14)

I herded the kids inside and got the rods put away in the wardrobe sized plastic shed inside the garage, the fish stayed in the plastic bucket for now.

“Okay kids, head upstairs and wash up, then stay up there and be quiet until I give the all clear.”

Sara stopped trying to rub imaginary fish goo off her face again and gave me a questioning look.

“Explain?”

“At least one of the guys coming in worked on the house for several weeks while I tried to stay out of their way, but we did chat and I mentioned I don’t have any kids, so you guys might be hard to explain, might even worry them enough to make a call to someone, and you came here to hide out so...”

The eldest nodded. “Got it, but I'm going to grab some snacks first, it’s getting near lunch time and it may take a while to fix the door.’

I nodded, “Good idea, we’ll fill up a tray.’

More peanuts and jerky, some bananas and grapes from Sara, and a package of Oreo's from a upper shelf spotted by Ami who waved her hands at it to pull them down with her wonky magical talents and ended up launching the creamed filled cookies at high speed directly at her face, only for Sara to grab them out of the air with a panicked look, followed up with a glare for her sister.

Any follow up lecture on the dangers of using her magic got defused by the sight of the boy eating a banana before he had washed his hands and the resulting shrill lecture.

I think the eldest is getting a little overwhelmed trying to be the responsible one, guess I need to step up a little, but first I got to deal with the buzzer coming from my phone telling me someone was at the gate. I touched the button to open it up while shuffling the kids toward the elevator and reminding them to keep quiet, and maybe take a nap, which immediately resulted in both the girl’s vocalizing their outrage at me thinking they were young enough to need a nap.

“What are you talking about, you’re never too old for a nap. Heck I’m looking forward to one later this afternoon, and why is the buzzer for the front gate going off again?”

I reached in to hit the button for the second floor and snatched my arm out before the door could close then I tapped the phone and looked at the screen to see who was at my gate.

Which turned out to be a flatbed truck from Bertinelli and son, with Alphonse, the grandson sitting at the wheel.

...so who the hell had I just let onto my property? “Hey Alphonse, I opened the gate a few minutes ago, wasn’t that you?”

The kid looked over at the camera, “No, I think that was the cop car I saw pull in. Any problems?”

...crap.

Witnesses, less chance of anything happening if I have some, and I don’t think I was going to put anyone in danger, so...”Nope, not sure why they’re here, I let them in without looking because I thought it was you, but come on in, I kinda want to get this done before the mosquitoes come out.”

I headed out the kitchen door only to see the sheriff had already drove past the side cut to the garage and was following the drive to the front door, I headed out to meet Alfonzo and another younger guy as they pulled up.

“Hi Al, you know where to go. I already cleaned up the mess, but I'd appreciate if you could haul off the wreckage, I gotta go talk to the sheriff, might be a kid missing or something.”

“Sure thing Mr Lathe.”

Why, why, why did I put the idea of missing children in his head when I got three of them upstairs, obviously the health benefits of being a cursed shapeshifter does nothing for the brains.

I heard the car door close up ahead, and got a scent on the breeze from the car, and her.

Great, my second werewolf.

Which considering she’s the sheriff, means like I’m might be going to meet the would be alpha wolf a lot earlier them I planned.

I came around the shrub on the corner, a dogwood now that I think of it, to see the sheriff looking around with a concerned look on her face before she turned to see me and got a even more serious look as she held her hands out in front of her with her fingers spread out.

“Okay, let’s talk this out. I didn’t come here for you, we’re both adults, we don’t have to fight.”

Right...not what I was expecting, or who.

Sheriff Adora Karras was bit on the small size, but very fit looking, with some color to her skin and long wavy black hair with some white and gray mixed in and tied back behind her head, I couldn't see her eye color since she was looking down at my chest.

For a moment I wondered if my shirt had something on it, then realized she was avoiding eye contact like she was dealing with a predator and didn’t want to provoke me.

I looked down at her chest as well, realized that could be taken the wrong way and dropped my eyes further down to her belt buckle.

Which had a silver dollar set in it. Not sure what to make of that.

“Talking sounds like a good idea sheriff, but I got some contractors here I'm sure neither one of us want getting curious, so maybe meet up somewhere else, somewhere public.”

She glanced up for a moment at my house, crap, did she sniff out the kids, then nodded, “The diner has outdoor seating and is in the middle of town, why don’t we meet up there later tonight and grab a bite to eat.’

I tilted my head to he side before asking. “You buying?”

That got a little smile out of her and more importantly seems to make her relax a bit. “From the look of this place you can afford to cover your half of the bill.”

I looked up to met her eyes as she gave me the once over, light brown colored with a hint of mischief in them, before she pointed at her waist. “I’m going to get one of my cards out and leave on the banister over there in case your contractors go late, otherwise I'll see you around seven.”

She laid the card down, slipped into her car and gave me a wave as she headed out.

Then Ami called down from the second floor, “Did you just get a date?”