Chapter Twelve

It was weird because the last thing I wanted to do was talk about the motel, but also at the same time, it was exactly what I wanted to do. Talking about the motel was, in a way, talking about our future. Sure, right now they were talking about immediate needs, like fixing the walls or refinishing the floors—basic stuff. But the motel symbolized more than that—it symbolized a future. A future for us, and a future for Thia. And with that realization in mind, this conversation suddenly became a lot more serious and much less about what my wolf was begging me to do, which was to claim them both.

"There's not a lot of big things to be done," I said. "When we first came in the driveway and were facing the hotel, if you looked all the way to the left, that area of the roof needs a patch. We are going to have to go down and replace some plywood before reshingling the area, but it's not too big."

"And the rest of it?" Zeus asked.

"I had the complete roof looked at, and the rest of it's got at least another solid ten years on it. And from what I could tell from being up there, they were spot on. My guess is that part was where they didn't fully do the repairs before they put new shingles on. So, we're really looking at a rather old problem, as opposed to a new one." Which had been a relief for me. If it had been a new one, we were on borrowed time for the rest of the roof. This meant, someone took a shortcut, a bad one.

"Wait…" Zeus interrupted. "You said you were up on the roof?"

"Yeah, I was." It wasn't particularly high or steep. The way he made it sound it was a vertical drop eighteen stories up.

"Like, just up there, walking around?"

I nodded.

"Isn't that dangerous?"

"No more so than when I…" I decided it was best if I didn't mention any of the things I'd done around here that were less safe than that. Some things were better left unsaid. "It's fine."

It was unusual for me to have somebody worrying about me in any real way. Sure, coworkers at the bar would "worry" if I wasn't ten minutes early, but that was more about themselves than me. This was new and different. It was nice but also a little bit awkward because I didn't know how to respond. I guess I had time to learn.

"So, is that the big thing time and moneywise?" Zeus asked.

"I suppose, if you frame it that way, the garden is the big thing. There's so much here but so much that needs to be done as well." It was a mess but held so much potential.

"Oh, I have ideas," Ripley said, "so many." It wasn't the first time he mentioned it.

And I didn't doubt that for a second. He spaced out multiple times while we were talking, his eyes on that garden.

I gave the two of them the rundown of all the things that needed to be done both inside and out. At this point, it was all pretty much cosmetic, which was good. Nothing truly scary had showed up as I was working on it, like I originally feared. There were no rat infestations or mold problems to be had. No structural issues that needed to be taken care of. Not even insulation issues. I'd lucked out like that.

And as far as progress went, I had about half the painting done, which left another half, but that was all doable. Some floors needed redoing, some furniture needed replacing, but over all, it was much closer to done than when I got here. It would be much closer still in another month, especially with their help.

I had a feeling living in a place like this meant it would never fully be done. But that was okay. I was here for the long haul.

"I like it here," Thia announced, suddenly, twirling over. "There's lots and lots of fairies."

I thought she'd been referring to the statues and remains of statues that were still around. But instead, she twirled and whirled and talked about different flowers she saw and what kinds of fairies lived with each. Most of the flowers were weeds at this point, but that was in the eye of the beholder. In her eyes, they were beautiful flowers that housed equally beautiful fairies.

There was such magic in childhood. Even though she'd been through so much in her short life, she still looked at everything as sunshine and roses, and I wanted to give her that. Heck, I wanted to see it that way, too.

Maybe, just maybe, the three of us together could give her that childhood, the one where every day is a new adventure and filled with more laughter than tears and lots of hugs and unconditional love. No one could bring her father back or take that hurt from her. But we could sure try to give her the life her father would've wanted for her.

We kept talking about the property, and suddenly it hit me just how weird this entire conversation was. Not in general. Of course we'd be talking about the property and what it needed. But it was the things we weren't talking about that really sideswiped me.

We knew we were mates and accepted it. There was no rejection or second-guessing. We were mates, full stop. But other than that acknowledgment, we were just three men sitting here chatting about paint colors. We hadn't even marked each other yet, or even come close. Part of that was because of Thia. It wasn't something you would chat about in front of children. But also, all of this was so new and I had a feeling that played a part in it, too.

Even so, I was fine with us not jumping right in with fangs and claws. This, what we had and were growing, was right. I felt it. They felt it. And based on everything Thia had shown us, she felt it, too—that we all were family.

All that was left was figuring out how we wanted it to look moving forward.