Page 41 of Housesitter

He stopped mid-sentence as Shepherd shook his head.

“OK, feed the house, and it feeds me,” Kel said. “That’s what. Twice a year.”

Shepherd folded his arms.

“Once a…month?”

Shepherd screwed up his nose. The dream of Vegas and cleaning up at the card table dissipated like…smoke.

“I need to stay in Marble Falls,” Kel said. He took a breath and huffed it off. Of course he did. He’d wondered often enough why Dio Madden hadn’t just taken his inheritance and run instead of moving to Marble Falls. It was because he didn’t have a choice. “Forever.”

Shepherd unfolded his arms and stuck them in the pockets of his shorts. “Or until you hand the curse off to someone else.”

“...wasn’t Dio going on a cruise?”

Shepherd acknowledged that with a nod. Apparently he’d stood still long enough because he headed out of the kitchen. His answer was thrown over his shoulder as he started up the stairs.

“He was,” he said. “And within about three days he’d have been able to blend in with the old folk on the shuffleboard deck. When he came back he’d need to…feed…more to recuperate. You could probably stay presentable a bit longer, but from what I hear it’s not pleasant.”

Kel gave the stairs an unenthusiastic look. He leaned against the newel post, arms crossed on top of the carved ball.

“You look pretty good.”

Shepherd stopped mid-step and glanced around. “Oh, I’m not…supernatural,” he said. “All this? 100% pedigree human. I was just home-schooled.”

Kel put his head down on his arms. Great. He closed his eyes and took a deep breath.

“Do you actually know any more than I do?” he asked the darkness inside his lids.

“Depends,” Shepherd said. “Specifically? No. Generally? Yes. About anything to do with taxes? Definitely not. Shit.”

Kel lifted his head. “What now?”

“I think that is a hornet's nest.” Shepherd balanced precariously on the bannister as he squinted out the bullseye window situated high on the front of the house. “I was hoping it was some sort of demonic chrysalis, but no… OK, I just need to find out who the pest guy is for this area.”

“Seriously?” Kel said. “That takes priority over my thing?”

Shepherd glanced down at him and shrugged before he hopped back down off the balcony. His feet thumped on the landing, and Kel felt a twinge of envy, low and mean in his gut, for how easy that was for him.

It wasn’t a new feeling. For some reason, though, it did make him feel bad to grudge Shepherd his knees. Maybe that was growth.

“Good point,” Shepherd said. He loped back down the stairs and stopped a few steps from the bottom. It gave him an inch on Kel. He smiled easily as he held the papers. “Your thing? It means the HOA is your problem now.”

Oh.

Fuck.

Kel reluctantly took the list and gave it a dubious once-over. It was pretty long, everything from ‘tree roots impinging on a neighbor’s yard’ to ‘a non-standard mail slot.’

“It’s double-sided,” Shepherd pointed out helpfully as he leaned against the bannister.

Kel flicked the page over and grimaced as he saw the list of problems was in a smaller font on this side.

“OK, you’re the expert…for what that’s worth,” Kel said as he glanced up from under his lashes at Shepherd. “You think Dio topped himself to get out of handling the HOA?”

Shepherd only had a shrug for him.

Ruby, on the other hand… Even without the full story, she had a fully formed opinion.