Callan
The door to the Pine house opened slowly in front of him to reveal a curly-haired beauty.
“Hi.”
Kathryn stared at him. “Hello, Callan. And…others. Who are they?”
“This is Brian, he’s a contractor. That’s Corde back there, and Vanek is the tall one with the ponytail.” He jerked a thumb with his right hand.
“It is a braid,” the giant olive-skinned warrior-dragon to his right growled good-naturedly.
“Sure it is, tough guy. Sure it is.”
“But…why are you here? I thought you and I were just spending the day together.”
“We are,” he grinned. “With some friends. And Brian.” He turned to the stout man with the tool belt and furious mustache upon his face. “Sorry, Brian.”
The contractor just grinned. “None taken. You’re paying, so you can say just about whatever you want.” His look turned dark. “But if you say one thing about my mustache, you’ll regret it.”
Callan stared him down, wondering just what the much smaller man could do to him when Brian beamed and laughed heartily, sweeping a hand back through his graying hairs and putting a hardhat on.
“But Callan, what the hell is going on? Why are they all here? And why do you all have tools?”
He grinned and stepped inside. Brian followed right after, watching where he stepped.
“Oh, yeah. I see what you mean now. This is bad. Gonna take some work to do.” Playing with his mustache ends for a moment while lost in thought, he nodded and pointed at Vanek and Corde. “Okay you two, start taking all the big stuff out of here. Be gentle and—”
“Who is taking what out of here?”
Callan watched as Audrey Pine came storming into the front hall, a tornado of energy as she confronted the people in her home. Brian seemed flustered by the woman’s directness, though they had to be close to the same age.
“Ah, hold on a moment there,” he said, sticking up a hand to the three dragon shifters, two of whom took in the unfolding situation, sighed, and turned around.
Callan continued to watch, his eyes darting between what was going on, and Kathryn.
“Sorry, ma’am,” Brian said politely, removing his hardhat. “I was under the impression that everyone was aware of what was going on.”
Callan tried not to snicker as Audrey’s demeanor calmed at the contractor’s gentlemanly attitude.
“No, I have no clue.”
“Me neither,” Kathryn chimed in, though she was promptly ignored.
Brian smiled and tucked the hat under his arm. “Is this your house, miss?” He turned to put his back to the door. “It’s very lovely.”
“It is, yes,” Audrey said while the trio of dragons looked on, clearly taken about by everything, including the suddenly charming contractor.
“Now, I was told that I was to help these strapping lads help replace the floors in here, because they were worried about your safety. They didn’t want a young lass such as yourself to hurt herself if they gave way.”
Audrey blushed at the compliment ever so slightly, the first crack in her matronly armor that Callan had seen since he’d first come around. Even the past week, after Kathryn had stayed at his house for the first time, he’d not seen this side of her, despite the growing closeness between him and her daughter.
“I never ordered any new floors. There’s nothing wrong with these floors.”
Callan decided to step in. “Well,” he stumbled suddenly as he realized he couldn’t call her Mrs. Pine, not after the way Brian was acting around her and she was responding. But she had yet to consent to him calling her Audrey. Callan fumbled for a few seconds before she came to the rescue.
“Yes, Callan?”
“I was going to say, before I lost my train of thought, that it was actually I who asked Brian to come over.”
“You don’t say.”
He gave Audrey a fake glare. “Yes, I do say. I weigh quite a bit more than the two of you, combined. So you might not feel it, but I feel unsafe. Brian’s repair work is going to ensure that I don’t ruin your house.”
Mrs. …Miss? Pine, he had no idea anymore what to think of her—thought about it for a few moments. “These are safety upgrades, so that you can continue to assist my daughter in her recovery?”
He nodded. “Precisely.”
Callan had been extremely worried that Audrey wouldn’t consent to the new floors. The cost wasn’t much, and he’d told Colonel Mara that she was paying for it whether she liked it or not. He’d said this was how he made things better with Kathryn. It was just a little white lie; the colonel didn’t need to know the truth.
