Total pages in book: 115
Estimated words: 109329 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 547(@200wpm)___ 437(@250wpm)___ 364(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 109329 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 547(@200wpm)___ 437(@250wpm)___ 364(@300wpm)
“A bib,” Aunt Florence cut in.
“That sort of thing, remember?” Patty smiled at him.
Aunt Florence stepped closer. “Besides, you’ll never get a woman looking like that.”
“They’ll assume they have to burn their clothes after a night out with you,” Patty said. “That’s no way to live. Come on, come with us and we’ll help you to the barber.”
“Yes, we’ve already made an appointment.” Aunt Florence turned and looped her arm through his. “It’s not expensive. All you have to do is sit down in the chair and let Gill work wonders. He’ll have you cleaned up in no time.”
“Yes, Gill. He’s just the ticket. C’mon.” Patty looped her arm through his free one.
“But I don’t want to go…” Sasquatch whined.
“Nonsense. This is just the thing.” Patty practically dragged him forward, helped by Aunt Florence. “There’s that cute little bartender to consider. Let’s give her a clean face to look at, shall we?”
“But she hates me,” he moaned.
Patty tsked. “That’s only because of your personality. You can change that, no problem.”
“It’s about time you do, anyway. It’s been terrible for long enough, hasn’t it?”
“Yes,” Patty agreed.
“Yes,” Aunt Florence said.
I watched with glee as the two women dragged my nemesis away. It really was impossible to say no to them, but it was great that he’d wanted to and couldn’t.
“What a lovely gift for a sublime summer’s evening,” I said, laughing, as we entered the bar.
“They’re always after him. He can’t seem to get a moment’s peace with all the garhettes in town.”
“Good, the jerk.”
4
Jessie
The bar was alive with movement and laughter and people having fun. Garhettes, gargoyles, shifters, and the occasional basajaunak filled the space to nearly bursting, the happy hour only a tiny window but incredibly popular. There weren’t many Dicks and Janes left in the area, most of them cashing in on the high house prices, happy to escape the strange people all “randomly” flocking to the area.
The influx of gargoyles and garhettes had certainly been extreme. A lot of them had had to find houses to buy or rent in the nearby towns. Our territory now spanned four towns and counting, each of them spreading out. Eventually it would be one big area with little hubs in each community. A lot of shifters had crowded in as well, hearing about opportunities, curious about Austin’s leadership, or having had a run-in with mages and wanting to do something about it.
Niamh sat in her usual spot, a place picked long before I’d shown up in the area, and always vacated when she walked in. No one wanted to mess with the puca, and sitting in her seat was the best way to get noticed. Next to her sat Phil, his spot reserved for very similar reasons. Nessa was next to them.
People nodded at me or smiled, moving out of my way as I walked through. Then they took a few more steps after noticing Austin coming in behind me.
“I’ll meet you there, Jess.” I felt his hand rub down my back. “I want to check in.”
Despite not technically being the manager of the bar anymore, Austin always had a hand in its affairs. He was like that with all his businesses, trusting Mimi to handle it, but keeping an eye on things to ensure everything was running how he wanted them.
“Hey, Jessie.” Nessa straightened up, having been leaning over to talk to someone down the bar. She beamed at me. “How are you?” She stood and shoved the chair toward Niamh a little. “Here, take that one. I’ll scoot down.” She looked at the man sitting in the seat next to her. “Shoo!”
The man was usually one of the surlier patrons, and I waited for him to push back, but he blinked twice and almost robotically vacated his seat without a word.
“Too much.” Niamh shook her head. “Everyone will notice.”
“What?” I took a seat, knowing better than to argue.
“If it was anywhere else,” Niamh went on, talking to Nessa, “he’d cause a problem the moment he snapped out of it.”
Nessa took his seat and moved her drink down. “Right. If it were anywhere else. He’s not stupid—he won’t cause a problem in this bar, especially when the alphas are here.”
“And if he catches ye outside and suspects ye’re messing with him, like?” Niamh arched a brow. “Ye’re a mage. He might not know what ye did, but he’ll suspect it was somethin’.”
Nessa shrugged. “Then I’ll give him a kiss as I stick a knife in his gut. It wouldn’t be the first time someone thought I was easy pickings.”
“Okay”—I held up my hand—“wait a minute. What? Start from the beginning.”
Niamh shook her head. “That can wait. Where’s that lummox, Austin Steele? I need to chat to yis before that other lummox brings the third lummox into the bar.”
“You have now exhausted the number of times you can use the word lummox,” Phil said, his big hand wrapped around his bottle of beer.