AllFreeNovel
Share Us
I’d almost slipped up and talked about Rain in here before knowing if it was safe to do so. We really did not need the Council knowing anything about him right now, not with Quint talking the way he was.
Quinton shot me an ugly look before asking, "You think she needs a job or something to do with her time?"
I sighed and rolled my eyes. That's what he got out of what I said? Good grief, he really was an asshole.
"No, Uncle Quint," I sighed heavily. "I don't think she needs a fucking job but Idothink she needs something to do with her time. Everybody does. She needs some structure in her life, something to do with her time. In case you missed it, she doesn't have any friends outside of us and she spends most of her time hidden away at Dash's. She doesn't go to school, and, yeah, I know she passed her GED but that's beside the point. She doesn't have anything to occupy her time with, she needs a purpose. We just came in, took over her life, or we tried to, and I really don't want her to get depressed. She needs things to do with her time besides hanging out with whoever is around and learning magic when we feel the gumption to teach it to her. She needs more than that and you know it. This is the perfect opportunity for her. She can learn and earn some extra cash at the same time. And," I held my hand up silencing him before he could argue with me. "You and I both know she doesn't ever spend the money Marcus left for her. She never spends money on anything except for maybe gas for the Rover and if she ever eats anywhere that's not at home. She needs to earn her own money and here she can do that. We can set her up with a paycheck for the time she spends here. It's the perfect way to give her money and the only way she'll accept it from us."
His face had hardened and turned a darker shade of red by the second as I spoke. He didn't like what I'd said, not at all and I couldn't really blame him. Quint was raised with an old school father who had certain ideals and expectations where the females in his life were concerned. Now, I'm not saying Uncle Quint was anything like my grandfather because he wasn't. But, and that's a really big but there, he wouldn't want his woman working for a paycheck when he could easily afford to buy her anything her heart desired and would see it as an insult that she'd rather work some crummy, low paying job rather than take the debit card and live an easy life of luxury.
Part of me wanted to do the same and coddle Ariel and give her the best of everything. The other part of me, the smarter part, knew she'd feel smothered and rebel against being treated like that. She'd see it as a hand out and hate us for it.
"I see your point," my Uncle grumbled gracelessly. "It's not healthy for her to have nothing to do with her time, but I guess I was just hoping she'd take that time to get to know us better and to get so in with us that she'd never want to leave."
My eyes narrowed on him. "You'd let her leave?" I asked him, sounding incredulous.
He winced and I knew he'd never let her go.
My mouth fell open when he said the unexpected and I ended up being wrong.
"Yeah," he whispered darkly. "If she really wanted to go and wasn't happy with us, with me, then I'd let her go. It would kill me, but I'd do it. For her."
I fucking knew it.
He loved her.
And not a puppy love kind of love, but a soul deep kind. The kind of love that would crush him and he'd never recover if she ever did leave him.
And I did not find one single thing to be jealous of or upset about. I felt nothing but happiness for my Uncle because he deserved to love and be loved back and he deserved to be loved by a girl like Ariel. And she did love him back. I know she'd not said as much out loud because there was no way any of the guys would have been able to keep something like that to themselves and wouldn't have gone blabbing to the rest of us. But I knew she loved him. It was there for anyone who knew her to see when she looked at him. Maybe not always when she was talking to him or about him, but it was there when she looked at him. It was also there to see in the way she put up with all of his bullshit but didn't let him walk all over her at the same time. I wasn't so sure he saw it or knew exactly how she felt about him, it was always harder to tell when it was your heart on the line.
I wanted her to love me as much as she loved him. Hell, I just wanted her to love me at all. I knew better than to get jealous, though. There was no room for jealousy in this relationship of ours. This was a lesson I had learned all too well once before and knew better than to repeat it now or ever again. Jealousy would tear my family apart faster than any female ever would.
"Well," I said quietly, "she's not going anywhere. She's with us now and she doesn't want to ever leave us. We just need to make sure she's happy, too."
"Alright, Nephew," he mumbled. "You're point has been made and I can't say that I disagree with you."
I blew out a gust of air in relief. That could have gone really bad and I counted myself lucky it hadn't. Especially since I knew he was upset with me when he showed up here, I shouldn't have been doing or saying things to upset him but to try and make things right between us. Instead, here I was irritating him and pushing his buttons like normal.
It was a good thing we were family and, therefore, forced to love each other. If we weren't family we'd probably hate each other because we argued so often and constantly got on each others nerves.
"How 'bout we tour the rest of your building now?" He asked in a teasing voice. "I mean, you've gotta at least be curious to see what you've paid for."
I shrugged. "Sure."
No matter how hard he tried to rile me up about the fact I'd bought a building without seeing it in its entirety, I refused to be embarrassed.
We spent the next hour and a half going through the entire building in all of its grimy glory. Uncle Quint managed to keep his snide comments to himself the entire time, for which I appreciated because the place was definitely worth a few snide remarks.
It needed a lot of work. Alotof work.
The apartment above the shop reeked like cat piss and cigarette smoke. I wondered if this was where the old blind witch had been living and, if so, what the hell had happened to her cats. I liked cats but no fucking way was I bringing one home that pissed all over the place, I wasn't interested in cleaning that kind of mess up on the daily. I might adopt one if it were cute though, but, then again, maybe not. Ariel only seemed interested in getting a cat if it was that ugly hairless kind and I thought those were expensive so there was no way there'd be one hidden away up here in this mess.
If the smell wasn't bad enough, every single ounce of wall space was covered in disgusting wallpaper that looked to be straight outta my nightmares. The carpet looked like it had unfortunately been white at one point in time but was now mostly yellow and covered in stains. It needed to go but Uncle Quint and I pulled up a corner in every room and miraculously discovered beautiful hardwood underneath all that ugly carpet. Unlike the wallpaper, the carpet could easily be removed and tossed into a dumpster. I added getting a dumpster out here onto my mental to do list.
The kitchen was small, the appliances outdated, and the entire room needed to be gutted and replaced. The price tag just kept climbing higher and higher.
The one and only bathroom was small and scarily covered in an offensive shade of pink. The bathtub, the sink, even the tile around the shower head. It, too, needed to be gutted and replaced.
Outside of the kitchen and the bathroom, there was a rather large living room and two decent sized bedrooms. All in all, it wasn't a bad space. I could pay people to fix the shit that needed to be fixed and then rent it out easily if I wanted to.
