He was sitting at the only table that would hold six people.Spread out around him was paperworkshe was sure he was going to go over with her.Having ordered already, her meal was ready for her to pick up as soon as she entered the door.Taking it to the table, he stood up.The man couldn’t have been any shorter than four foot nothing.
“Hello.I’m so happy to meet you tonight.Like I said, we’ve been wanting to get this off our books for some time.”She told him she was going to eat while he talked.“Sure, sure.I can talk to anyone at any time.I so love people.My name is Mr.Gloom.”His laughter caught her off guard, as did his name.
“Katie Richardson.I work for L&L Landscaping.You said that my dad left me something?”He said that he had through her mother.“So I have to go through probate to get whatever he left her.I see.I knew this was going to be something that was going to take up a lot of my time.What do I have to do?Sign over my firstborn child to get to whatever he left her?”
“You’d do that?”He seemed so shocked that she told him no.She realized then that he didn’t know how to take joking around.She’d remember that in the future.“Oh, well, good.Your son will be very helpful to the world of faeries.”
“Sure, he will.What do I have to do?”He told her that he just needed her to sign in a couple of places, that he told her what she was getting, and they’d go from there.“All right.But I plan on reading over whatever I sign.”
“Well, of course you will.We expected no less of you.”She looked at him strangely but went back to her dinner.As he was going over the paperwork that was from her father to her mother, she wondered at the little man.That was when she noticed that he seemed to have glitter in his hair.She mentioned it to him.“Oh yes, I would now, wouldn’t I.Sorry about that.It does tend to get everywhere all the time.”
This was the strangest meal she’d ever had.The little man went on about how her dad had hit it rich when he’d gotten older and had bought himself a large mansion.She only about half listened to Mr.Gloom as he kept getting sidetracked about things in the room.Once, she caught him staring at the window for no reason, and it took her five minutes of him going on about faeries to get him back on track.There was something very much wrong with the man.
“So what happened to the mansion?”He seemed distracted again.“The one my father bought.You said it was quite large.”He explained that it had eight bedrooms and eight bathrooms, a dining room, a large eat-in kitchen, and a living room.“That is large.What happened to it?I’m assuming that he lost it in another deal that he had going on.”
“No.He managed to keep it for years.It’s a showcase of a house.It only needs to have the kitchen updated, and it will be functional for someone to move into.”Functional?She went over the pictures of the house with him.“He meant to have you and your mother move in with him, but he got sick, and then so did your mother.The house was never mentioned in his paperwork because he put it in your mother’s name when he purchased it.She should have been notified right away.”
“No one mentioned a house.”He said that it was sad, the house could have used someone living in it.“We could have used it too.”She put the pictures down.“My mother’s estate, along with my father’s, has been closed.I don’t know what I’m supposed to do now that she has this home in her name.”
“We took it upon ourselves to put it in your name.When we figured out that your mother had died not long after your father, we did the searches that were needed and found that you’re the only living heir of the house.It was put into your name just this morning.There is a little bit of money too.I have that with me.”He handed her an envelope, and she looked at the five-thousand-dollar check.“There will be more money now that we’ve been able to find you.You’ll receive a check once a month in the same amount from his investments.”
“As far as I’m to understand, my father didn’t have a pot to piss in.Sorry about the language, but that’s about the way the attorney told me when I went looking into his past.My parents had been divorced for a number of years.At least since I was a child.”Mr.Gloom told her that he was broke because everything was in her mother’s name.“How could he do that without her around?”
“He said that he owed her a great sum of money and wanted to make sure that she got it.The house is worth a great deal, as are his other investments that are in your name now, too.”She said she didn’t understand.“There’s not much to understand.We’ve done all the paperwork for you so that all you need to do is sign that you’ve received it, and everyone will be so happy.”
“Everyone but me if this is a scam.”She picked up the paperwork that claimed the house was in her name.Reading it over, she couldn’t find anything out of the ordinary for it and looked at the map that came with the deed to the house.“It says here that the house is ninety-eight thousand square feet of home and has four hundred acres of land that surrounds it.”
