Wolves at the Door - Lidiya Foxglove Page 0,32

an afternoon of picking out new fixtures?” Jasper asked, taking out the keys and jangling them in front of me like I was a kitten.

“Ohhh fine. I saw there’s a salvage place just outside of town.”

“Salvage? Come on, it’s the master suite,” Jake said. “Let’s do it up new and shiny. If I know one thing about faeries, they like nature. Jasper and I were talking and we’re thinking ‘rain shower retreat’. Dark gray, rock-like…big shower head. Wait—let me finish.”

“Zen,” Jasper said. “Imagine a white soaking tub where the tin tub was. A shelf set into the wall above it with some succulents. Gray tile walls all around, with a natural look. The shower in the corner. We keep the rest of the house colorful, we keep the crazy chandeliers, but then at the end of the day, the homeowner can walk into this space that is so pure it just calms their mind. You need that pause, right?”

“I mean…”

“You love it,” Jake said.

“I usually prefer more of a historical look.”

“Yeah, but you love it.”

“It’s an undeniably great idea,” Jasper said.

“I really want to argue with your out of control egos,” I said, crossing my arms.

Jasper opened the van door. “After you, Your Highness.”

I climbed in the front, giving up. They were right. It sounded like a lovely bathroom. After a long day, surrounding myself with a neutral palette, candles and indoor plants…soaking in a hot tub. It would be a surprise for buyers after the rest of the house. Human buyers, anyway. I didn’t know what faeries would be surprised by.

These guys really do know their stuff, I thought begrudgingly, since I was pretty sure they were also more successful than I was.

We ended up staying out all day shopping for the house. I mostly let them do their thing with the upstairs bathroom but the downstairs bathroom was another matter. I wanted it to match the rest of the downstairs and do pale pink walls and a white vanity plus an antique mirror. They wanted minimalist.

“I let you do the largest bathroom! I don’t mean an obnoxious pink. Just a blush color. Like this.” I tapped one of the paint swatches I picked up in the paint department.

“I’d rather do blue,” Jasper said.

“But I just did blue bathrooms at Lockwood House.”

“Well, the same person isn’t going to buy both houses. No one will accuse you of getting stale.”

“Pink bathrooms are a hot trend this year,” said an employee walking by behind us.

“Thank you, Dana!” I said, noting her name tag. “And if any house should have a pink bathroom, it’s that one.”

“Okay, okay,” Jake said. “Maybe we should call Billie and run it by her.”

“Why do we need to call Billie? We don’t need to run anything by her. She abandoned the painting altogether.”

“Sorry to break it to you, but it is her house.”

Billie told him she was fine with the pink bathroom but then she told us to come home and not pick out anything else. I was struggling to control my grumpiness. I wasn’t used to having to discuss my decisions with so many other people. I also wasn’t used to working on such a massive house, with mysteries to solve on top of all the work. I didn’t want to seem like a prima donna, though. I knew I would get the jokes about being royalty heaped on my head even more. I ended up getting pretty quiet as we paid, loaded, and started home.

“I pissed you off back there, didn’t I?” Jake said.

“No. I’m fine. I’m a little tired. Not used to it being warm in October.”

“Are you jealous that I kept calling Billie?”

“Jeez, Jake, why would you ask that?” Jasper asked from the back seat.

“I just really want to make Hel jealous. Even for a second.”

“Oh, so it’s revenge? Why do you keep calling Billie, anyway? She’s doing her thing…whatever it is. I know it’s not because you think she’s a better designer than you.”

Jake looked satisfied with my level of jealousy, but Jasper growled, “He’s calling her because he wants to make sure she isn’t getting attacked by monsters or anything like that.”

“Oh.” That did make sense. Maybe we shouldn’t have even left her alone. We hadn’t had trouble so far, but they could be waiting for us to let our guard down.

“Yeah, that is why,” Jake said. He exhaled. Then he turned the AC up in the van a little. After a moment, he turned his face toward mine, grabbing my