Gavin stood up when the judge entered the room. He was thrilled to be here, in this room. His family was here too, and that made what was going on today much more important to him. Just yesterday he’d graduated from college, and today he was making his first court appearance. But it wasn’t for anything major. Just something that he thought should have happened a very long time ago.

“This is an odd one, even for your family, Mr. McCade.” He smiled; Gavin loved hearing his full name said to him. “You’re here to represent your grandmother? What has she done now? And while we’re on the subject, you do know that you’re going to have to put someone else’s name on the court documents. You must be at least twenty-one to come in here as an attorney.”

“Yes, sir, I know, but Grandma insisted that I do this for her.” Marcum nodded. “May I continue? That way Grandma can go out sooner and get into more trouble before dinner time.”

Grandma huffed. Gavin had to cover his mouth when he started to laugh. His grandma had made it her life’s work, he thought, to cause trouble wherever she could. It was never dangerous trouble, or even, for the most part, against the law. But she did manage to make some sort of trouble where she had to be arrested.

“Well, Your Honor, as you know there are some sidewalks that are less than perfect. Wheelchairs have trouble riding over them, and at times people to go into the grass to get around. And that poses its own set of troubles.” The judge nodded and said he’d seen the sidewalks. “Yes, sir. Several of them are in front of your house. Which brings me to my grandma. She has been after the city to come in and not just fix the sidewalks, but also to make sure that they’re everywhere that people want to go. But they’re not—the city workers aren’t doing anything to them. And since my Uncle Vance has left town for a while, it’s been harder and harder to get the workers to do much of anything. Just last week, the trash wasn’t picked up for an entire day.”

“Yes, I’m aware of that as well. I was told it was because of a scheduling issue.” He asked if he could give him a report. “Come on now, we’re not going to be all formal at this point, are we Gavin? Just tell me.”

“There were ample people to work the streets, sir, but none of them wanted to go out in the heat to do their job. I have it on good authority that they sat in the offices all day, playing cards and drinking.” He asked how he knew this. “They neglected to turn off the cameras, and I have a copy of those recordings as well.”

Marcum looked over the schedule as well as the report that he’d written on the men. “So you’re going to tell me that these two things are related? Or that the same men were assigned this job and for the same reason didn’t do it.”

“Pretty much that’s it, sir.” The judge, Marcum McCade, one of his distant uncles from way back, asked for a computer to play the disc on. “There are two days on there, sir. The day that my grandma thought the sidewalks were going to be worked on, as well as the trash day. They did pick the trash up, but they’re now a day and a half behind and going to be more so, and the animals will start going through it.”

“The sidewalk project was supposed to take a month, correct?” Gavin told him it was to have begun work by now and been finished three days ago. “Nothing has been done to any of them?”

“It’s why I was over there. Hoping that someone would take notice that they’re a lazy bunch of people and need their butts kicked.” Grandma stood up and spoke to Marcum like she had when she’d been at his house a few weeks ago for dinner. “I told you when the project was approved that there needed to be a timeline on this. And look at it now. Six weeks and nothing is done. I need those walks fixed up so that I don’t have to trip up. You wouldn’t want me to break one of my old hips, now would you?”

He didn’t even try to have Grandma be quiet. Firstly, it would do him no good. She was on a roll. And secondly, she was right. It had taken her being out there and getting into trouble to get someone to notice. Gavin just wished she’d tell him first when she was going to do something like this. Maybe he could avoid having to bail her out all the time.

He looked back at his parents when the baby made a noise. His baby sister, Alisha Grace, Allie as they called her, was almost one now, and he loved her as much as he ever thought he would. She was just the most adorable little girl he’d ever seen, and Gavin would do anything for her. And he was sure she knew it too.

Grady and his wife had a little boy, a little younger than his sister Allie. Allie and Bailey were a lot of fun to hang around with, and Gavin would watch them whenever he could. He didn’t even mind changing dirty diapers. He just loved being with them.

