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I pushed everything else away and relaxed in the steadiness of my job. Feeling more stable on my feet, I stepped out from between the two hulking men to find the other twin—the one who I didn’t have a name for—staring at me with a look I couldn’t decipher. Before I could get sucked down the rabbit hole of examining him to see if I could spot any differences between him and Teddy, I yanked my gaze away, preferring to focus on the different hues of grey in the stones used to build the fireplace.
“I’ve only been in three houses so far and other than Jeffers being lazy and sloppy, the pipes shouldn’t have frozen and burst… if that is what happened.”
“What do you mean “if”? We know the pipes burst after the first major freeze. Water drenched the rooms and we had to shut off water to the whole area to get it to stop pouring from the pipes.” The man, Noel, shoved his hands through his shaggy, brown hair that had the sexy wind-swept look. Wind-swept because just the thought of him having sex-tousled bedhead made me want to drag my fingers through it and while I could mask some light arousal from a shifter’s sense of smell, with three fine specimens of eye candy surrounding me, I’d soon exceed my rare ability. And the last thing I wanted was to appear unprofessional by smelling of desire for my clients.
Inserting a lot of patience into my tone, I explained to him how pipes don’t just freeze during a first hard frost and burst when there is enough heat in the house to keep the pipes from being frozen and if people were living in the house, then there was no way that they wouldn’t have noticed how cold the house was. He thought about my explanation for a minute then nodded. “Yeah, it didn’t make sense to us either, but we just assumed that Jeffers’ fucked up.”
“Understandable,” I chuckled. “Since I moved here in the spring, all my jobs have been going into houses and fixing the mess he made over the past two years.”
“What the fuck?!” the unnamed twin snarled. The sound made me jump as it seemed so foreign from the personality, I’d built for him in my mind. All our interactions had been full of sexual innuendos and joking, showing me that he was outgoing, an extrovert who liked to be the centre of attention. Anger didn’t seem to fit that picture. “Why did the council still recommend him to Barley, Kobe, and Welly if they already knew that she was having to fix his mistakes? Especially after they made us stop using the plumber that came recommended by Greg.”
Noel and Teddy looked at the twin like he was stupid, and I had to stifle a laugh at the look on his face when he noticed it. The action nearly sent me into a coughing fit, making me down the rest of the water in the open bottle.
“You know why,” Noel growled. “They’re jealous of what we’re building here, but they’re scared of outright stopping us.” He shrugged. “What better way to slow us down or keep us from succeeding then to sabotage us.” Now it was my time to look confused. Hadn’t they built this compound using Jeffers? That’s what I’d been told by the council when they told me about this project. They’d made it sound like they were doing me this amazing favour by suggesting me to this group, but in reality, instead of possibly taking over the job for the continuous development, I was just here to fix this weird problem because I was forced on them by the council.
I squared my shoulders. This small job was mine and I’d fix the problem, showing them that I was the best there was. That despite being forced on them, I was more of a blessing, someone that they’d want to have working with them in the future. “How about we go through the house? I’ll show you what I’ve discovered so far, and you can then answer some of the questions I have. Together we’ll get to the bottom of the problem and get it fixed up so you can move the families back in.”
Noel nodded in approval, and I had to bite back my need to preen under it. I hadn’t even begun to work, but he’d already switched from not believing I was a plumber to agreeing with me. That was a heady feeling and I promised myself I wouldn’t make him doubt himself.
I took them through the house, outlining where I thought things could have been plumbed better with less waste, less disruption, better planned and situated, places where problems could occur in the future, and what contributed to their current issues. I pointed to a joint under the bathroom sink. “See how those two pipes have that coupling between them? There doesn’t need to be one there. A straight run of pipe would have been better since both pipes are the same size. Plus, this coupling is where some of the water came from. Either it wasn’t glued correctly, or something was wrong with the coupling. It looks to be the right size, but…” I let my voice trail off. It was the same feeling I felt about a lot of the couplings I could see. They all looked correct, but they were also the spots where the failures occurred. And from what I could see, they really shouldn’t have.
“What do you suggest we do to fix it?” Teddy held out his hand to help me stand from the crouch I’d been in to show them the problem.
