Chapter 9
Melbourne loved being the mayor. He’d given up the seat a few years, only to then go back and straighten things up again.
The town was looking good, and he was proud of the way things were going.
They had no crime to speak of, and no one was getting hurt around town because things had been taken care of.
Case in point, the sidewalks. They were all beautifully maintained and cleaned up every summer so that they could be used by all the kids who were coming into town for different things.
“I have two questions for you.” Melbourne smiled at his mate and the love of his life. “First of all, did you know that William was killed?”
“I heard about it from Fowler earlier this morning. He said that the dragon slayer killed him. He wouldn’t go into who that was, but I left it alone.
Whatever happened there couldn’t have been a more deserving man for it.
” Sammy agreed with him. “What were your questions? I’m all ears for the love of my life. ”
“How sweet. I love you too.” She looked frustrated. “Don’t get me sidetracked. You know I hate when you do that.” All he did was laugh and pat his lap. “If I sit there, I’ll never remember what it was I was going to ask you. Something about the house…?”
“I’ll distract you. I thought you’d like to know that the meeting that the other women are having is over now.
You dodged a bullet by being too busy to go.
I know you wanted to, but I also know that getting your truck in for supplies is more important.
” She said she’d gotten it done about an hour ago.
“Good job. Also, you’ll be happy to know that you’ve not been voted into any committees that you can’t get out of.
I think you might be on the flower pots, but that’s easy, you said.
Just assign some of the faeries to the job, and that’s it. ”
“I don’t mind that job so much. Like you said, just get a few of the millions of faeries around to help out, and I’m finished.
And keeping them watered is easy too. What other committee am I on?
” He told her. “That’s a good one. I can be objective because we don’t have any kids going to the school.
I like that one too. Thank you for telling me.
Oh, the questions. I remember now. What are your plans for Thanksgiving?
I know that it was left up to us if we wanted to host it this year again, but I think that it should be Sidney and Olivia’s turn.
We’ve done it for the last five years or so. ”
“I agree. That’s an easy one. One of us can talk to them the next time we see them.
I have to work in the office the day after Thanksgiving, but that shouldn’t affect anything else we have going on.
The Christmas lighting will be that night, so no worries there either.
” He asked her what her second question was.
“Unless Thanksgiving and who was going to host it were two questions.”
“It was. Thanks for rambling while I figured it out.” She finally sat down on his lap. “Have you told anyone yet? About the baby?”
“No one. I wanted to wait like you do until Christmas. I know they think that we’re not having any, but this will be a great surprise for them all.
” She said it had been for her as well. “I bet. When we said we’d have them someday, I never dreamed it would be so late in our lives.
I’m just glad that we talked about it and got it straightened out for us before we created one. ”
Melbourne put his hand on her still flat belly and kissed his mate.
She was his everything, and he would tell anyone that.
As soon as her cell phone rang, he let her go to answer it.
Little bit of Sunshine was doing so well that she’d opened two more restaurants across the state.
And he’d been having fun supporting her.
“I want to tell your mom first. She’ll be the happiest. She’s forever hinting about how we’ve never made her and your dad grandparents.
I think they have like thirty grandkids and at least a dozen great-grandkids.
One more will be lost in the crowd.” He didn’t think his mom would ever be unhappy about another child in the family.
She was as bad as his dad about spoiling them.
“And your grandma. She’ll need to be there when we tell your mom.
Which I wonder now if they’d already known or not. I know that they can be sneaky.”
“Dad might know, but he’d never tell until we said something.
And I’ve been staying away from Fowler, too, so that he doesn’t know.
I can’t seem to keep anything from him.” She lay her head on his shoulder.
“I love you, darling wife. I don’t know how I could be so happy every day with you in my life. But I am. More so daily.”
“I love you too.” She didn’t move, and he didn’t rush her. He had things he was working on, but there was never anything as important as she was when she needed him. “Do you suppose we should retire?”
“From what?” He was slightly distracted or might have caught onto her feelings.
“Retire from what, love? We already don’t work but a couple of days a month.
You do go in and do the ordering because you like to stay on top of that, but you don’t go into the restaurant unless you have to.
I’m not mayor this time, but with the elections coming up, I’m a shoo-in for that job.
And it’s a piece of cake now that everything is in working order around town.
Are you asking me if we should go on a long vacation?
Because if you are, I’m all for it. Before the baby is born. ”
“I’d like to see Europe again. Perhaps take a month off and go see the world.
I don’t care.” They’d been all over the world in some capacity or another.
Just going on a trip or working for the family.
They would be asked to do it because they could without children.
Children could make business difficult when you had them hanging around your legs.
He couldn’t wait until he had a few doing the same.
They’d already decided on only having two or three.
More than that, and they’d be too set in their ways.
They were kind of anyway. Set in their ways, Melbourne thought.
When they were getting annoyed by their nieces and nephews, they decided it was time to have their own before they got to the point of being annoyed by their own children.
Melbourne did his own investments and was quite good at them. When he finished up, making sure to invest in the smaller companies too, he looked up to find the youngest of Fowler’s children sitting in the chair across from him. He looked around before speaking to her.
“How did you get here?” Celesta shrugged and told him she wanted to talk to him. “All right. But your parents know where you are, right? I mean, you’ve not gone missing again, have you?”
She’d done that once before. Come up missing from the other realm, and no one could find her anywhere.
Come to find out she was in this realm playing with his brother’s children, having tea and cookies with their dolls.
She said she’d gotten bored with playing with her brothers.
She told him that her momma knew where she was.
“All right, sweetie, tell me what it is I can do for you. I’m all ears.
” She sighed, and he looked around the room.
If he were honest with himself, he never really enjoyed this child’s company.
She was odd and seemed to be focused on the rules a great deal.
“I was just going to have some lunch. Have you had any yet?”
“Not yet. I was hoping that you and I could have some together. I have something important to tell you.” He got up from his desk and held her hand while they entered the kitchen. “You don’t need to be afraid of me, Uncle Melbourne. I’d never harm you.”
“I know that. I’m not afraid of you, honey.” He didn’t think he was until she brought it up, however. “Why would I be afraid of you? You’ve never done anything to me to make me think that you’d harm me.”
She didn’t say anything more while he got them out some sandwiches.
Since there were children coming by their home all the time, he and Sammy made sure there were plenty of snacks and good food for them to eat when they dropped in.
This was unusual because Celesta lived in the other realm with her parents.
He handed her some carrot sticks to go with her sandwich.
He was halfway through his when she looked at him again.
“Daddy is freaking out, and only you can help him.” He said that he’d never seen Fowler freaked out and wondered what had happened to him. “I told him something today. And he saw me kill my great-grandfather. He was a bad man.”
Celesta was just a child and hadn’t killed anyone, he thought. Trying to make it so that she’d not be upset with him, he asked her how she’d killed him when the dragon slayer was said to have done it. She nodded and drank some of her juice before answering.
“Did you know that he was beating on Great Grandma?” He said that he’d not. She’d never said a word. “He was. Hurting her so badly that she would have to lie down for days at a time to heal. It wasn’t good for her to have to do that.”
“How did you find out?” He was going gently with the child.
He didn’t want her to tell her dad that he’d made fun of her in any way.
Not that he was afraid of Celesta, he wasn’t.
He just thought her odd. She told him that the faeries had told her.
“Well, that’s a good reason to kill him off, but I’d heard that someone else had done it.
Unless you’re telling me that you’re the dragon slayer. Are you?”