Free A Christmas Home by April Zyon

back. “I’ll dump this drawer and give it a wash. Check the others
and I’ll do a clean on each one that needs it. Then we can start to organize by
having them all out on the floor. We’ll dump into each, and sort later.”
    “Sounds
like a plan. I’m going to put any and all paper on top of the desk now that
it’s clean. Speaking of. We need to get a computer in here so that I can hook
up to your computer system. You do have one, right? For when people check out
and all of that fun stuff?”
    “Yes,
ma’am, we do,” he said. “We had a computer in here, somewhere. I have no idea
where the hell it is. It was ancient so it’s not worth anything. If it isn’t
under one of these piles I’ll pick up a new one tomorrow and we can network it
to the system in the shop.”
    She
nodded. “That will make inventory and billing updates much easier.” She let out
a breath, then smiled. “I think that you are very, very lucky to have me in
your life. Just saying.” She was the lucky one, she knew it, but she liked to
tease him now, too, now that she knew she could. “Okay, oh God, what in the
ever-loving name of Christ is this?” she asked as she opened another drawer and
was once more nasally assaulted and visually abused by … well she had no idea what it was other than dead.
    “I’m
only guessing here, but I think that may have been a rat at one point. No clue
why it’s in the drawer, but it’s probably best not to ask. Pull the drawer and
stick it on top of the one I have and I’ll clean them both out. With industrial
strength shit that kills anything that might still be living in these.”
    “Thank
you. The last thing I need is some sort of exotic disease that will make me
sick and ruin our Christmas.” She grimaced and set the drawer aside, then
looked up. “What do you and your pack typically do for Christmas? Is it a big
deal around here?” She was assuming that it was with all of the Christmas trees
she saw, lights, and the utter cheer that all but oozed from the place.
    “We
do tend to do it up big,” he said. She followed him but only to the doorway
when he hauled the drawers out into the bay. Jagger dumped the contents into
one of the large barrels she figured were for the various wastes they had in
the shop, then set the drawers down near a drain. “The pack does dinner on
Christmas Eve before we all come into town for the festival. On Christmas day
it’s pretty laid back until around mid-afternoon. Then there’s hay rides,
snowball fights, and a bunch of ice carving and snowman building contests.
Around seven there’s a huge buffet out of the community center where everyone
and anyone is invited. The local businesses get together to put it on, but it’s
on a rotation each year so only some of us have to work and then the next year
we get it off while others slave. I’m off this year and next, but the following
year I’m on the schedule.”
    She
brought out another of the drawers for him and laughed. “Well when you are
slaving away I will make sure to admire you while you work your cute and tight
ass off, deal?” That’s when it really hit her. She was truly planning on
staying here in this place. She already was seeing this as her home. “I’m
home,” she whispered quietly.
    He
looked up with a frown. “Sorry, what did you say?” he asked. Straightening from
where he’d been switching the heads on the hose, he took a step her way.
“Ophelia, are you all right, sweetheart? You look flushed.”
    “Just
realizing that I’m home,” she told him with a laugh and jumped into his arms.
“I’m home.” She had never felt as if she fit into her life, never felt like she
was where she belonged but now she did. She hadn’t met his pack yet, but now,
just being here, she was happy. She. Was. Home.
    He
let out an “oomph” when she jumped him, but Jagger never faltered and didn’t
drop her. His arm banded around her tight. Then he hitched her up higher so she
could wrap her legs