“What do you say to having dinner with me tonight?”She asked him if he was sure.“I am.I’d like to get to know you better, and I can’t think of a way to do that other than us going out.It was so much fun the last time we went out with Devlin.Even though he did abandon us.”
She said that she remembered.“It was nice, I will admit that.And I would like to get out of the house for a little while.It’s been good getting things done around here, however.I do have to get the kitchen cleaned out.The things in the cabinet will be fine, but not the things in the refrigerator or the freezer.Luckily, they didn’t have much in either one.”
“I guess that would be because they had a cook.I’ve noticed that my brothers don’t have much in the way of leftovers when they have a cook.I think the staff takes home what’s left over.”She said she didn’t know she’d never had a cook or staff at all before.“Me either.I’ve only had someone come in and clean up after me once in a while.Like once a week, I guess.Other than that, I’ve never really had much in the way of help.But then I’m not really home all that much.”
“I work a lot too.I clerk for Judge Rainer, and I love my job.He’s the one who suggested that your brother go to the reading of the will with me.I’m ever so grateful that he did.I don’t know what I would have done without him there.”Ivan said his brother was handy for a lot of things that were law-related.“I guess so.I never wanted to be an attorney.I like what I do, and that’s about the extent of it.”
“He works for my oldest brother and his wife most of the time.He does take on cases that he likes.And when he did that for you, I guess.He’s a great brother.He also helped me out with the transfer of the vet’s office to me.It wasn’t that big of a deal, just an exchange of ownership, but it helped me from not having to find an attorney to do it for me.”She said that it was nice having an attorney in the family.“It saves in having to find one that you can trust.”
“I would imagine so.I trust the men and women I work for, but that’s about all.They seem to do a good job when in the courtroom.”She decided to change the subject and smiled at him.“This isn’t talking about us.I was wondering how long you’ve been a vet?Not long, I’m guessing.”
“About two years now.Only six months with my own.It’s not been as hard starting out because everyone who was with the other vet just stayed with me.I had a built-in clientele.It made it nice because I could hit the ground running instead of trying to drum up business when I was just starting out.Doc Winter was a good vet, and people loved him.That’s what I’m hoping for at the end of my career, someone to take over for me when I’m ready to retire.”
“I never owned a pet in my life.Not even a goldfish.I was at boarding school when I was younger until I graduated from there.Then I went to college for a while and never had time for one there either.”He said he thought every child should have a pet.“I’ll maybe get one now that I have a house and yard.I noticed that the pool is fenced in, so I’d not have to worry about that.I might even just get me a cat to live indoors.”
“We don’t do well with cats being shifter wolves.Dogs are all right with us.With Lica being the alpha, they tend to hang around more when they’re strays than not.You could get a kitten, and shecould get used to me hanging around.”She said she might do that.As a dog wasn’t really her cup of tea.“You wound me.”
They both laughed, and she made them a cup of tea each.She’d always loved the tea that her aunt would get for her, and she found the same brand and flavor in her cabinets.Making the cup for them both, they talked about what they enjoyed in food.She wasn’t much of a taste tester when it came to new foods.
“I think it’s the way that I grew up again.There wasn’t much of a variety at school, and I guess I got used to that.”He said that since he’d been out on his own, he’d been trying everything that he could get his teeth sunk into.“I’m going to have to get used to that, I guess.It might not be so bad as all that.I might find I like other foods.”
“Good.We’ll try that out tonight.You get something off the menu that you might not otherwise try, and we’ll have fun trying each other’s food.What do you say?”She laughed and told him that she’d give it a shot.“This will be fun for both of us, I think.We’ll have some fun and find out if you like to branch out in different foods.”
They talked about different foods that they ate, and she realized that she’d not eaten all that many different kinds when compared to him.He’d been trying foods since he’d been out on his own and could tolerate about anything, while she was picky about even what she had in her salad.She didn’t care for cucumbers, and he loved them.Of course he did, she thought with a smile.
Once the fridge and freezer were cleaned up, she made a list of things that she would need if she were going to live here.She didn’t see any reason why she wouldn’t, but she was sort of afraid of her mother.If she found out anything about the money, she had a feeling that she would try to kill her.She was only just remembering when she’d been a child, and she’d beaten her so badly that she’d ended up in the hospital.
“I don’t remember what had happened to cause her to beat me so badly.I do remember her hurting me severely.Uncle Robert made sure I was put in a nice room at the hospital.I was there for a couple of weeks.”He asked what had been done to her.“I had stitches in my face and neck.Then I had a broken leg that I had to deal with when I was in the other school.They were good about getting me to classes, but other than that, I don’t remember.Maybe I don’t want to remember it was that bad.”