“There is a pool too.”He’d said that to her before, like it was important to her for some reason.“The house and the outbuildings are all in good shape, too.The pool house has a nice apartment over it for anyone who might live on the property with you.”
She continued to read while he pointed out things in the papers that now belonged to her.Like the house was furnished.Her own condo wasn’t furnished, and it looked it.There was barely any furniture in the place, and she’d lived there for five years.When she finished reading the contract over, she looked at Mr.Gloom.There was something about him, but she couldn’t put her finger on it.He was odd, but he seemed to be genuinely nice.
“I’d like to see the house.Can that be arranged?”He told her that it belonged to her and she could sell it if she wanted.“I’m going to end up doing that, I think.I can’t afford a house that big.”He seemed relieved, and she again was struck by how odd he was.
“You can see the house tonight.The electricity is still on for it.”She wondered who was paying that bill and decided that she didn’t care right now.She just wanted to see the house and be reminded of her father.“There are others like me around the house, too.They’ll be able to show you around.”
“Others like you?”He seemed to have forgotten himself for a few seconds and told her never mind.“I hope no one is living in my house.I’d hate to have to have them removed when I’ve only just found out that I own a home.I’ve dreamed of owning a big house like this one sounds all my life.”
“You’ll have such fun in it too.”She said that she would have, but it just wasn’t in the cards.“The cards?”
“You know.Fate.It wasn’t fated that I own—what’s the matter with you?”He asked if she believed in fate.“I guess I do.I never gave it much thought before, but I do know that fate has a little to do with how things end up in the world.My parents were fated to be together, but I’m happy they were, or I might not be here.That was fate to me.”
“You’d be surprised at how much fate does play in your life.”He giggled again, and she had to smile.It was like bells ringing.She had no idea where that thought had come from, but that’s what she thought each time he laughed.Pulling up in front of the house, she wondered why she trusted the man so much.He was nearly a stranger, and she was trusting him to take her to a giant house without anyone knowing where she was.As soon as she entered the house, she fell in love with it.“You like the house?”
“Oh, I love it so far.”She opened the front door and fell deeply in love with the house.It was what she’d dreamed of all her life.Her living in a mansion like this one and being loved by someone powerful and wonderful to her.It was too bad that she was going to have to sell it.
~*~
“What is it that you’re looking for in a house, and maybe we can figure it out?”He said he wanted a pool.“You can always put in a pool.Though I’ve never seen you swimming in one, I believe that putting one in after you buy the house would be all right.”
“I want to see the pool in the yard.I’m having trouble visualizing it.I know that I can have one put in, but I don’t want to have to mess with one after buying the house.”So Rance wrote down pool.“That’s a must-have.I have no idea why, but I have a feeling that my mate is going to love the outdoors and will want a pool to lounge in at the end of the day.”
“So you’ve been thinking about having a mate.I’m hoping that you’re better prepared for one than I was.I was a bastard.”He said he’d heard.“I figured everyone has by now.I don’t mind tellingyou that I’m lucky that Kimber wanted anything to do with me after the way that I treated her.”
“I don’t even care if my mate is a vampire too.Though that would be nice.However, I don’t care so long as she allows me to make her happy.And I want that more than anything.”He told him that having a mate was the best thing that had ever happened to him.“I want that too.I want to wake up with her by my side and go to bed with her each night.”
“You sound like you’ve given this a great deal of thought.”He said that he had and that he was looking forward to this more than anything.“But first you want to get a house.I understand, too, that there’s a difference between having a house and having a home.She’ll brighten things up that you never thought possible.And you’ll have the best sex of your life as well.”They both laughed.
There wasn’t much listed that had a pool, but they made arrangements to go see some that didn’t have one as well.With him there, he was hoping that he could find a house with him and have the pool added in later.Or maybe not.Rutger seemed determined that a pool be in the yard when he bought it.It might be harder to find, but he was willing to bet that the house would be epic.He didn’t seem to mind what the house looked like; he said that he could change the inside to be what he wanted.Which he thought was good thinking on his part.But it was going to be the pool that kept him from finding his dream home.
