“No one sneaks up on a shifter,” Shawn confirmed.
Margie sighed and took a last look at her children. “Okay. What do you need me to do?”
“Well, that depends on what you can do,” Kelos replied cagily.
“I’m good at organization.” Margie looked hopeful but Kelos had other ideas.
“Haven’t you ever gotten your hands dirty?” the dragon shifter asked. “Or chipped a nail while hitting something with a hammer?”
“No.” Margie curled her fingers, hiding her nails in the palm of her hand. “And I feel confident that if I got through life without hitting anything with a hammer, I would not feel as though I’ve missed out.”
“There is nothing like wielding a hammer to work through life’s stresses and strains,” Shawn encouraged. “All you have to do is think of the one thing that you would like to pound into the ground and hit it.”
“Please, don’t tell my children that.” Margie grinned despite herself as she followed Kelos around the far side of the house.
“This is where I keep all my tools, don’t worry, it’s locked so the children can’t come in here and help themselves to anything dangerous.” He pulled a key from his pocket and opened the doors of an old barn that had a new lock on the door. As the doors swung wide open, he stood back, a small smile of satisfaction on his face.
“I might be having second thoughts about you, Kelos,” Amber murmured as the dragon shifter took a couple of steps forward and yanked a red toolbox off a shelf. “I think you have a secret mistress.”
“Tools.” Shawn grabbed a tool belt and handed it to Margie. “What man doesn’t love tools?”
“My man.” Margie held her arms out of the way while Shawn buckled the tool belt around her waist.
“Ahh, I bet he’d change his mind if he had one of these.” Amber picked up a large drill. “Think of the damage and destruction Fabian could do with a drill this size!”
Margie giggled. “Please, don’t ever tell Fabian I have taken his name in vain, but if he ever got his hands on a drill like that, he’d probably make the house fall down.”
“I think we need to meet Fabian and teach him how to handle his tools.” Shawn arched an eyebrow and grabbed a saw. Flexing it in his hands, he said, “Okay, Kelos. Show us what you need us to do.”
Kelos shook his head, looking a little worried as he led them to his stack of lumber which was piled neatly around the side of the shed. “This is for the porch. I haven’t had time to get to it yet but since there are so many of us here, maybe this would be a good time.”
Shawn nodded and helped Kelos pull the tarp off the lumber which had been keeping it dry. “Okay. You measure, I’ll cut, and the ladies can hammer them into place.”
Kelos glanced sideways at Margie and Amber. “Is that okay with you?”
Amber grinned and grabbed a hammer from his toolbox. “I have hammered more nails than you’ve had hot dinners.”
“I doubt that,” Kelos answered as he carried a piece of lumber over to the porch and measured it. “Margie, do you want to start ripping the old boards up?”
“I suppose.” She arched her eyebrows at Amber and took the hammer out of the tool belt. Holding it in her right hand, she advanced on the porch. “I hope the house doesn’t come down, too.”
“It’ll be fine,” Kelos assured her but when he locked eyes with Amber, there was a hint of fear there.
Raising the hammer over her shoulder, Margie brought it down hard and whacked the board so hard it shattered. A look of pure satisfaction spread over her face. “You’re right. This is good therapy.”
Soon the sound of hammering and sawing filled the quiet of the mountainside as the old porch was pulled apart to be replaced by new solid wood that would still be standing when Amber and Kelos were gray and old.
“Having fun?” Amber asked as Margie stood up straight, her hand on the small of her back.
“I am.” Margie nodded and glanced at Kelos. “So, you have a thing for him?”
“Kelos?” Amber nudged her sister-in-law. “I do.”
“It’s serious?” Margie asked in surprise.
Amber wrinkled her nose. “Is it that obvious?”
“I have seen you with other guys before…” Margie hesitated before she said, “Fabian used to worry that you would never find the right man and settle down. That you never took relationships seriously because you thought that it would mean the end of your freedom.”
“Really?” Amber asked in surprise. “I had no idea I was the topic of conversation for you guys.”
“Only because we were worried about you. You are so good with the kids, but you never seemed interested in settling down and starting your own family.” Margie studied Amber closely. “Why?”
Amber paused, hammer raised as she exhaled deeply, she let it drop but there was no force behind it. It was as if her strength had suddenly gone. “Because I watched my mom make sacrifices for us. For her family. I know she loved us more than anything in the world, but it was as if she’d traded who she was in exchange for a husband and kids.”
Margie reeled back. “I had no idea. Fabian never said.”
“I don’t think Fabian really saw it in the same way.” Amber rocked back on her haunches. “It wasn’t until Fabian was at college that I saw it. I visited home for a couple of weeks. Dad was at work and it was the first time my mom and I really talked. She was so interested in where I’d been and what I’d seen. Then she got out this box.”
Margie’s brow knitted together. “What was in it?”
“Her life. Her life before she married my dad.” Amber flexed her fingers around the hammer. “It was as if she was a different person than the one I
