Page 7 of Magical Midlife Rescue (Leveling Up #11)

FIVE

Jessie

“You look lovely, miss. Very good, indeed,” Mr. Tom said as I met him at the base of the stairs.

I wore jeans and a baggy T-shirt with my hair pulled up into a ponytail.

I had a feeling he hadn’t even glanced at me, given he was currently tapping a page in a book that looked like a child’s diary.

“Now, here we go. Let’s just— No, Edgar, it is not your turn. ”

Edgar waited by the front door with a fedora clutched in his spindly fingers, pulled in tight to his chest. He looked like a character out of Oliver Twist asking for more food.

“I hear you loud and clear, Sir Tom, but if I may…” He shuffled farther into the entryway. “It’s just that the flowers started singing, and when they do that?—”

“No, no.” Mr. Tom held up his hand as he tried to marshal me past Edgar. “It is not your turn! We have to keep things orderly or it’ll all turn into chaos.”

“Yes. I agree,” Edgar said, blocking our way now. “But yesterday, you said you would come by, and I waited all day, and into the night, and looked in the windows when they lit up, watching everyone, and into the darkness when they went out, and?—”

“Edgar, for the last time,” Mr. Tom said, “stop looking in the windows and spying on people. The kids these days call that creepy.”

“Everyone calls that creepy,” I said with a grimace. “After the meeting with Patty, I can?—”

“Oh no! No, no.” Mr. Tom shook his head adamantly as he put out his arm. He shielded me like I was a celebrity and he my bodyguard, trying to shove past Edgar. “No. Alpha Steele put me in charge of your schedule, and I mean to uphold that prestigious and somewhat impossible duty.”

“He didn’t actually put you in charge?—”

“You are penciled in later, Edgar,” Mr. Tom said. “After Aurora’s challenge and lunch. The miss is very busy. She has many things to get to, and she doesn’t need to be skipping meals so that your flowers can sing to her. Now?—”

“But…” Edgar lifted one finger, still clutching the hat.

“No buts! Make way. Her mate has made her late for the first meeting of the day. If you keep us here any longer, I’ll have to?—”

“Oh, Jessie!” Patty stuck her head out of the sitting room doorway.

“Fantastic, you’re here. Just wait until you hear what I have for you today!

” She noticed Edgar. “Yes, hello, Edgar. Fine morning, isn’t it?

I heard you have some trouble with your flowers.

What a pity. You’ve been working so hard.

But never mind that now—we’ll get to it just as soon as we can, okay? ”

Edgar lifted his eyebrows at Patty as Mr. Tom continued his attempt to shepherd me past.

“No, you’re going about this all wrong.” Patty shouldered Edgar back to make room for herself.

I was too stunned to comment. “That’s not how to manage a schedule.

Is this your first time? I know it’s difficult when someone is as busy as Jessie, what with her demands and her appointments—no, this is something I’m probably better equipped to handle. ”

“No, that’s okay.” I stuck out my hand as she took over trying to move me past Edgar. “Honestly, Austin wasn’t aware of the setup. I think I’m fine to?—”

“Unhand her, woman,” Mr. Tom said, charging back into the fray.

“I have it all written down right here in her diary.” He held up the little book.

The edge gleamed with a metal clasp that would fit a tiny key.

“Along with her daily activities and various thoughts she probably had when doing those activities.”

“Wait…what?” I asked, perplexed. “You’re keeping an actual diary for me? Like…a real diary?”

“Of course he isn’t,” Patty reassured me. “That would be bonkers. He’s touched, but he’s not as bad as the vampire, are you, Mr. Tom? No offense, Edgar, but I think we’re all on the same page here, aren’t we?”

“I think maybe,” Edgar hazarded.

“I’ll have you know—” Mr. Tom started in.

“ Enough .” The voice was deep, full of power, and the command shocked through those gathered.

Tristan walked down the hall, just finishing off a breakfast sandwich.

He crumpled the foil in his hand as his glowing gaze traced over Patty and then Mr. Tom.

“ I will handle Jessie’s schedule,” he finally said.

“Mr. Tom, you already have plenty of very important tasks as it concerns the miss. If all your time is spent managing a diary, we’ll have to bring in someone else to see to her day-to-day, like cooking and laundering and cleaning. Someone else will need to handle her.”

Mr. Tom pulled his hand away from shoving Patty and brought himself up to his full height. “There is no need to go into such hysterics, Tristan. We all know that I am the most capable person in this house when it comes to looking after the miss.”

