Total pages in book: 254
Estimated words: 240032 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 1200(@200wpm)___ 960(@250wpm)___ 800(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 240032 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 1200(@200wpm)___ 960(@250wpm)___ 800(@300wpm)
But as I glanced to the side to ask Henri if the magic in the air affected him, I kept my question to myself.
He was glaring forward. The angle of his jaw was strained, and I was pretty sure the muscle between his cheek and ear was kind of bulging. His bone structure gave him a striking profile.
I had to stop checking him out sometime soon.
“You all right, Fluffy?” I asked him, noticing that his lips were pinched.
“Yes.”
I called BS on that from the way his back molars seemed clamped together at the moment, but all right. “Okay.”
He didn’t want to confide in me? That was fine. He’d made that clear in the kitchen, hadn’t he?
I focused on the homes and buildings that I’d only seen from a distance. For the most part, they were all the same size, with some slightly bigger than others. A woman standing outside of a small cabin waved as we drove by, and I was only mildly surprised when Henri greeted her back. I did too, figuring I needed to be friendly with my, hopefully, future neighbors.
Only after that did I let myself peek again at the broody-looking man to my left.
How does he feel about mating?
I looked away.
Ahead, the path we were on split. There were multiple ones that wound through the trees; none of them were paved, but they were all in good condition and free of debris. I’d lived at enough campgrounds to know how often weeds grew and overran everything. The gravel mini roads connected every building either to a main path or, in a few cases, to each other. There were even speed signs with the number 5 every hundred or so feet. While the forest was thick, plenty of sunlight snuck through, making the village seem just as unreal as it had the night before. It was adorable.
It was so adorable.
I couldn’t help but “ooh” and “ahh.” There were so many cabins and houses tucked in the trees. Most of them were log homes, blending into the surroundings perfectly, but there were a few that seemed new, painted neutral shades, with metal siding halfway up them.
The man behind the wheel drove a whole 7 miles an hour down the road. Eventually, we slowed down when we got by a house with a fenced-in garden. In one of the beds, a little boy was kneeling, and at the sound of us approaching, he lifted his head.
It was Shiloh.
With a white T-shirt covered in multicolored handprints, his satyr legs tucked under him, my new friend had the most mournful expression on his face. It managed to get even worse when he must have realized it was us, because he looked even sadder as he lifted his arm and waved, a small shovel in his hand.
“I’m not slowing down to talk to him. Part of his punishment for running off is that he’s grounded, and that means no socializing. His family asked everyone to not come by their house until he’s not in trouble anymore.”
I winced, but I’d been grounded before. “Is Pascal in trouble too?”
“Big trouble.”
Henri and I both waved as we drove past the house, and I snuck a glance over my shoulder afterward to find Shiloh staring after us.
I waved at him again as slyly as I could, and that earned me a cute smile and a happier wave.
“He’ll be all right,” the man beside me promised, probably noticing what I’d done but not bothered too much by it.
Soon after that, Henri pointed toward a newer structure that kind of looked like a home but didn’t at the same time. There weren’t enough windows. Two satellite dishes were mounted to the metal roof. “That’s the teenagers’ building. Anyone is technically allowed in, but we try to give them their own space in there.”
The teenagers here had their own space? “That’s so nice,” I told him. “How many teenagers live here?”
We kept driving. “Between the ages of thirteen and eighteen? Eighteen.”
“Wow.”
He nodded and pointed at a discreet-looking brown building off into the distance. “We’re on a community well. Someone is usually doing something to maintain it. We try to conserve water as much as possible. Keep that in mind while you’re with us.”
While you’re with us.
Beyond all the homes, we came to a huge field with five massive greenhouses. He explained that they grew as much food as they could, that everyone was expected to participate in their upkeep, but that there were two members who worked in the greenhouses exclusively as a full-time job.
There were also several henhouses and another structure where they grew mushrooms for the community’s herbivores and omnivores.
After that, Henri drove me to a field of solar panels and told me all about how the ranch used a mix of solar, wind, and hydropower from a nearby river to provide electricity for the entire property. He also stressed the importance—again—of conservation and how much work it was to keep this place running in harmony.