While Marcum looked at the recordings, Gavin thought of his family. In the almost two years now since they’d moved here, things had turned out very well. The town was prospering, the people in it were happy, and he’d never seen his family, all of them, this thrilled about life as they seemed to be now. Even Grandma, with all her mischief, seemed to be having the best time of all of them.

Uncle Kenton and his wife were going to have their baby any day now. And he’d been going around town acting like he’d invented having children. Everyone loved the man, and he had set up his practice in town with a waiting list of people that wanted to come see him. Aunt Emma had even been baking, though not on the scale she’d been baking at home. Wedding cakes, it seemed, was what she did best.

Dad was working hard on his craft. That’s what he called it, his craft. Some of his paintings were in the White House now. He’d been asked to paint the president, and had done it very well. It was awesome to think that his dad had works of art in such a wonderful place. His mom was working for Just Perfect now, finding things, items that could be used on sets of television shows and stuff. Gavin was so proud of her that he could nearly bust. The first time he’d gone to see a movie her things were in, he’d not even paid any attention to the story, just waited for the credits where her name was blazing across the big screen as a coordinator of the sets. Well, it wasn’t really blazing, but he’d found it easily enough.

Uncle Grady didn’t work on computers much anymore. He was better at setting up the cameras and such around town. He’d put in cameras to catch someone running lights, to find people that might be on the run, as well as working with some people that weren’t even in the same country. They had him doing it, just to make sure they had the best there was. Harper was the best potter he had ever known, not that he knew all that many. And her things, too, were in the White House on display.

Uncle Dalton was cooking at the shelter. Gavin thought that of all his uncles, he enjoyed his job the most. He also ran the place and made sure that the people there had what they needed. But he only took credit for filling their bellies. He was a good man and a cop forever, Gavin thought. Gabe worked with him. She made sure that everyone was healthy and that the meals they were eating from Uncle Dalton were healthy too. Aunt Gabe had been called on to help out Uncle Kenton once in a while, and she had a blast delivering babies.

Lewis had a nice restaurant now. It wasn’t nearly as large as Dragon’s Lair had been, but it served up a lot of nice meals that he was proud of. It was only open on weekends. The rest of the time he helped Aunt Emma with her cakes, and had been known to make a few pies for dinner too.

Aunt Raven worked at getting gardens in areas opened and ready for planting. Not just for herbs, though she had a lot of them, but also gardens for those who wanted to grow a veggie or two. That was a big thing with the high school kids; being able to grow something to have at dinner was something that even he enjoyed.

“Mr. McCade?” Gavin looked at Judge Marcum and told him he was sorry. “That’s all right. I can see here that you’ve given me a list of the names, as well as the duties that they should have been taking care of. Is this right? I mean, Vance and his wife have only been gone a few weeks.”

“Yes, sir, it’s correct. I’ve worked hard at trying to find the dates on the projects as well. Dates they were started and when they should have been completed. Some of those that I found were before my uncle took over as mayor. I’m sure that he wasn’t made aware of them, so they’d not be in more trouble from him. So far, as you can see, only one project has been completed, and I think that was only because it benefited them. The new lunch room project at the maintenance shop is done and over budget, believe it or not.”

“With all this information, yes, I can believe it.” He searched the paperwork more and then set it down. “I don’t suppose I can talk you into helping me with more projects, can I? Having a man like you on my side, it would go a long way in getting things completed on time and under budget, I’m betting.”

“I’m only seventeen, sir.” Grandma snorted at the same time Marcum did. “Well, I am. I just turned seventeen, and while I have fun at this, Grandma gets into too much trouble for me to be tied up at something else. She needs me as much as I do her.”

“I’m thinking that with your mom’s permission, we can work something out. And if you and I can get on these with Vance’s help, your grandma would be in less trouble. At least we can hope for that.” Gavin told him if he could convince his mom, then he was all right with it too. “Good. I’ll talk to her tonight then.”

Marcum let Grandma go on the promise that she gave him a week to get a new crew in and working on the sidewalks. Before he allowed her to go, however, he asked her what she was working on next. Grandma told him that she’d contact him when she was ready to tell him.

