Page 55 of A Light in the Dark
“I sure will. Now, are you ready to meet my parents and be fed lunch?”
“Yes, I am.”
SIXTEEN
It’s not my fault they’re beautiful.
A mailbox featuringa rose trellis covered with sleeping luna moths proclaimed that the property belonged to the Sampson family. A rather familiar sigil decorated the front of the box, and I narrowed my eyes. “Well, that explains why you knew so much about shoring prices, Mr. Sampson. If it weren’t for that cute little mark on the mailbox, I would have thought it was simply a coincidence. But when you add all the clues together, from hints you went to Stonecreek to become successful, your endless knowledge about the company, and your ability to pay for an obscene amount of silk without the benefit of a bonus, you must be the bigwig.”
“I realized I was busted when you were buying silk,” he admitted. “My only saving grace is that I literally require all my employees to refer to me as Joel. I hate people going around and calling me Mr. Sampson all the time. And for the record, I absolutelydidpay the going rate for my shoringwork. It just happens I was the one doing most of the work on my project because I’m not a freeloader.”
“You billed yourself to do the work on your own house?”
“Yep. For a property like mine, it needs a team of six people, and I just happened to be one of the people. Everyone was paid as normal, myself included. I will admit that I called my secretary, had your contract pulled and flagged when you moved in; I knew you’d gotten the place at a bargain price, so I told them to give you our barebones price for the best work possible so you could afford it. I knew you’d come from outside of the city, and I didn’t want you to come to harm underestimating the floods. Then you started stepping up on the cleaning and rebuilding, so I bided my time to get your contract upgraded. I will confess that I had them put the contract on our lowest bracket we could do the work for, and I personally covered the difference for the extras. Some of those extras I suggested to you are only by special request, and as such, we charge out the nose for them. But since I’m going to be doing the work, the lowest bracket is feasible.”
I stared at the sigil before staring at him, unable to keep my eyes from widening. “I cost you a bazillion dollars, didn’t I?”
“Honestly, you cost me three days of my regular salary when I’m actually doing sigil work. My team offered to do the same after finding out you pulled Gabriella out of the water. I’m going to let them get away with it, but only if you’ll accept their offer.”
It didn’t take me long to come to a decision. “I’m accepting their offer, but I’m still extorting you for your silk, Joel. But I’ll be a kind extortionist and feed you wheneveryou come over, and I’ll pretend I have no idea where my stray luna moth came from. I’ll just feed him and take good care of him and let him pass out on my counter after indulging in a rose bender. I’m pretty sure this won’t be a burden to me in the slightest. I might move you to my favorite chair, but I’ll give you a basket in case you need to deposit a fresh batch of silk due to rose and fruit benders.” I smiled at the thought of my neighbor trying to be kind even before getting to know me. “I appreciate the whole contract thing. Unlike a lot of folks who move into Stonecreek, I’d done my research, and I knew how important that shoring was. I wiped out my grant getting that place habitable and safe, but I was free and clear of debt, which made living there actually feasible.”
“That’s why I live on the street, too. I wanted to be free and clear of debt, the house is nice enough, and the inner courtyard lets me keep my dirty little silky secret. I’m going to have to be careful about my rose garden, though.”
“You’re going to have every luna moth in the area getting high in your courtyard.”
“The instant they realize your garden is a luna moth paradise, you’re going to be targeted, too.”
“How terrible. I’m going to have a bunch of drunk moths on my roses, pollinating my garden for me. I’m not sure how I’m going to handle this burden.” I flung the back of my hand against my forehead. “They can pay through leaving shifter vomit in the appropriate basket I will place in my garden during the evenings, and I will make sure I get some dim lighting so I can actually see my guests.”
“We glow, Valerie. You won’t need any lighting. All of us glow.”
Even better. “It’ll be mood lighting for the nights I don’t have winged guests. Maybe I’ll get a guest with two legs and a preference for wearing silk suits visiting me. I better put two seats in my garden. Then he can make use of his camera in my garden paradise while I stitch or crochet.”
“The neighbors are definitely going to have questions if they spot me going over to your place.”
I snickered at that. “You mean more questions than they likely already have after watching me climb into your SUV numerous times this week? You’re not returning me until tomorrow, Joel. It’s going to be ascandal.”
He joined me in snickering and resumed driving, following the dirt road across a small yard to a large house absolutely covered in luna moths. He parked between a large pickup and a sporty two door car, killed the engine, and said, “The house is blue-green, not that it can be seen underneath the moths. And when it’s not covered with moths, the pupae like to use it for their cocoons. This place gets a raw deal after the eggs hatch, and my parents spend the quiet times fixing it back up after the luna moths. I tried to tell them to stop feeding the extra pupae near the house, but I think theylikethe repair bills.”
“Or the simplicity of gathering the silk if they’re just leaving it on the side of the house.”
“They keep saying that, and while it’s true, this is what their house looks like for several weeks out of every year.”
“I don’t understand the problem, Joel. Their house is awesome right now.”
“You are unexpectedly biased in regards to luna moths.”
“It’s not my fault they’re beautiful.” I waited for him to remove the keys from the ignition to unbuckle, slide out ofthe vehicle, and gather my camera and craft supplies. “Clearly, I am going to have to talk to Yolana about reserving your silkandShifter Five’s silk for my pleasure.”
“You do not need a hundred pounds or more of silk a year, Valerie!”
“Like hell I don’t. You take that back, Joel. I am going to become a hermit swaddled in soft silk, and you can’t stop me. I’m going to cocoon myself in its glory, and the only reason people will know I’m still alive will be due to my emergences to go to work and buy food. Then I will retreat to my nest, where I will read, craft, and snuggle into my silk hoard to my heart’s content. I work to live, not live to work, and I have decided I live for snuggling into the best silks. You get to join the best silk category solely due to looks, personality, and ability to be kind. Shifter Five gets in due to their ultimate silk quality.”
Joel went to the back, got our lunch, and laughed at me. “You have decided you are throwing yourself into this without reservation, haven’t you?”
“Using the camera is fun, but I am driven by pure passion over these silks. I knew my life’s calling when I fondled all that silk. But Two and Three have lovely silk, too. They’re just not up to the quality of Five.”
“And if you were to get your hands on Five and start a second extortion racket, what would you take them for?”