That hadn’t been the part he foresaw trouble with. Audrey was stubborn, and he knew from the start that she wouldn’t want to accept charity. So he’d come up with the idea of saying it was his fault they needed to be fixed, hoping she might be able to work with that.
“And Brian is going to be doing all the work?”
The contractor puffed up his chest. “Well, I know I may look spry and agile Miss…”
“Pine,” Audrey said, patting the arm he held his hat under gently. “But you can call me Audrey. All my friends do.”
“Very well Audrey. Despite my youthful looks, I was going to let the muscle-bound gang do the work. I’m going to mostly supervise, ensure it gets done right so that your house is nice, safe, and sound.”
“So you’re going to be here all the time?”
“Every day until it’s done Mi—Audrey,” Brian corrected just in time.
“Is this covered through your program, Callan?” she asked, turning to him. “They never asked me for the funds.”
“It is,” he lied again, knowing full well Audrey could see right through him. “Won’t cost you a penny.”
“About time the government did some good around here,” she said with a touch of bitterness. “Now, you men look like you’ll be hungry in no time. I’ll whip up a pie or two for you while you start to work, how does that sound? Do you like apple or key lime better, Brian?”
Callan stared as she started talking with the contractor, the rest of them forgotten. In a moment they moved into the kitchen.
“Did you just set up my mom?” Kathryn asked, as dumbfounded as the rest of them.
“I think so. Did not see that one coming.”
Kathryn smiled and leaned in to him. “That was sweet of you. It was about time she got out there, even if it was just to flirt with someone.”
“That was not the plan,” he confessed. “Not the plan at all.”
“I take it the plan was new floors?” she asked, the chair turning to confront him head-on.
“Yes.”
“Why?”
“You need them,” he said bluntly. “And my safety reasons were not a lie at all. They are weak and there are several spots I’m worried I’ll go right through the floor.”
Kathryn stared at him, and he could see the way she was searching his face for motive, trying to understand.
When she spoke next her voice was terse, cautious. “I didn’t ask for your charity.”
“That’s why it’s not charity.” He wasn’t backing down from this. Kathryn would need to learn to accept that he was going to spoil her and share his treasure—whenever he got it back—with her. His mate.
Callan buried the usual feelings of guilt and betrayal at thinking that away, resolving to deal with them at another time. Now was not right. He needed to focus on Kathryn.
“Well, my mom seems happy.”
“Smitten, you mean,” he said as a giggle came from the kitchen at the end of the hallway, the two older people out of sight just around the corner.
“So can we do stuff now?” Corde asked, reminding him that the other two dragons were there as well.
“Yeah, sure, let’s start.” He turned to Kathryn. “We’re only doing half the house at a time, so it will be squished, but that way we don’t have to move anything out of the house. Front hall and common room first, then the kitchen and bedrooms probably.” He shrugged. “Unless that doesn’t work?”
She was staring at him. “You’re serious about this.”
“Dead serious.”
“Okay.”
The word was drawn out, uneasy, but he flashed a smile and kissed her on the forehead to try and reassure her that everything was going to be okay. He wanted to buy them a new house, but judging by the pictures on the wall, that would have never flown. This place, small and rundown as it was, had been filled with love and family for so many years. It needed to be kept with the Pine family.
So, if he couldn’t bring them somewhere new, he was going to fix what they had. Brian was going to do the best job he could, while still being new and structurally sound. Callan thought that Audrey would quite enjoy it when it was done.
What he couldn’t figure out was why his mate was acting so strange about it all. He wanted to do this, for her and her mother. They deserved it. Together they’d made it work for so long, and now he wanted to show them that such hard work did pay off in time. His wealth was meant to be shared, and this was just the first way he hoped to do that. Spoiling his mate and her family was a large reason why he acquired his treasure in the first place.
What was so wrong about that?