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“Oh. Shoot, I don’t think so,” I told her. “At least, I didn’t see any. Sorry.”
“No worries,” she said, rubbing her eyes a little after she finished eating. “You don’t miss it?”
“Coffee? No. My mom never had it in the house. She said caffeine would prematurely age me,” I explained with a roll of my eyes.
Magnolia’s brows rose.
“You haven’t told me a lot about her, but dang. Your mom is kind of a hard-ass, huh?”
“Hard-ass doesn’t even begin to cover it,” I said flatly, taking her plate to the sink.
When Magnolia retreated to her room to unpack and spend some time reading on her comms tablet, I rolled up my sleeves, tied back my hair, and got to work.
I started with the floors. The kitchen wasn’t bad, considering it had been swept last night when I broke that plate. So I didn’t bother sweeping it, instead filling a small bucket with water. I couldn’t find anything that resembled a mop, and there certainly weren’t any bots to help out, so I got down on my hands and knees, dunked a spare rag, and started scrubbing.
Fallon was probably right. Maybe this was a pointless exercise and the floors would get dusty again tomorrow. But it felt good anyway. I hadn’t done anything remotely useful for him yet, and I was satisfied that at least I’d contributed something to this household so far.
By the time I was done the kitchen, hallway, and the bedroom I (and presumably Fallon, though I wasn’t sure) had slept in, I was sweaty and the bandage on my knee was all nasty and soggy. I peeled it off, hoping Fallon wouldn’t freak out too much. I wasn’t bleeding anymore, so I went ahead and tossed the old bandage in the fireplace without getting a new one.
After the floors, I stripped the bedding from the bed I’d slept in, including a beautiful – though slightly faded – quilt. I plunged the sheets into a fresh bucket of water to soak, but decided against trying to soak the heavy quilt because it would probably take forever to dry. Instead, I hung it over the back porch railing in the sunshine and used the handle of the broom to give it a few good whacks.
I went back inside, looking for my next project to tackle. I had to hand it to Fallon. For one guy keeping this whole place running on his own, the house was pretty neat and orderly. But there were neglected places here and there, and I threw myself at them with a vengeance. I wiped windows, polished counters, dusted shelves and ledges and corners. I finished washing the bedding, hung it out to dry beside the quilt, then opened the bedroom window to air everything out.
Hell yeah. I was a cleaning fucking machine. Killing this wife shit.
By that point, my stomach was growling. Knowing that Fallon had been up hours before me and that he hadn’t yet come back to eat, I decided to put something together for him and track him down outside. After poking my head in on Magnolia and making sure she knew she was welcome to anything in the cellar that she wanted, I grabbed his plate and headed out.
In all honesty, I should have seen it coming. But I’d never had a dog of my own before, so what the hell did I know?
I’d only made it a little ways beyond the porch with my plate of food for Fallon when Sora, apparently lured by the siren song of meat meant for somebody else, came barrelling around the corner of the big barn ahead.
There was no escaping her and certainly no saving Fallon’s lunch. She bowled me over, giving me hot, happy licks all of my face before she started rooting around in the dusty grass for the snacks she’d sent tumbling.
“Sora! Goodness freaking gracious!” I cried, unable to hold back my laughter at her enthusiastic chomps. “It’s a good thing I adore you and that you’re so stinking cute, you menace.”
I stood up and brushed myself off, noting the way the reddish dust was already staining my clothing. Guess I’m doing my laundry next.
“Darcy!”
Another big, cute creature was loping towards me at top speed now, although this one was blond-haired instead of black-furred.
My heart gave an odd little trill at the sight of Fallon sprinting towards me with such a big, goofy grin on his face. And I wasn’t even holding his lunch anymore. So I guessed that big smile was just for me.
“Hi,” I said, feeling oddly shy when Fallon came to a stop. “Sorry. That was meant to be for you.”
“You brought me food?!”
The man looked absolutely delighted. So thrilled with my meager effort. It was like I’d just told him I’d come out here to give him a lap dance rather than offering him a slapped-together plate of cold food from his own cellar that was now covered in alien dog drool.
“Of course,” I replied, a little taken aback by his innocent excitement. “It’s the least I could do. Especially after you put breakfast out for me.”
He beamed, his long fangs glinting in the sun. They looked absolutely lethal and somehow weren’t frightening at all.
“You found it? Good.” His eyes took on a tender white glow. “You need protein to recover from your injury.”
My injury. My God.
“Um. Yeah. Thanks. I also couldn’t help but notice that the food looked very, uh, happy to see me.”