“Could be.Some of the beatings that we got as kids, I remember well.But then there were others that would have put us in the hospital if we’d been able to go.My mother was more scary than my father.And he would egg her on about hurting us.I think that’s why we were so afraid of her.She didn’t know when to stop beating us when she started.”Ivan told her of the time she’d beaten Edmond so badly with her high heel that he lost a toe.“He had to learn to walk without it, and that took him a long time.His wolf limps as well because of it.”
“I’m sorry that you had to go through that.I can’t imagine going through anything like that every day.Devlin told me once that the only time you got any relief from them was when they were in the jail system.And that wasn’t often enough.”He said they would get out and start on them that day.“I’m so very sorry you had that as a child growing up.As I said, I can’t remember why my mother beat me, but I know that it was bad.So far as I know, it was only the one time, but you had it every day.”
“We stuck together, the six of us.And when Mother went to prison, we stayed with the nicest couple around town to be raised by them until Devlin was old enough to leave home.And all we did was borrow enough money from them to buy our farm and work from there.I got to go to college because I worked hard and got good grades.It was hard for all of us to get an education, but we knew that we’d never make it in the world without one.”She said that was why she’d gone to college, too.To better herself.“We have a lot in common, the two of us.That’s good, don’t you think?”
“I do.I think we’ll get along well.”Ivan left about four o’clock to go home and shower, and change.He said for her to dress up and they’d make an evening of it.She was looking forward to it as much as she was to anything else that she’d been doing of late and was glad that he’d asked her.
~*~
Ivan cleaned up his place a little bit before getting in the shower.He didn’t have a huge mess, but hedid have things lying around that should have been put away when he was finished with them.He did read his email about the houses that he was looking into.He wanted a house as much as his brothers did.After getting a shower, he decided that he’d look deeper into the email about the three houses and see what he could come up with.The other house was nice, but he thought that it had a lot of problems in the way it was laid out.There didn’t seem to be much in the way of flow about the house, and that bothered him.But he’d stay if she loved the house.It was entirely up to her where they lived.
There were three houses that he liked, but one of them was well out of his price range.He really liked where it was sitting in relation to his brothers’ homes, but it was a mammoth of a house with ten bedrooms and eleven baths.Filling it out would be expensive as well.
The other two houses were modest-sized homes.One of them had five bedrooms; one could be converted into an office.The other had four bedrooms but only one bathroom.He thought that would be a nightmare just waiting to happen if there were only one bathroom, so he decided to pass on that one.
Setting up a time to go and see the second house, he closed out his email and put his laptop away.He didn’t have an office in the condo, but he did use the living room as much as he could when he had to be on the computer.It was nice in that he could watch television while he worked.Making fun of himself, he also had the biggest messes in the living room when he did that, too.Crumbs were everywhere, and he had two empty glasses in there as well.Cleaning up, he put everything in the dishwasher so that he could run it tomorrow.With just one person in the house, he didn’t have to run it every day.
By the time he was ready to leave the house for dinner, he had cleaned up his house and made his bed with clean sheets.The washer had already done its part in cleaning his clothing and sheets, and he was just waiting for the dryer to finish its part.It would be nice to get into a nice, clean bed with clean sheets, and he found that he was looking forward to it almost as much as he was to his date.
Out the door on time, he started his car and made his way to Sen’s house.She didn’t live all that far away from him, but it was made a little more reckless by the streets being covered in snow from this morning.Spring was just a couple of weeks away, and he thought that it couldn’t come soon enough for him.He was sick of the cold, wet snow and wanted the warmth of the sunshine to shine down on his poor old body.Laughing, he pulled into her driveway just as she was coming out with a bag in her hands.
“I didn’t want to leave the trash in the house for tonight.”He took it from her and put it in the trash cans that were at the end of the street.“I’m not sure what day they pick up around here, but since everyone else had theirs out, I thought that I’d do the same.It’s going to be ugly tomorrow, isn’t it?”
“We’re not supposed to get any more snow tonight, but snow showers in the morning hours.I think that they’ll call school simply because of the back roads that are around here.”She said she agreed with him.“There are a lot of kids that live out in the boonies around here, and they have slick roads when the snow comes along.”
“I never had that problem, so I don’t know.I bet you did when you were growing up.”He told her how he and his brothers all walked to school, so it was nice when school was called off because of the weather.“I guess I thought you were in the district that you’d catch a bus.”
“If you lived within so many miles of the school, you had to walk.It made for a lot of walkers when I was in school.”He took her keys from her to lock up the house.“I have made us some reservations at a nice place.I hope you don’t mind.”
