Ruthie made a choking noise, and Dillon immediately snapped his mouth shut. He finished with, “I’ll go back in the fall.”
“Hmm. That leaves the rest of the spring and summer to do a lot of exploring around here.”
Dillon gave another huff. “There’s nothing to explore.”
He sounded positive.
“What about the garden?”
“You mean the weed patch.” He came into my periphery enough for me to see him cross his arms over his chest. It was odd to see a seven-year-old were child pout. I’d seen plenty of adult pixies do it.
“We’ll tackle that too, eventually.” I needed to talk to Peaches. Maybe he’d have a free day where he could come over and help me sort things.
Dillon shuddered, and his voice quivered a little. “You’ll have to get rid of the gnomes first.”
I dropped the dish, splashing water up my arms and onto my t-shirt. “Gnomes?”
“Yeah. They’re all over the place out there. They’ve got a colony.”
Oh, that doesn’t sound good. Not good at all. “Does your uncle know?”
“No idea,” Dillon answered before he walked away, with Ruthie faithfully following behind.
* * *
E xhausted, I belly-flopped onto my bed.
I didn’t think I could flutter my wings to produce enough pixie dust to even tickle someone’s nose.
I’d worked all day into the early evening and felt like I’d barely scratched the surface of Sedrick’s house.
Thankfully, my employer didn’t share my disappointment.
I hadn’t thought it possible, but Sedrick looked more wiped than me when he walked through the door.
His exhaustion took a back seat to the grin lighting up his face when he looked around his home.
That smile muted whatever apologies floated on my lips. Sedrick didn’t expect miracles. Not that his house required angelic intervention. A home-and-hearth pixie would be enough, but it would take more time than heaven’s minions.
I’d taken one look at Sedrick’s filthy clothes and decided a final load of laundry was needed before I left for the evening.
I’d also scrounged enough food to make a decent beef stew.
There was enough left that it might serve for lunch tomorrow for Dillon and Ruthie.
I’d politely declined to eat with them. I was the hired help, and besides, pixies were vegetarians.
Somehow, I’d managed enough energy to call my mom and dad on my way home. I knew they were both waiting by the phone, eager to hear how my first day on the job had gone. Their joyful tones got me through the rest of my flight.
Soft rapping on my door pulled a groaned “come in” from my lips but little else. My wing muscles were far too sore to get up and open the door.
“Phil?” Peaches’s voice was soft, and I belatedly realized maybe he hadn’t heard my muffled voice and thought I was asleep. I hadn’t even bothered to turn on a light before I’d planted face-first on my bed. “Are you awake?”
I groaned again. “Yes, but not very coherent.”
Peaches shuffled into the room, quietly closing the door behind him. “Can I turn on a light?”
“Yeah.” I shifted my head to look at him when he lit the room. Thankfully the side lamp wasn’t very bright, just enough light for pixie eyes to see. Sedrick wouldn’t have needed the lamp switched on.
Peaches whistled long and low when the light illuminated me. Unlike me, Peaches’s wings still fluttered, and a shower of sparkly, gold pixie dust rained down on me. “Long day?” he asked while sitting on the edge of my bed. The mattress barely registered his light form.
“Very,” I answered with a smile. Despite my exhaustion, I didn’t think I’d stopped grinning the entire way home. Maybe the entire day.
“You look pleased.” Peaches’s slender fingers untied my braid and unwound my twisted hair.
The release felt good, and this time when I groaned, it was in pleasure. “I am.”
I barely caught the edge of Peaches’s smile before my eyes drifted closed. “I’m glad to hear it. By the look of it, Mr. Voss’s home is a bit of a wreck.”
I tried to nod but couldn’t muster up the energy.
“The bones are good, but the house is a mess. Sedrick might be good at a lot of things, but housekeeping isn’t one of them.
” I’d tried not to think of all the other things my employer might be an expert at.
Not one of those things entailed a paying profession.
“Dare I ask how the flight was?”
I hesitated before I answered, “Long but doable. My wing muscles feel like overworked Jell-O.” I wasn’t sure what overworked Jell-O was like, but it got the point across.
Going up on his knees, Peaches leaned over my back and massaged my overworked muscles.
“Goddess, don’t stop.”
Peaches giggled and thankfully kept up his magic hands. “You’re really tense. Are you sure you can keep this up every day?”
“It’ll get better,” I answered with more conviction than I should have had. “I’ll get stronger.” That’s the way muscles worked, and wing muscles were no different. I would get stronger. I had to get stronger.
“I’m glad to hear that.” Peaches sounded glad .
Or maybe relieved. “I know you’re exhausted, but I’ve never seen you this content before, this at peace.
It’s good, Phil. I was so worried. The trees at the orchard were concerned about me today.
” Peaches made the offhanded comment like it wasn’t a big deal, but that was far from true.
Just as homes reflected a home-and-hearth pixie’s heart, so nature did with a garden pixie.
“I’m sorry I worried you.”
“Nonsense.” Peaches dug his fingers in a little deeper, easing the knots in my back.
“It was a good kind of worry, not like the kind I had with your previous job. Mostly I was concerned this wouldn’t work out.
It’s . . . He’s a were, Phil. And not just a were, but a wolf.
They don’t always have the best reputations, and the more I got to thinking about things, I wondered why his pack’s not helping with his niece and nephew.
I thought that was the point of the whole pack mentality. ”
I managed to pull my arms up and tuck them under my pillow, resting my head on top of both.
I didn’t think what Sedrick told me earlier was supposed to be a secret.
He’d initially kept it from me because he feared I’d turn down the job.
Knowing the Belviews were involved, even peripherally, I would have still said yes eagerly.
Sedrick didn’t understand just how desperate I was.
If he had known, he would have been forthcoming from the start.