Page 10 of Beau (Sheppard’s Shadow #5)

Walking around the garden, Danielle couldn’t believe how lovely it was looking.

There was very little in the way of flowers this time of year, but she could see where the stones were in the garden and the planters, all lined up around the fountain, were looking good as well.

She couldn’t wait until spring, when the faeries promised her that things would start to come up and look beautiful.

Then in the summer, things would be in full bloom all the way until fall, when the last of the flowers would be blooming.

“You like the garden? We still have plenty to do, but it is well on its way to being the showcase that it once was.” She told Honey that she loved how they’d made it all new-looking.

“It was easy once we got all the grass taken out and the bulbs given enough room to heal and become flowers again. In the spring, they’ll push their stems out, and you won’t believe how beautiful it will be with the butterflies and birds coming around to feast on the blooms. Some of us will be here to make sure that things are watered and working well together. I’m excited as well.”

“I noticed that you’ve taken out the trees that seemed to be growing at a fast rate here.

Were they planted or just coming up on their own?

” He told her that they were once weeds that had grown almost too strong to be in a garden.

“You must let me know if you need anything removed that is larger than you can handle, Honey. I’d gladly pay for the removal rather than any of you be hurt. ”

“We were able to make it work this time, but I shall keep that in mind when we have to do the back garden. There are trees back there that have died and are now in the way of other flowers and bulbs.” She told him to tell her which ones, and she’d have them taken out with a professional.

“I believe that if you were to ask any of the Sheppards to help you, that would be all that it takes. They’re strong men and will help you in any way that they can because you are their sister. ”

She didn’t know about that, but she’d ask Beau about it.

He’d know someone who could take them out if his brothers were too busy to help out.

And from what she knew of them, they seemed to be busy all the time with one thing or another.

She sort of envied them at their work. Danielle needed something to keep her from being at the house all the time.

While she was glad that she was able to get the house in working order, it’s all she’d been doing for a month.

Even Beau would go and help his brothers when he was needed.

Filling out applications for the few jobs that were around town hadn’t gotten her anything yet.

But she also knew that she was new to this town, and they might not want to hire someone they didn’t know.

Being all right with that was fine, but she was no closer to getting a job than she had been before. Frankly, she was bored with housework.

Every day for a month now, she’d been working on the house.

It looked like it was coming along, but there was still so much to do.

When she thought about it, she realized that she had a lot more finished up than she’d thought.

All of the third floor was finished and ready for furniture.

The second floor only had the master suite to go.

Now that there were bathrooms in every bedroom, too, she knew that cleaning them was going to be a chore.

But having a single bathroom on each floor had to go.

There were just too many bedrooms for a bathroom to handle them all.

The master needed to have the floors redone.

She wanted to ask the faeries to do it; they did such a wonderful job in the living room, but they were working so hard that she didn’t want to add to their workload.

As it was now, she thought they were overworked and didn’t know how to pay them.

When Beau said he’d take care of it, she depended on him to do it.

But so far, she’d not seen any kind of exchange of money for them to keep them going.

A few blooms and sugar cubes didn’t seem like nearly enough for what they were doing.

Going back into the house after her tour of the gardens, she still couldn’t believe how lovely the kitchen looked.

With the appliances in place, Beau had been cooking them some fantastic meals.

He was even leaving her something for lunch when he had to work with his family.

That was the nicest thing he could have done for her because she was sick to death of sandwiches from the sub shop.

She’d finished the office just this morning.

She’d not been joking when she told Beau that if it was paper, she would shred it.

There was no point in leaving things to chance if she didn’t have to.

Knowing that someone could get all kinds of information from old mail, there was no way she was going to allow herself to be caught in that trap.

It was something that she’d learned in college when she’d been there for business management classes.

She missed those days of going to classes every day.

Danielle needed to get out of the house.

And not think about working on it for at least twenty-four hours.

Gathering up what she’d need to leave, she was at the door when she thought of something else.

Calling for Honey, he came to her right away.

It might have been her frantic tone, but he looked nervous when he flittered around the room in front of her.

“I’m going to go and find me something to do that has nothing to do with this house.

” He nodded. “While I’m gone, I want you to finish the house up.

I know that I said I wanted to do it all by myself, but those days are over.

Finish it up the way you think it needs to be done, and I’ll be happy that I don’t have to mess with it anymore. ”

“Yes, my lady. Does that mean the things that need to be repaired as well? There is still the matter of the leak in the basement that you said was too big for us to do.” He looked like he thought that she’d been wrong on that as well.

She told him everything. “Very good, my lady. You’ve made us very happy to serve you. It will be finished in no time at all.”

Just as she was stepping out the door, she could hear the hum of wings.

She didn’t know what sort of mess she was going to be coming back to, but at this point, she didn’t care.

There were things that needed to be done, and she was sick of doing them.

Thinking that she should have allowed them to do this at the very beginning, Danielle smiled when she thought of the look on Beau’s face when he returned home to find things different than when he left.

The first thing she was going to do was get herself something to eat.

She’d had breakfast hours ago, and now she wanted something for lunch.

Someplace that had cloth napkins instead of paper ones that were in a holder.

She also wanted a coffee. Something that she didn’t need to read the directions on to make.

Excitement ran over her skin as she made herself a mental note of what else she was going to get into today.

While waiting in line at the coffee truck that just happened to be in town, she thought of lunches that she’d been having with the other women of the leap.

It had been fun, but she wanted to eat alone and enjoy herself by ordering what she wanted.

She wouldn’t admit this to just anyone, but she was intimidated by the other women because they seemed to have their lives so put together.

She was barely holding onto her own sanity most of the time, and she was afraid to show them the real her when they went out. Today was for her.

“I have a question for you.” She nearly screamed when someone spoke to her. “Are you all right? I didn’t mean to startle you. It’s Carrie. I’m Archie’s wife.”

“I was just getting out of the house for the day and was making plans to have lunch.” She said she’d love to join her. “All right, but I’m going to be myself today. I’m sick of trying to handle the house and my emotions.”

“I wouldn’t have it any other way. I’ll meet you at…where are we going?” She told her what she was doing right now. “Oh, I love their hot cocoa. I would love one if you don’t mind. I’m nearly there anyway.”

Danielle didn’t know if she was disappointed or not about the company, but she wasn’t going to change her mind now about her plans.

Carrie would either like her or not. Today, she didn’t care one bit.

Tomorrow was a different story, but since she’d left the house this morning, she was going to have a good day no matter whose feelings she had to hurt to have one.

Carrie met her at the tables as she had gotten her the hot cocoa along with her coffee.

After getting it and taking a sip, she wasn’t sure that she liked it, but was going to drink the thing no matter what.

She’d never been a big fan of coffee, and with all the things that were in this one, she was sure that she should have gotten one that was just plain instead of the one that she had.

“You said you were going to be yourself today. I wondered if you were playing along with us when we had lunch. Why are you holding back?” She told her.

“I like you just fine, and I think that you’re funny when you let go.

From now on, be yourself. I know that I’d think you were fitting in rather than not. ”