Posts

Showing posts from September, 2026

Chapter 55: Changes Ahead

Image
As hard as he tries, Link cannot come up with another idea to afford the vet clinic than asking his parents. He hates the idea, but in the end, there is no realistic way for him and his sister to earn enough money fast enough. At the clinic, Miles has started to talk about what he and Lilly will do with all that extra time, and showing Link more about what goes on behind the scenes. Book keeping, medical contacts, purchases... all important to keep the clinic running, but also all things that take away time from the patients. Days become longer, time spent with Anne shorter, but if he can find the money to take over the business it will be worth while.That's a major if. But as summer approaches, so does his sister's birthday. The party is, as usual, held in the garden, where Christmas and Jamie has bought in some new furniture, bursting with color and much more comfortable than the old chairs. Those they offer instead to Link and Harmony, who is happy to accept more furniture ...

Chapter 54: That Which We Call a Rose...

Image
Asking a parent for help isn't always easy, especially when you've barely spoken to them for the better part of a year. Yet calling his mother to ask about what flowers to get a girl is the only option Valentine can think of. He knows nothing about flowers, or if he's entirely honest, women. All his teens he was so focused on his quest to learn as much as he could about vampires, and how to become one, that he never took the chance to explore what it was to be a teen. Dating, a first kiss, a prom date and the fumbling first, none of these things were things he explored. Sure his father had "the talk" with him, and there was the sorry excuse for sex-ed in school, but he never paid it any attention because he saw no reason to. Now he wishes he had paid more attention. He calls his mother from his bedroom first thing as he wakes up, not wanting to have this call downstairs. He knows the Count disapproves of him contacting his family, and he is fairly certain that he ...

Chapter 53: About that Independence...

Image
"Aren't the flowers lovely?" "I'm sure the vegetables will be even lovelier, or at least tastier," Daisy answers Harmony as she's planting up their kitchen garden.    Harmony is still a long way from her grandmother's thriving garden, but with spring having arrived in Brindleton Bay, she is starting to plant some of the seeds she's inherited and some of the plants are coming along nicely. The dragon fruit in her bedroom is almost ready to start producing fruit, which will be a nice addition to the family income, which right now mainly rely on Link's incomes as a vet.   Daisy and Harmony is getting a long better and better, and it seems Daisy enjoys the garden too, which gives them plenty of time to spend together as Link work long hours most days and is home little. Daisy, of course work fewer hours than both of them, but so far she has not been able to find another more full time position. It's annoying hours, and far too few and too lit...