Dragon Guardian (Drakins of Wyrmarach) by Eden Glenn Read Free Book Online Page B

yes, of course, give him a shirt also as my
thank you.” She trailed off, feeling foolish.
    Caleb nodded, his smile stamped with boyish enthusiasm.
“Good.”   Sparks lit the golden highlights
in his eyes.
    “Now, short of bringing in a bus load of customers, I’m not
sure what you can do, dust, sweep, read a book? I will be in the office, holler
if you have a problem.”   She paused by
the array of thematic t-shirts. They were one thing that consistently sold.
    He cocked his head as if considering many divergent
possibilities. “I’ll do as you suggested and be ready for customers.”
    Wren returned to her office feeling something monumental was
happening around her without understanding her place in the events. She sipped
at her tea while she tried to concentrate on the financial mess before her. Her
eyes kept drifting to the couch. She remained distracted by memories of the
delicious feelings the two men had given her.
    The front door chime rang. She almost got up before she
remembered Caleb was handling customers. Amazing how much she already relied on
the two, she couldn’t shake the feeling of connectedness, like she’d known them
so much longer than just the chaotic morning.
    She deleted twenty-five emails from Ron without opening them.
Jeash, the guy never gave up. She went over her sales inventory. Renee’s chain
mail bracelets sold well, along with Georgia’s lemon grass eucalyptus goat’s
milk soap.
    If she could only predict what items would be hot and stock
them. Looking at the expenses versus the income revealed the sad truth. If she
didn’t get a handle on things soon and build a steady customer base, she
wouldn’t have to worry about it much longer. She would be out of business.
    The tinkling bell attached to the front door rang again. Damn
bell. Either Caleb was going in and out of the door a lot or the gossip mongers
had descended.
    She peaked out to
see him talking with two women she didn’t recognize. He seemed able to handle
himself. She leaned back in her chair, determined to think of how she could
save her dream business. Instead of focusing on the need for more fairy
necklaces in stock, she lost herself in fantasies of Ethan and Caleb. Fixing
the mess her life had jettisoned into would take a lot more than fairy dust.

CHAPTER SIX
    Ethan held up the hex head bolt from Wren’s
stairs for Old Man Monroe to scrutinize. He was as much a fixture at the
hardware store as the baskets of bolts, nuts and screws. Ethan had never heard
anyone use the man’s first name. He’d already been home to gather tools he
needed for the construction project. He couldn’t find a socket that would fit
the odd shaped bolt.
    “Maybe I’ll have to get a different size but this is the
original bolt that matches the others on the stairs. I need to find a socket
that will fit.”
    Old Man Monroe ran his hand through his wiry whiskers
sticking out from his face much like a hedgehogs bristly coat. “Jeb.” He called to the other veteran in
hardware residence. “You ever seen one o’ these. None
of the standard sizes seem to fit.”
    Jeb shuffled his way over, the hard soles of his steel toed
boots making a gritty scoff against the concrete floor. He took the bolt from
Old Man Monroe to examine. The round thick lenses of his glasses made his eyes
magnify to owlish orbs as he squinted and turned the bolt looking at the head.
    “Forty-five millimeter McMaster Penta-bolt” he pronounced. “--Made in Italy--Takes a special socket. There was a metal
stair way kit you could buy that had everything in it for assembly, boards were
even cut to size for the treads. They also make a size for manhole covers.
Several of the buildings around here have them as a replacement when the
original wooden stair risers rotted.”
    The man’s recollection was amazing. Something niggled at the
edge of Ethan’s psi-awareness; Jeb’s recollection was a little too phenomenal.
    Old Man Monroe dug through the collection of sockets