“Exactly,” Tristan said without skipping a beat.

“We wouldn’t want to have to replace you.

” He stopped at my side, darkness swirling around him.

His glowing gaze bored into Edgar. “You’re already on the schedule for today.

Give that hat back to the person you have stashed in your cottage, free them, and make sure your flowers are seen to until Jessie can visit you. ”

“Yes, sire. Of course, sire.” Edgar bowed, dropped the hat, and spun toward the door…

only, it didn’t open when he got there. Nor did he lift his hand to open it himself.

He slammed into the hard surface, bounced back, and shrieked.

A glance over his shoulder told him Tristan and his glowing eyes were still pointed his way, and so he spun again and then raced down the hallway toward the back door.

“Kind of extreme,” I murmured.

An image of a woman holding her stomach and laughing magically appeared in the wood on the landing.

Not funny, I told Ivy House.

Her wheeze of laughter was the reply.

Tristan barely spared the dropped hat or dashing vampire a glance. He held his hand out for Mr. Tom. “I’ll take the diary, if you please.”

“It seems like you understand what’s important here. Unlike that meddling woman loitering in the doorway of the sitting room.” Mr. Tom put his nose in the air and surrendered the diary.

“I’d like a coffee made in the French press, please, Mr. Tom,” Tristan said. “And one for Jessie.”

“Coming right up!” Mr. Tom strode down the hall without another glance at Patty.

Tristan’s stern demeanor melted into a smile and sparkling eyes.

“Patty, lovely to see you.” His charm was off the charts.

“If you wouldn’t mind stepping into the sitting room for another moment, I need to look over the day’s events and confer with Jessie.

We’re already behind schedule and need to come up with a plan of attack. ”

Patty blushed. “I would be glad to. Good for you for helping her! And just let me say, you’ve been a wonderful addition to this team. Everything runs so smoothly with you here!”

“Thank you so much, Patty.” He spared her a moment of attention before turning to me. “Now, Jessie, let’s just step into this other sitting room, shall we?”

I watched as Patty disappeared through the doorway before following him across the hall.

“Privacy, please,” he murmured.

I wrapped us in a soundproof spell, looking at him like I’d never seen him before.

He noticed and grinned. “I’ve had a lot of experience with hardheaded gargoyles and garhettes. Sorry about taking over in there, but it seemed like you needed a helping hand.”

“No, don’t apologize. You handled that much better than I could’ve. You got Mr. Tom off my back without hurting his feelings and Edgar out of here without him asking to be retired. Where have you been until now?”

His mood darkened. “Mistaking where you needed me most.”

Our training wasn’t going well. He couldn’t seem to get in tune with me, and I didn’t know enough about his flight plans to figure out where I should be and when.

I put my hand on his arm in support. “We’ll get it?—”

He brought that hand up to cough, just once, before shifting his weight and looking down at the diary. He’d effectively removed my touch.

I clasped my hands in front of me. “Sorry.”

“I’m not worried about the touch, and neither is Alpha Steele,” he said, turning a page. “I prefer it, actually. Gargoyles in general do. But you and I both need to practice shifter rules if we want to seem natural in the moment. The packs will notice.”

“Right. Definitely.”

He flicked another page. “Mr. Tom wrote down your heart’s desires.”

“ What? ” I inched forward to see, putting my hands behind my back.

He chuckled. “That’s not really advertising natural .”

I pushed my hands to my sides. “None of this is exactly natural for me.”

“Yes, I’ve realized that.” He flipped to the most recent page, and his finger traced down the lines before he snapped the diary closed and handed it over to me. “One of your heart’s desires is a house in a meadow with a white picket fence and a window box with an apple pie sitting on it.”

I looked down at the diary in bewilderment. “A window box has plants and flowers in it.”

“Usually.”

“White picket fence?” I whispered. “Where did he get that?” I shook my head and handed the diary back to him. Trying to figure it out would make me dizzy. “Not my problem. This is your problem now. You took the job.”

“Um…” He hesitated before closing his fingers around the diary, his expression confused. “I…must’ve gotten it wrong? It seemed like you didn’t actually want Mr. Tom taking over your schedule…”

“I didn’t.”

“Nor Patty.”

“Correct.”

He narrowed his eyes slightly, trying to read me, and then sagged in defeat. “I don’t understand.”