Page 23 of Tank

“You mean in finding people?” She nodded. “I don’t know. I guess if anyone calls for me to find someone, I’ll play it by ear. That’s the first call I’ve gotten in about six months. I doubt people want to believe that there are people out there who can find someone when they run off. Did you get any more magic from us making love? I know that with us bonding, you’re supposed to get something.”

“Have you ever found out that someone has died?” He said not yet, but he wasn’t looking forward to that. “I don’t blame you. It would freak me out to be able to do that. But in answer to your question, no, I’ve not discovered anymore magic. But then I’ve not tried all that hard to figure it out.” She looked at him, and he smiled. “I have to admit that I’m still sore. How about you?”

“Not nearly as sore as I’m betting you are.” He took her hand into his and kissed her fingers. “I loved making love to you. It was the best sex I’ve ever had.”

“And the last sex you’ll ever have if you step out on me.” They both laughed, and she wondered again if he would ever leave her. “You said that we’d be together for life. How does that work with us being immortal? Do you suppose you’ll ever get tired of me? I mean, forever is a long time to go.”

“Never. I love you more daily. And will love you more in the future. You make me want to be a better man as well.” She squeezed his hand and told him that she loved him too. “Good. Tonight we’re going to go out to dinner and maybe see a movie. I don’t have any idea what’s playing, but we’ll have a good time.”

Since they’d eaten so late at the Den, they decided not to go out to dinner. But they did make plans to go to the movies. They were just going to show up around ten o’clock and get into whatever was playing at the time. It was a risk, but fun too. As soon as they were ready to go, Ace asked if he could join them. Leaving it up to Serenity, she said that she’d love for him to come with them, and he was willing to do what they were doing. Just see whatever they wanted when they got there.

The movie turned out to be fairly good. Not only did they all enjoy it, but they stayed late to watch it again. It was nearly four in the morning when they got back home, and none of them was sorry for it. As soon as they were in the house, Sherman decided that they were going to get up early and go to the Clover Key to get their Saturday morning breakfast buffet. He’d never done it before, but thought that it could be fun.

The breakfast was more than they could have hoped for. It was not only really good, but there was plenty of it to go around. He was surprised at how many people came to the little place, and he was happy that they’d be coming back. After their fill, the two of them went home to take a nap. They’d been doing that more and more often since living together, and he loved it.

After waking up, the two of them went into town to meet with Ace. He’d been working on projects all morning and was now at a point where he needed help. There were all kinds of loans out there that he could apply for, but since Sherman had been doing so well at them, getting them the much-needed money, he asked him to come by and fill out the applications for help. He couldn’t believe how many small business loans were out there for little towns that needed a boost.

“I’ve been filling them out for so long that I have everything memorized for what to put in each space.” Serenity thought that it was great that they were doing so well as a team, so she asked to join them. Setting her up with a computer and showing her how to search for them, she was having a good time as he was. When she came across something that was easy to use, she would call one of them to her computer, and they’d fill it out. They had a great system going. And he was glad that Serenity seemed to be enjoying herself.

“I need to get back to working on my own projects. Now with everything settling down, I have more time than I had before.” She was clicking on things when he went to stand behind her. “I could be working right now, and I should be. I just hope I have a job after all the time I’ve had to take off. I don’t know what I’d do without working something.”

“You could branch out on your own?” Serenity said she’d been thinking about that too. “Good. You do whatever you need to do to get yourself started, and we’ll work from there. If they want to keep you on while you live here, that would be even better.”

They talked about her job working in New York, and she decided to wait until Monday to call and see if she was still able to work. While she’d been off for a while, all of it had been to cover what was going on in her personal life. She’d buried two sisters in less than a few months apart, and now she was going to be able to take care of herself. Just as she was going to make notes on what to say, Sherman told her about the money they had.

“I have money too. About four million. I’ve been saving it up to buy myself a place in Upstate. Now that I don’t have to, I can find myself something here to work from.” Sherman asked her what she really wanted to do. “Work. I really need to work.”