I bit my lower lip. I knew how to fix the pipes. That was simple. I’d just replumb a lot of the lines, making the quick improvements that I could, but it didn’t address the true cause of the problem since that still eluded me. The easy fix was something I knew many tradespeople did, but that wasn’t me. I preferred to rip it all back to find the root cause, I just didn’t think the houses were the issue. Something else was at play and I needed to figure it out fast.
Chapter5
Freddy
I’d never been jealous of my twin before. Not even of his ease with school. I’d done enough to pass comfortably which was all I’d wanted, but Teddy could have slept through high school and still been number one without anyone touching him. But at this moment, all I could see was green. I barely even paid attention to the discussion going on around me, preferring to covertly watch Mel and the way her body moved.
The work jeans she wore did nothing for her figure, dwarfing her, making it look like she was playing dress up. Yet, I couldn’t help but think, it was kind of cute on her. She didn’t need to play off her curves to attract attention like others—cough, Amber, cough—her femineity shone through despite all the masculine clothing she wore.
A drop of sweat ran down her forehead, along her temple and I couldn’t help myself, I needed to touch her. That single touch when our fingers met as I handed her the bottle of water was imprinted on my skin and I wanted more. I brushed my thumb over it, nearly gasping at the heat that radiated from her. My brother hadn’t been wrong to be worried. That heat couldn’t be natural.
With her attention on me as Noel and Teddy talked about her idea to replumb sections of the house and how long it would take, plus the improvements she noted, I took the opportunity to make a better, less sexually forward impression on her. For some reason, I didn’t want her to think of me as a player even if that was a label I proudly wore… before her. I cupped her cheek and leaned in so I wouldn’t have to talk as loud. Not that the guys wouldn’t be able to hear me with our enhanced hearing. “Are you sure you’re okay?”
She nodded even though I saw her shiver. I hoped it was a reaction to my touch, but a prodding in my gut told me it was something else. “Of course…”
When her voice trailed off and her eyes widened as she stared at me, I had a feeling she was asking me something, but with all my blood still below my belt, my brain was firing on all synapses.
“His name’s Freddy,” Teddy said with a chuckle. “And you’ll have to excuse him. His brain doesn’t work around beautiful women.” Then he winked. At her. My twin. My mouth dropped open in surprise, completely overriding the indignation I should have felt.
“Hey,” I finally mustered, making them all laugh.
“Proving my point.” Teddy winked again and this time I saw a slight blush stain her cheeks. Again, that green monster struck. I wanted to see that same response on her from me.
Noel cleared his throat and gave my brother and I a look that told us to knock it off and get back to business. Not a look he used often, proving he really needed to get laid. But when his gaze landed on Mel, it softened, and a hint of concern filled his eyes. Hmm. Interesting. Are we all attracted to her? Does this mean…? I didn’t even want to think of it for fear of jinxing it. We’d known since we were teens that we’d share a mate. Something we only discovered because we went to school with Welly, Kobe, and Barley. They’d kept it quiet, but when they saw us acting in a similar, but less sexual way, they explained it to us since cross shifter species mates and cross paranormal mates went against everything the councils tried to teach us.
“How long would it take to make these homes habitable?” At Noel’s question, Mel stepped out of my hold, and I felt the loss of her silky skin against mine. But as if there was a tether between us, I followed in her steps, crowding her even as Freddy gave me an annoyed look. Too bad, bro. If she is who I thought, then he needed to learn to share. Not like we hadn’t shared before, but they’d just been mindless fucks.
She chewed on her lip again and I realized she did it whenever she thought deeply about something. “Alone, probably close to a week per house. If I can find some help, then it would be faster, but,” she cautioned, “I still don’t know the cause. Where is the water coming from? And how did you shut it off to these houses, but not the other ones on your property?”
“The water supply for these houses comes from a pumphouse not too far from here. They’re the only ones using it.” Her eyebrows rose at that, and I could see the wheels spinning in her head as Noel continued to talk about the pump house and how they were able to shut the water there.
“Show me.” She marched over to the counter where she proceeded to put on her heavy parka, and scarf. The fact that she was bundling up in so many layers as a shifter concerned me. Sure, it was cold outside, but we ran hot, meaning we didn’t wear the same heavy winter gear like non-shifters. And since we tended to shift while on the compound, Noel, my brother, and I didn’t even have a coat with us. It made me wonder even more about her background. She glanced around looking for something.
“Teddy, her toque.”
