There were four homes that they could look at today, and he set him up with those.He didn’t know why he wanted him to go with him, but he didn’t mind.He loved Rutger like a brother and would move the ends of the earth for him.They got along better than any of the others, too.
The first house with a pool seemed to not call out to Rutger.He didn’t much care for it either, as it was a fix-it-up sort of home.The kitchen was all right; it would still need some work, but it was the rest of the house that was ugly.He’d never said that about a house before and thought that the word suited it just fine.
There was shag carpet throughout the house, even in the dining room.He didn’t know why, perhaps because his own house didn’t have any in the dining room, but he thought that was the last place you’d want carpet.Even half the kitchen seemed to have the stuff through the main part to the little dining area.It would need to have a deep cleaning, as there were more cobwebs in the house than Rutger told him about the ones that he had in his own home.
The second house was nice.It didn’t have a pool, and neither one of them thought that the back yard could handle one.There was so much in the way of landscaping that there was little to no room to even walk around in the yard.He loved the living room in that it was large enough to have guests over and they’d not be crowded.But there was the pool thing, and Rutger wasn’t budging on it.
After leaving the house, they made their way to the third house.They weren’t holding out much hope; the pool had been brought up again, but they were going to see everyone so that they could see if there was room for one.If their luck was going to continue on like it was, then they were going to be looking at houses for a long, long time.He wondered if they’d be looking at every for-sale house in the county before too much longer.It wouldn’t bother him; he’d get to hang out with his best buddy, but Kimber might be jealous after a while.
“If this one is a bust, how about we find ourselves a nice bar and have a glass of wine?I could use something to end the day on.”He said that he’d love that.“Good.My treat since you were so nice to come along with me today.How’s your next week looking?I’m to understand that people are set to sell their homes on Monday because they’ve spent the entire weekend looking at their four walls and are sick of the house.”
“I never heard that before, but it makes sense.I had to take an entire week to build my house before I felt as if I got it just right.I love having Kimber there.She fills out the rooms with her brightness.”He asked him if he was sappy.“You’ll understand once she comes to you.They’re like a bright shining star in the darkest of nights, just shining through, just for you.I’m telling you, I have no idea why I was so against having a human as a mate.She’s the best thing that has ever happened to me.”
“I can tell.She must not need to cling to you all the time.When I told her that we were going out, all she said was to have fun.How can one have fun when looking for a house?It’s not fun at all.”Rancesaid he thought he was having a wonderful time.“You’re nuts.No one likes to go house hunting.It’s some kind of national rule that people hate shopping for a house.Not to mention you didn’t even house hunt.You built your house with magic, so don’t tell me that you love house hunting.You built so you’d not have to hunt.”
“You could be right.I never thought of it that way before.”They were getting out of the car for house number three when it struck him how much fun he really was having.Rance didn’t know if it was simply because he was doing it with his friend or if he was having a good time.Either way, he’d do it again and again with Rutger.Perhaps not every day, but at least a couple of times a week.“Maybe it’s all on you.You could maybe just be what people need to go house hunting with them.”
“Nah, I’m not having a good time.”Nodding, he really didn’t agree with him.Pulling into the driveway, he could see that this house was going to be a bust too, as not only was there no pool, but the yard looked like a used car dealership with broken-down cars all over it.They’d not even trimmed the weeds out of the engine blocks of the cars before showing their house.Still?Rance thought it was funny.
The last house on the list wasn’t much to look at either.It had a pool, but it wasn’t very large and had a slide that took up most of the room in the backyard.If not for that, it might have been all right.But the size was only for one person to use at a time, and it wouldn’t have been fun to enjoy.Then there was the house itself.
The woman, or he supposed it could have been the man, collected roosters.They were all over the house.In the kitchen, they were in the curtains and in the wallpaper.The little door knobs on the cabinets were roosters of different breeds.He also noticed that the rugs on the floor were the same pattern of them throughout the house.He nearly burst out laughing when he saw them in the bathroom.The toilet bowl was covered in them as well.Going out to the deck to see about the yard, he could see that there were several of the big birds all over the yard.He’d hate to think what sort of noise they made when the sun came up in the morning.
“I’m finished for the day.”Rance asked if he still wanted to get a glass of wine.“Perhaps a bottle each.I know after this house, I could drink a bottle and still see the big cocks all over the house.Do you suppose she calls them that?Big cocks, or does she call them her baby roosters?Either way, I’ve had enough for the day.”He said that he wanted to tell Kimber about the house.“Sure, go ahead, but she won’t believe it until she sees it.”