“You know that you have my permission, don’t you?” Gavin hugged his little sister to him and she squealed in delight. Mom kissed him on the cheek as she continued. “Was there a reason you didn’t tell him yes?”

“I’m not sure that I want to be the bad guy. And I will be, won’t I?” She told him he could handle it. “Yeah, I know that, but I’m worried. These guys aren’t very nice. And they already have it out for Uncle Vance.”

“Vance is on his way home with Micky. You can know now, but he left so that this would all come to a head.” Gavin asked Dad why he’d not told him. “He wanted to see if you could handle it. And I told him what you’d done and what you were able to find out. He’s very proud of you. In fact, he said that you found a few things he’d not been aware of. Go tell Marcum you’ll help him. You know you want to.”

Gavin did too. It was fun doing research on things. And the more he dug into things, the more he seemed to learn. To him, learning was everything. He moved back to the door that led to the offices of the judge and knocked.

When the door opened, he smiled at Marcum, who stood there no longer in his robes but shorts and a college T-shirt. He even had on flip flops. In one hand he had a cold cola, and a cookie was hanging out of his mouth. Gavin loved this man.

“You’re going to work for me?” Gavin nodded and went into his office. “Good. But we’re going to pay you. You can’t do this sort of work without a check. I know you have money, but to balance the books, I have to make sure that you’re paid.”

“Can I donate the money?” He said whatever he did with it was fine by him. “Okay. I can help with a few other projects I have in mind. Did you know that there are no after school programs for the little kids?”

Marcum laughed. “I tell you, kid, if I didn’t know for a fact that you weren’t blood related to my dad, I’d swear the two of you were twins in the way that you think about things. I tell you this all the time, young man, but I’m so glad that you’re a part of this family.”

