Heartsong (Green Creek 3)

I was surviving the day by the skin of my teeth. The phone rang incessantly, and by the fifth call from someone I didn’t know excitedly telling me how happy they were I was back instead of actually needing to make an appointment, I thought about throwing it across the room and hoofing it back to the basement.

I stayed.

I was in the garage, frowning at an invoice that didn’t make any sense, as it seemed as if Gordo was charging next to nothing for a considerable amount of repair work. Gordo was telling me that he only charged people what they could afford, especially when they were hurting financially.

Both of the main garage doors were open, and the air was warm. People walked by on the street. A few of them even poked their heads in to wave at me happily. I waved back, but Gordo told them to come back another time when they looked like they were about to walk in and talk. I was grateful for it, as I was already overwhelmed.

“I’m not in this for money, kid,” Gordo said. He was tapping on a tablet he said was used as a diagnostic tool. I wondered if I’d made him get it, as it was more high-tech than anything I’d seen so far. “I like cars. I sometimes like people. I don’t give a shit about becoming rich.”

“Then how the hell is this place even open?” I demanded. “You can’t expect to turn a profit if you don’t—”

“Pack finances.” He looked up at me. “We don’t have to worry about money.”

I was horrified. “You do pay me, though, right? I don’t work for free?”

He laughed, sounding lighter than I’d ever heard him. “Yes, Robbie. I pay you. We’ll get you hooked back up into the pack accounts. Don’t worry about it, okay?”

I leaned against the SUV he was working on. “So….”

“So?” he asked, looking back down at the tablet.

“How rich are we?”

He snorted. “Get back to work.”

And I was going to do just that, except that Kelly Bennett decided to appear right at that moment.

Wearing a deputy’s uniform. Tight green pants with a tan button-up shirt that pulled against his torso. He had a mic clipped near his shoulder and a black utility belt around his waist. He wasn’t carrying a gun, but I barely noticed because at that exact moment, I discovered my legs decided to quit working and I tripped and fell into the side of the SUV.

Everyone stopped what they were doing to look at me.

“Sorry,” I said quickly, using the SUV to pull myself back up. And immediately hit the top of my head on the open hood. “Son of a bitch.”

“What are you doing?” Gordo asked slowly.

I laughed wildly. “Nothing! It’s nothing. Just… don’t even worry about it.”

He turned toward the front of the garage.

“Oh no,” he said when he saw who was standing there. “Not this again.” He pointed the tablet at Kelly. “I swear to god, if I find an animal carcass brought here at any point, I will make both your lives a living hell. Do you understand me? I’m getting too old for this shit.”

“I can’t believe we have to watch this all over again,” Chris said to Tanner. “It was bad enough the first time. Remember when Robbie figured out that he wanted to put himself all over Kelly?”

“Yeah,” Tanner said. “How could I forget? We had to tell Ms. Martin that her side mirror was broken by accident instead of telling her the truth, that Robbie got a weird wolf boner and forgot his own strength.”

“Maybe it’ll be like it was with Ox and Joe,” Rico said, tapping a socket wrench against his hand. “

Mini muffins, you know? I ate, like, ten of them.”

Chris looked scandalized. “You did what? That was one of their mystical moon magic presents! You don’t touch another man’s mystical moon magic present, Rico. They could have killed you, or worse, gotten confused and made you their mate.” He frowned. “Are there werewolf threesomes? That sounds complicated. Too many limbs. I don’t know anything about being a wolf.”

Ox said, “Maybe consider stop talking. And get back to work.”

“Sure, Ox,” Tanner said. “We’ll do just that.”

They didn’t move.

They stood there staring at me.