The Victorian Wolf Effect (Book III)

CHAPTER FOUR - Emily's Request

Emily had gotten a frantic call from her mother when she came home from the hospital with Chad. She had gone directly upstairs to the master bedroom. She called Emily from the bedroom in a panic saying that she had been robbed and someone had stolen all of the furniture. Emily was still with Timber and the others at Timber and Henry's house watching a movie with lunch. She had her phone on speaker and they all heard everything. They burst into laughter and Grace heard.

"What in tarnation so funny? There is nothin' funny about this!"

"Go downstairs to the living room, Mama," said Emily.

There was a pause in the conversation. Then Grace half-shouted into the phone.

"Oh, my STARS! What did y'all do? This is so thoughtful! Oh, Chad look what all our girls did!"

"Henry and Dresden helped a lot and Timber had the idea," said Emily.

"Y'all are so wonderful! Thank you so much! This is going to be so much easier for us! You girls! What would we do without you?"

Grace carried on for a few more minutes before saying goodbye. Timber and the girls just looked at each other with warm smiles. They were all thinking the same thing. Hearing Grace so happy and relieved made those hours of hard work well worth it.

"I think I get it now," said Dresden to Henry and Henry just smiled.

The next day, Timber left her house after breakfast and picked up Xianna from her studio behind her brother's house. She was running a little late but they were not in a hurry.

"I'm so sorry," and Xianna, as she grabbed a pair of shoes. "I slept through my alarm."

"That's unusual," said Timber.

"After all that work yesterday, and an evening with Dresden, I was worn out."

She slipped the shoes on her feet, grabbed her bag full of papers, and followed Timber outside. She locked the door and got into Timber's car. Timber took them to the college campus that was nestled on a plot of land just south of the Noyo Bridge off of Ocean View Drive. Neither of them had been to Mendocino College Coast Center but finding a place to park was an easy task as the road led directly to the parking lot in front of the school.

"This is it," said Xianna, when Timber shut off the engine. "We're registering for college. My question is, why are you here?"

"Elaborate."

"You were accepted into Ivy League schools. You had great colleges to choose from. Why here? Doesn't Henry know that you were accepted by Stanford University, Harvard, and several other schools?"

"No, and I don't plan on telling him. I don't want him to think he's the only reason I didn't go. Remember, I was planning on being alone forever. I applied before we met. You saw what happened to me when he came into the picture. He's good for me and I love him. Besides, I have found that I enjoy being a housewife. I'm going to go full-on level Grace with this."

"You always wanted to be a teacher, though. You sounded like you were still considering it when we talked."

"I know. I was considering it but the more I thought about, the more I realized that I love being a housewife. I love caring for him and my home. I like having time to cook from scratch and I'm actually getting better at time management in the kitchen. Believe it or not, I actually found out that I like ironing too. I just put on a show or a movie and iron. It's so visually satisfying to me and it actually helps me to clear my head."

"So, you don't feel like you're giving anything up by choosing to be a homemaker rather than a working woman with an Ivy League education?" asked Xianna.