“Me too.” They talked about what projects he wanted to get started on and the fact that Vance was coming home. After a couple of hours, he left for home to sit his sister for the evening. Gavin loved his new life.

~~~

Vance didn’t make a sound as he walked into the big maintenance building. It was a great building—old, but up to date on everything to make the workers comfortable. Maybe too comfortable. Today was going to be the most fun he’d had as mayor, and he was glad someone had finally taken notice of the workers in town.

“He’s going to cause us some trouble, that kid is. What’s he got against us? It’s not like he has anything to do with the jobs we’ve put under the rugs.” Vance paused before entering the room where the workers met every morning. He might find out about more than just the projects that were undone. “Last week, when we were supposed to be working on the broken line in the street? That kid came right over and asked what we were doing. Like he would know if we told him.”

“He probably does know. He’s pretty smart. You talking about the day that we had the cookout under the streets? Man, that was a blast, and so much cooler than behind one of our houses. That was a brilliant idea you had, Blue, to fake a break so we could go down there and not be bothered.” Vance pulled out his phone and made notes about what they were saying. Then he asked his brother Grady to turn the cameras on if they were off.

Got it. Hey, did you know that all the cameras are off in that building? It looks like someone tripped a circuit. I can fix that too. Dumbasses. Okay, Vance, we’re rolling. He asked him if there was audio. Yes. However, I don’t think they’re aware of it. I put that in for free when I wired the room up.

I owe you. Is there a way that they can think they turned them off—the cameras, I mean—yet they still run? He said he’d have to put in other cameras, but he could do that. I’ll pay for it. I might not need it after today, but I’ll pay for it being done. This has been going on long enough.

Grady told him he’d do it for him, and Vance listened more to the men complain about Gavin. The kid had made some enemies, but not anything that they couldn’t handle if they came after him. Actually, Vance was hoping they would. He was just in that sort of mood.

Vance knew the kid would look into things, and having Mom helping him out by getting into trouble again was perfect. Vance loved being the mayor of this little burg, but he also needed to be taken seriously. The men in the other room hadn’t done that for a very long time. Today was going to make them pay attention to a lot of new rules. One of which was, either do the work in a reasonable timeframe or he’d find someone that would.

Most of the people in the room were going to be fired. The crew that was out working and did so every day would be spared. They might have done the jobs had they known about them, but time would tell. He was sick and tired of paying for things not being done.

Moving around the doorway, just inside the room, he watched them to see if anyone would notice. There were several beer cans on the table that were still frosty with cold. The air conditioning in the room was set on about sixty degrees; there was a nice chill in the place. Also, he saw several boxes of pizza, as well as two large boxes that had the bakery name on them. When he was finally noticed, he waved at the man.

“He’s here.”

The men scrambled to clean up the mess. Beer cans were tossed in the general direction of the trash can, which was overflowing with more of the same. Vance just stood there, letting them fall all over themselves as they blamed each other for the mess as well as sitting around.

“We were just discussing some of the projects that you put out for us.” Vance said nothing as he made his way into the room. “There are a lot of them out there. We were just deciding on which one was the most important.”

“Were you? It sounded to me like you were making plans to go after my nephew for having the judge, whom I left in charge while I was away, make you get to work. Had you done the job as you should have in the first place, you’d not be in hot water. Or fired.” They looked at each other, then laughed. “You think it’s funny that you might be fired?”

“You can’t fire us. We’re the only people you got to do these jobs.” Vance pointed out that they weren’t doing the jobs at all. “Yeah, we’ll get around to them. But right now, it’s like ninety degrees out there, and it’s better to sit in here rather than get heat stroke. It’s dangerous for us to be working.”

“Dangerous, huh? And how about the men that are out there now? Doing the job as best they can without supervision or help? What do you think they’ll think about you sitting in here, having a beer and some pizza? I’d think they’d be pissed. I know that I am.” The first man, Conley was on his name badge, puffed out his chest and said once again how he needed them. “No. I don’t. As a matter of fact, you have a choice. And I will require you to answer me honestly. Do you want to do the job that you’re paid to do or not?”

They’d not be able to lie to him. He was powerful enough, thanks to Caelin, that no one would ever lie to him. But these men, he’d come to realize, were very stupid, and compulsion didn’t work as well on them.

“I don’t fucking want to work for some outsider.” Vance nodded and asked if there was anyone else that felt that way. “What do you care if we do the work or not?” Conley asked him.

“Because the town pays me to make you do the job.” Conley said he wasn’t given a big house nor a car to ride around in. “Good point. And you’re fired. As are the rest of you. You have one hour to clean out your crap. Make sure you don’t take anything that belongs here, and the police will escort you off the property.”

Two hours later he had a new crew with the ones that had stayed, as well as a list of work that he wanted done as soon as possible. They were all told that there would be no slacking anymore, and if caught, not only would they lose their jobs, but their pensions as well. Vance left with a heavy heart. Some of those people had families.

You can’t take on the world, Vance. He smiled when Micky spoke to him. I have an idea. You come home, take Caelin for a little while, and I’ll take a nap. He’s been on the go since you left us this morning. Why did I ever want him to learn to walk?