“I know that feeling.” They talked about buildings in the downtown area where she could work even if the place she’d been working didn’t want her to come back. “You find what you need, and I’ll support you all the way. I know you would me.”

“I would and I will.” Kissing her, he helped her find the realtor’s site and told her the name of the realtor that had worked with him when finding his house. As soon as she made contact with her, Sherman left her alone. This was going to be up to her to figure out, and he was happy that they were going to be working together while having a house of their own to live from.

Chapter 10

Ace knew he was hiding in his office and home. He wasn’t sure that he wanted a mate. However the way things were going, it looked promising that he’d find one soon. Since he lived and worked from the same building, he was doing a good job of keeping himself hidden away from potential mates. Smiling to himself, he wondered if she’d just pop up at his door some day and tell him he was being a fool. Picking up the phone when it rang, he closed his eyes when he realized it was Mrs. Murphy again.

“Hello, Margaret. How are you?” She told him that she was just fine and dandy, but needed to talk to him about the upcoming summer. “It’s still several months away yet, and we’ve not even gotten ready for the winter holidays. What could have you wondering about the summer so early?”

“That pool is terribly big. That means that kids will be screaming their heads off and I’ll be able to hear them.” Her home was a good ten miles from the pool, and he told her that. “I can still hear them. They get to screaming out their fun, and it drives Poky crazy, too. I can’t have my favorite person in the world having nightmares because you decided to upgrade the pool without telling me. You know that I wouldn’t have approved.”

“The council did, and it was voted on about six months ago now. I believe you might have been to the meeting and did voice your concerns.” She’d told them that she’d not be on the committees anymore if they outvoted her. “I thought you told us then that you weren’t going to have anything to do with it if we decided to put in a larger pool.”

“I’m not having anything to do with it. I’m telling you right now that I want you to go back to the original size. It was bad enough that those kids were yelling and screaming back then. But now there’ll be more of them, and they’ll drive me over the edge. My concerns should count for something, shouldn’t it?”

“It does. But you were outvoted. It was fair too. You were the only one who didn’t want to enlarge the pool area and we took that very seriously.” She huffed at him.

This was a weekly call for him. Sometimes he’d be able to tell her that she’d been outvoted again and again, and she’d hang up on him. Today, she was in a talkative mood and was giving him all kinds of reasons that the pool shouldn’t have been enlarged. She even went on to say that the lifeguards were too young to be saving people’s lives and that they had to go.

“Mrs. Murphy, I hear what you’re telling me, but the point is that the pool has been enlarged and will be filled by the last part of April so that it will be ready for the Memorial Day festivals that are coming up.” She said that was another thing that she wanted to talk to him about, the parade. “The parade has been going on since well before I moved here. To me, it’s a done deal.”

“I don’t like all that noise.” She wasn’t anywhere near where the parade was going to be, so he didn’t understand that either. “All those kids again. Do you know how much better this town would be without kids running around all the time? I can tell you that with one word. It would be fantastic. I don’t like them running around and getting into trouble all the time, either. When you give them too much, they’ll always want more.”

“Mrs. Murphy, we need children so that our lines will go on.” She said that she wished that she were the last of her line. “I’m sure you don’t mean that. What would you do with your grandchildren if they suddenly decided not to come and see you anymore? That would be just terrible.”

“They don’t now and I like that just fine.” He had a feeling that this was where all this was coming from. That her grandkids didn’t come to visit anymore. “What do you think is going to happen when they want to join in all that noise around the pool? You’re going to make me out to be the bad guy when I tell them they can’t make any noise at the pool.”

“I don’t know what to tell you.” She said that he should be telling her that the pool will be closed up forever. “I’m not going to tell you that. You know as well as I do, there isn’t much for kids to do here in the summer months, and this will be the perfect place for them to have some fun. There will be lifeguards there, too, that will be old enough and qualified enough to make sure they’re playing well together and that no one gets hurt.”

“You just wait and see. Someone is going to go down there and poison that pool so that nobody can use it.” He asked her if she was threatening the pool. “You’ll never know it was me if you don’t see me.”