Sebastian (Bowen Boys, #5)(44)

“I’ve been talking to a demon.” She sat back down in her chair and crossed her arms over her chest. “It’s not what you think.”

“Since you don’t know what I’m thinking, why don’t you enlighten me? And just so you know, I heard about the visit from Bill the Cat.” They both started laughing. “Next time you see him, ask him where the names came from.”

“I will.” He told her the entire story with the exception of the blood. He was still trying to work that one out. He looked down at the small mark in the middle of his palm and tried not to think about what it resembled. He was sure it wasn’t a pitchfork.

“So you don’t know what help he needs?” He told her no. “Then he could want you to give him Ama long enough for her to have his kid.”

“No, he said he didn’t want her. I believed him. He seemed…I was going to say he seemed scared, but I think he really was. Especially after he found out about the king and queen stuff.” She nodded. “If you want to know the truth, it scares me, too.”

“Me too. I mean, I love you both to death, but I have all sorts of problems with thinking you guys are going to be required to leave us as soon as this thing with Wanera is over.” He and Ama had thought of that, too. “When is the ball thing?”

“Next week.” He smiled. “We’ve been practicing with our wings. They’re pretty neat. Not terribly useful, but neat. I think little George got the biggest kick out of it. And I swear to you we didn’t take him off the ground.”

They had been playing with him in the yard and Ama had taken off while he held little George. He’d laughed so hard he’d nearly made himself sick. When they took him home, he’d jabbered to his parents that he had “flyed.” It took them twenty minutes to assure Walker and Caitlynne that they hadn’t “flyed” with him anywhere.

After he’d agreed to give her a statement in the morning, she went home and he walked around the store. Trevor watched him closely but never said anything, and he wondered if Trevor thought he was next, or that Sebastian might think he had helped Debby steal from him. It was nearly closing time when Trevor finally approached him.

“Is she coming back?” Sebastian shook his head. “Good. Sorry, boss, but she was a bitch. I’ve never worked with a more controlling, lazier person in my life.”

“She was all that. I had actually been thinking I needed a change of management anyway. You wouldn’t know who’d want the job, would you?” He hoped that Trevor wanted it but didn’t have a clue. “The pay sucks and the hours are long. But there is one perk.”

“Oh yeah, what’s that?” Trevor smiled. “Is it that whoever takes it gets to be your number-one guy? Or is it something like we get to be best buds and I get to be invited to that nice house you have?”

“All the above.” They both laughed and Sebastian smiled again. “Nah, the perks are that this person would get a bigger discount, and if he proved to me that he wouldn’t sit behind the counter and order others around and would actually sell, I’ll give him a percentage of his sales. But that part would be a perk, not for everyone.”

Trevor nodded. “And if I knew someone who wanted this job…when would he start? And how much more is the pay?”

Sebastian asked Trevor what he made now. He had accountants do the payroll stuff for him so he really had no clue. When he told him, he looked around the store.

“I’ll expect him to work as hard as he does now and he’ll have to be trustworthy. Because as you can see from what happened today, I don’t put up with thieves.” Trevor nodded. “I could probably pay a good assistant manager…ten dollars more on the hour. But I want to make him understand he has to be worth it.” He thought about how many more hours he was going to have to put in because he was short one person. “And as soon as possible to start.”

“Good. I’d hoped you say that. And I can start tonight. If you want me.” Sebastian smiled. “You do, I take it.”

“Oh yeah. And so you know, I would have gone twelve more bucks an hour.” Trevor smiled.

“So you know, I’m going to make more than that in sales for you. So stick that in your hat.” After agreeing to some smaller terms, Sebastian had an assistant that he liked and one he was sure was going to double his sales in a matter of days. He went home after they closed together, already making plans to start interviews in the morning. Life was good all of the sudden.





Chapter 13



Wanera was still sitting at his desk over an hour after he’d told everyone he was headed to bed. He couldn’t believe that he’d nearly gone to the human world and taken the queen of faeries for his bride. What an idiot.

The knock at the door had him picking up his pen so he could at least pretend he’d been working. When Bill walked in, he put it down on the desk and smiled at him. Bill sat in the chair across from him and smiled.

“You know.” Wanera nodded. “You are not mad that I went to talk to the lady faerie? She was most pleasant to me, and she is the one who gave me the tea. I so wish I had gotten the recipe. You would have enjoyed it.”

Wanera had had Sebastian write down what he had needed to get, and the man had given him the tea bags. He had even told him how to mix it up. Apparently there was a steeping issue that some people didn’t get.