Because you don’t want to have to carry him anymore. He’d weighed twenty-two pounds at his last doctor’s visit. Kenton said he was healthy and happy, and not the least bit overweight. At one and a half, we have a bruiser for a son and you love it. But I have to stop by the office for a little while. Bring him there and I’m sure there are any number of things he can get into with me. Also, he’s charmed all of them into having treats for him at their desks.

Micky laughed and said she’d do it. He’s been on fire all day. I think he missed home while we were gone. And Gavin came by and the two of them took a walk before he had to go to work. I’m so glad that you got him that job. He’s feeling pretty good about himself.

Vance had noticed that Gavin was feeling a little down. He had graduated from college a while back, and now he was working on another degree. Having him sit with Caelin seemed to be the highlight of the kid’s week. Vance thought he needed a girlfriend. He didn’t have much in the way of friends. Even Mom had pointed that out.

Going to his office, he was greeted not only by Micky and his son, but the elder Caelin was there as well. He was holding his son, laughing at the way he just jabbered about everything. Waiting until Micky went home to take her much needed nap, he asked the man what was up.

“Nothing. Not much anyway. I’m glad that you’re back.” He told him what he’d done since he’d returned. “You don’t have to report to me, Vance. I know that you’re working to get us a nicer place to live. Besides, Marcum told me all about it. I would have loved to have seen their faces.”

“What’s going on? I know you well enough to know that there is something. You just don’t pop into this office without something on your plate. You know that you can depend on any of us to help.” Caelin nodded. “Tell me before I have to shake it out of you.”

“I want to leave here.” Vance didn’t have a smart assed comment to reply back to him. “See, you wanted it right now, when I was willing to ease into it. My wife and I want to travel a little bit. A few years. We’ve seen the world, she and I, but so much has changed since we’ve been about that she and I would love to go on a trip.”

“You should.” Caelin cocked a brow at him. “I’m not saying that I want you to leave right now, but the two of you deserve to get away. But you will return, won’t you?”

“I’m not sure at this point.” Vance could understand that too. Caelin had lived here for decades, watching over things for them. “We’re tired. Not to the point where we want to curl into a ball and let the world go on around us, but we do want to get away. Someplace that no one knows what we are or who we are. It’s something that has been on our mind of late since you’ve done such a good job here.”

“I’ve done a shitty job if that means you want to leave us.” They both laughed. “You’re telling me this first, why? I’m not in charge any more than Conley was at the office building today. Why me?”

“I want to leave the town in good hands. You’re the mayor, and I think that you’ve exceeded my expectations for it. You’ve not only taken care of the job you were assigned to, but there are several new businesses going in with the residents. We also have a new playground for the school, as well as three new buses for students. You’ve made sure that there is ample funding for the teachers to have what they need when they need it. That one slipped by me.” Vance told him it was easy to miss. “No, you found it right away that the teachers were using some of their own money to put supplies in their rooms. I know that they thanked you for that several times over.”

“Yes. We have been thanked plenty. But that can’t be the reason you came to me, is it? I know that Kenton has done a good job as king of the dragons. And they’re coming back, too. Just the other day he told me that you have six new hatchlings due to come into the world any day now.” Caelin nodded with a smile. “What about Lewis? He can—”

“Say ‘Yes, Caelin, I’ll do what you need for me to do so you can go on a vacation’.” Vance repeated it back to him. “I know that leaving you in charge, you’ll gladly ask for help when you need it. Kenton wouldn’t. He’d think that since I asked him to keep the town from going to pot, he’d need to devote every second of every minute to it. The rest of them would as well.”

He was right. When Kenton had been asked to see that the breeding dragons had enough space to move around, he’d nearly gotten himself buried under the mountain by setting charges to blow larger caves in the place. Had Vance not been walking in the woods with Micky, Kenton might well have brought the entire mountain down on top of them. As it was, they had to make sure that someone came in to get the charges out.

“So you’ll do it? You’ll take over the running of the town for me?” Vance didn’t want to, because to do so would mean that Caelin would leave. And he enjoyed the man’s company too much for that to happen. “What if I told you that I’d contact you weekly, to just talk about anything you wish?”

“You’re making this very difficult for me.” Caelin told him that was the plan. “I see. All right then. You go on your trip and I’ll take care of things here. But I warn you, the first time I don’t hear from you, I’m going to find you and bring you back here. I love you, Caelin.”

“And I you, Vance. You were the most difficult of all the brothers to find someone for. I can tell you that now. She had to be strong willed, as you are. Smart, because you’d never be attracted to someone that wasn’t. And she had to have the heart to love you.” He asked why that was so hard, finding someone to have a heart to love him. “Because when I first found you, you were broken. I was worried that you might not be fixable. You had a hard life, my young friend, and in doing so, your heart was closed off to anyone new. Micky, while older than you, had much the same kind of life as you. But she was softer, in many ways, for you.”

Vance was still in his office, rocking his exhausted son, when Micky came to join him. Handing her the little man, he kissed them both then held them in his arms. Vance knew how blessed he was; he thanked his lucky stars every day that he’d been chosen for her. Vance also knew, for as long as he lived, the dragons would have a very special meaning for him.