Page 5 of A Clutch for Hutch (Omegas of Animals #16)

Hutch

“Give me the tour already, Boss.” Burns rolled his eyes. I loved seeing this side of Burns.

I’d been worried when I left, but he swore to me he felt comfortable with the Johnsons and from everything he said, they were treating him well.

“Not your boss anymore, Burns. Just Hutch.” I told him that every time we talked on the phone. I had a feeling I’d be sixty, and he’d still be calling me boss.

“Nah, you’re always going to be Boss. Now, hurry up. Give the tour already. I don’t have all day.”

“What do you mean, you don’t have all day? It’s Saturday,” I teased.

“Fine. I do have all day, but I want to see.”

I flipped my camera so he could watch the house as I walked around.

“This is the kitchen. It’s pretty retro—mid-century modern.” It was my favorite room in the house, even though it wasn’t one I used to its fullest capacity. Still, it reminded me of an old sitcom I used to watch with my grandmother, and I loved it.

“How did you get a stove that color?” That color being teal.

I chuckled. “Because I have money, Burns. I bought it.”

“You don’t even cook.”

“No, but I can-ish.” An emphasis on the ish . “Enough of that. Let’s go to the next room.”

I took him on the tour of the original building and then walked into the first addition.

It was seamless in that you didn’t have to go up and down any steps, and there were no weird doorways to go through, but also each addition had its own personality.

The beginning was very mid-century modern, but the next one?

It was all knotty pine. They apparently had a phase where they thought knotty pine was the coolest thing ever.

“I’m turning this one into my office. Gonna build out some bookshelves along this wall.” I wasn’t sure of the original purpose of the space. It had no closets, so probably not a bedroom.

“Office? Are you starting another company?”

“I don’t know, but it felt like I needed an office, and I have so many rooms here, this felt like the right one for that.”

We went from bedroom and bathroom to bedroom and bathroom through the rest of the house, including the back, which opened up into a large screened-in porch. I wouldn’t even call it a porch, more of a patio. But the Realtor had called it a porch, so there was that.

From there, I walked the perimeter and told him about Animals and my dragon, and he told me about how things were going at work and how much the new bosses were doing right by everyone.

“So, you think you’re gonna stick around?”

“Maybe, Boss. The work is fine, but you know how it is. It gets lonely. Being in the city—you’re around so many people all the time, you’d think it wouldn’t be, but it is.”

Burns was a bear, and he’d grown up in a den surrounded by other bears.

Coming into the city had been a mini rebellion after college, and then he just kind of stuck to it.

I wouldn’t be surprised if he went back to his den.

Living in the mountains and fishing was all he ever did when he had vacations.

And between the bonuses that I gave him and the bonuses he received during the merger, he didn’t have to work.

“What’s that in the corner of the view?” He leaned in close to his phone, as if that would help.

“Oh, let me show you. I’m still working on it.” The only project I’d done from the ground up. “A greenhouse.”

“A greenhouse? You’re telling me you like cooking now and you’re going to grow ingredients?”

“Yeah, why not? And since I made this all by myself, you need to ooh and ah and be properly impressed.”

“Got it, Boss.”

I showed him what I’d been doing, and it wasn’t until I started describing all the details as we walked through it that I fully grasped just how large the building was.

Not so much in physical space. That I knew, as the one who built it, but in the number of plants that could thrive in here.

I was officially becoming a gardener, or maybe a farmer.

How much do you have to plant to be a farmer? I wasn’t sure.

“All right, I’m gonna let you go. I have…well, nothing to do, but I’m tired of being on the phone.”

“Burns…don’t ever change. You’re the best.”

“I won’t. Promise.”

I hung up with him and went back inside.

I’d been going nonstop for weeks now, getting everything cleaned up, painted, new covers put on electric sockets, showerheads swapped out, new appliances, new furniture, curtains hung, and on and on.

Not everything was new. Some of my favorite pieces were from a local thrift store.

My home was finally starting to feel like mine, something my old penthouse never had. In a way, it had always felt like I was staying at a hotel. A fancy one I didn’t need to check in and out of, but it was that impersonal. This was so much better.

I went to the fridge to see what I should cook for dinner. Burns was right. My cooking wasn’t good, and the more I looked at the ingredients, the more I thought that it would be best to go out.

“How about we go for a little fly, and then we’ll get ready and go to Animals.” Like my dragon would ever turn down spreading his wings.

We took to the air, loving the desert wind against our scales and enjoying the changes visible from above that. I had a feeling home ownership would require constant repairs, upgrades, etc., but I didn’t mind. I’d had so much fun doing it.

I climbed under the hot water, showered off the day, and thought about what I was going to order for dinner, and if maybe it was time to consider taking up with one of the omegas who tried to chat me up the last time I was at Animals.

I’d never been one for one-night stands or even dating.

I’d always been waiting for my mate to just show up, like a little shifter-wrapped present from Fate.

But I was getting older, and maybe it was time to realize that that wasn’t going to happen for me.

Maybe it was time to just…not quite settle but look for happiness where I could find it.

I turned off the shower, shook my head, letting the water go everywhere, and tried to get my pity party for one to go away.

If Fate sent me a mate, I didn’t want to be tied down with somebody else; that kind of hurt would slice through any shifter.

No. I was going to do just like I always did, and say thanks, but no thanks, because whoever my mate was out there waiting for me, they were worth the wait.

I could forget my loneliness with a few games of darts.

Maybe make some friends. And if not, maybe Goldie’s bears were there and would let me hang. We got along pretty well last time.

And even if I came back feeling as lonely as I felt now, the food was better than here, and my belly would be full.