“No, I imagine not.But did you see how proud the husband was of all of them?He must have shown me the cocks room twice before I finally had to tell him that I’d seen it.What do you suppose goes through someone’s mind when they go out and purposely collect something like that?”He said that at least they were roosters and not real cocks.“Yes, there is that.”They both laughed hard as they pulled up in front of the bar.“You should tell Kimber to meet us here.She can eat and we can have fun telling her about the house.”
He agreed and called Kimber.She said that she’d meet them there in half an hour for them not to wait on her.They were having their second glass of wine, red of all things, when she came into the bar.After ordering her dinner, they told her about the houses that they’d seen.
“I wouldn’t have been able to hold my humor at the cocks house.What’s their last name anyway?Tell me it has to do with roosters or something.”They didn’t know if anyone had ever told them.“Well, from now on it’s going to be the Cocks House.I don’t even care if it’s something so mundane as Jones; it’s their names now.”
They talked about the other houses, but kept coming back to the Cocks house.It was something that he’d remember forever, and he thought that they would as well.It had been a good outing, and he was happy that he’d been a part of it.As Kimber ate her pizza, they talked about the food that they’d been able to eat as vampires.
“We can have garlic.I think that was made up by a vampire that was caught in the act of sipping from a human.”She asked if there were other things that weren’t true like that.“We can see our reflections too.How would we know that we look good when we went out side?”
They all laughed, and Rutger told her about the time he’d been caught in the act of having sex with one of his prey.It wasn’t really a funny story, but it did have a happy ending.
“I was sure that she wasn’t married.She actually told me that several times.I should have guessed by the way she kept saying it that she wasn’t.When her husband came into the room, we were in the middle of some intense sex.He didn’t take too kindly to me having his wife at my cock while I fed from her wrist.”Rutger laughed.“He didn’t get mad at me, but he did beat his wife.Then, while he stood there with a gun pointed at me, he had her go down on him, too.It was the strangest encounter that I’ve ever had with a woman.Or man, for that matter.Needless to say, I’m much more careful when it comes to feeding.”
“I would imagine so.”Kimber asked him how he could tell if they lied to him.“She wasn’t my mate, so it was perfectly acceptable for her to be able to lie to me.So when she insisted that she wasn’t married, I guess I was too hungry to question her.I’m much more careful nowadays.”
“I hope so.I don’t want anything to happen to my best friends.”He asked her if she really thought of him as a best friend.“Of course I do.You’re the greatest man among the others.I can’t wait until you meet your mate so that we can be friends too.
They enjoyed the rest of their evening.While Rutger still didn’t have a house, they’d had fun during the outing, and that made it well worth it all.As soon as the weekend rolled around, they were going to go looking for other houses and hit up a couple of estate sales while they were at it.Rutger was forever looking at estate sales for sales of wine, and Rance looked to see if he could find anything that he’d made while he’d been younger.He’d made a lot of furniture at one point in his life and had been on the lookout for it since meeting up with Kimber.
He’d only been able to find one piece of furniture, and that was fine by him.It had been so long ago that he’d forgotten that he’d made it.Looking at it now, he wondered why he didn’t sell more pieces as he’d quit soon after selling a couple to the family down the street from where he lived.
Chapter 10
Determined to sleep at least one night in the mansion, Katie decided it was going to be the master bedroom.The mattress was still in the plastic cover, almost as if it had arrived too late for them to put it on the bed to be used.She didn’t care; it was going to be her place to sleep tonight in the big room on the new mattress.
It took her most of the afternoon to get the used mattress off and the new one on, but it had been well worth it.Just lying on the bed with the sheets in the basket to be washed was more than she could have hoped for.Putting her things in the washer, she was ready to explore the rest of the house before she had to sell it.And she really hated to do that.
The first room that she explored was the kitchen.She didn’t find much in there that reminded her of her dad and moved on to the dining room.The first thing there that she discovered was the dining wear set that had been shoved into the two China cabinets in the room.There had to be twenty-four place settings to go with the narrow dining room table and chairs.There was so much of it that it had been stacked on top of each other without rhyme or reason.She wanted to pull it out and start over, but she thought that she’d be all day and that would take up her exploring time.
The plates and other pieces were pretty.It has a cornflower design on it that went with the place settings of silverware.The tablecloth was folded up and put into a plastic bag that had the same design on it for the table.
She would have loved to be able to set it up and see it in all its glory, but time wasn’t on her side, and she didn’t want to get it all out only to have to put it all away again.She was hoping to sell the house as is with all the furniture and items in it, but the banker wasn’t holding out much hope for that.The house went on the market in five days.All the time, she was going to be able to stay in the house until it was sold to some person who wouldn’t know how hard it was for her to sell it.
