Wolves at the Door - Lidiya Foxglove Page 0,53

looking great. Have you thought about painting the doors?”

“No! I really need help stripping old paint and wallpaper and refinishing floors.”

“But I think it’s really those little details that make people fall for a house,” Billie said.

“Her crew did all that boring stuff, from what I gather,” Gaston said. “You’re her crew now. And so am I, as long as you pay me.”

“I thought old vampires were always rich too,” Billie said.

He shrugged. “I had a gambling problem.”

“Had or have?” Billie said.

“Had. Mostly.”

“I’m not paying you too much then,” she retorted. “Not to watch you flush it down the drain.”

If this was what I had to work with, thank goodness for the Sullivan brothers. No matter what happened, I hoped our date went well tomorrow…if nothing else, so they’d keep working hard for me.

Chapter Twenty-Four

Helena

Workaholics gonna workaholic, so a week went by without the date, or much of anything except me stripping old paint, then slapping up primer, then new paint. The whole damn project was basically repainting the entire house. I was going to have extra-awesome arms thanks to Greenwood Manor. It would be extremely worth it, and that kept me going. Turning the bright colors into softer shades was transforming the house. It still had all of its old house charm but it didn’t hurt my eyes. Under candlelight every room was a new delight.

Graham called from the hospital.

“I lost the election by half a percent,” he said, sounding understandably in a low mood. “And the nurses here think I’m a medical miracle. My bones were showing up broken on the X-Ray and now they’re not.”

“You’re probably their favorite patient too,” I said. “Getting a lot of sponge baths?”

“I need to get out of here…but I’m not sure I’m strong enough to travel yet.”

“Should I…come get you?”

“No. You have work to do. I’m feeling better every day.”

“Should I dream about you?”

“I won’t say no.”

“Okay.” I smiled. “See you soon.”

He should be safe from Piers in the hospital, at least.

“I finished the artists’ cottage!” Billie declared.

“Great,” I said. At this point, I hated anyone who was able to do anything with their life besides painting.

“It’s charming,” Gaston said. “I think it will be very enticing for your buyers.”

“I didn’t realize you flip houses too.” I was getting a little passive aggressive now, but seriously, he could have been working on patching up the exterior if we were paying him.

We were all eating breakfast sort of together, in a haphazard way, taking turns making eggs in the electric skillet and toast in the toaster, the two appliances the Sullivans plugged into one of the few outlets in the dining room.

“I heard you’re planning to sell it to faeries,” Gaston said.

“That is the hope. Faeries are motivated to buy parallels.”

“So they’ll be my neighbors. I’ve always heard faeries are tricksters.”

“They do have that reputation,” Billie said, not helping at all.

“So they better not mess with my horses.”

“I’m sure they won’t mess with your horses,” I said.

“I hope not,” Billie said. “I’ve never met a faery.”

I put down my toast. “You don’t want to sell it to the faeries anymore? What happened here last night?”

Billie glanced at Gaston with a weird little smile. “Well, Gaston took me to see his horses. We went riding when the project was done.”

“No big deal,” Gaston said, with a little French shrug. He was wearing a cap and a scarf around his neck, and he was also smoking a cigarette, so he was giving me this vibe. One annoying thing about vampires is that they all smoke because they were all alive during the Mad Men years and they can’t die.

“Did you come over here to seduce Billie into making sure you like your new neighbors?” I asked outright.

Billie laughed. “Oh, come on, Hel! It ain’t like that!”

“She seduced me into painting her cottage,” Gaston said. “It’s only fair. Of course I don’t want to bring down the neighborhood with odd characters.”

Takes one to know one, I thought.

“But I’ve never met a faery,” he said. “I guess…we will see.”

“He didn’t seduce me,” Billie added. “It was just a horseback ride.”

“Under the moonlight,” Gaston said.

“It’s fine,” Billie said. “Gaston can meet the new faeries and we’ll see how it goes.”

“You can’t get the neighbors involved in a house sale!” I had never heard of such a thing. “It’s not his house! We’re not going to see how it goes! What are you going to do if he doesn’t like them?”

Jake and Jasper were, respectively, making toast and