Thanks to Imma Vampire & VampireDaisy for the Beta work on this chapter!
Disclaimer: All publicly recognizable characters, settings, etc. are property of their respective owners. The original characters and plot are the property of the author. No copyright infringement is intended.
Claire turned 11 on the 5th Aug 2014, Quil is still physically 16, but his ID shows that he really turned 24 on 2 Feb 2014.
Chapter 14 Money Matters
I finished all of the classes and graduated with a two year degree. The diploma was nice, but the knowledge and skills were far better! The school helped me to find a company that was interested in contracting with employees who work from home to keep their overhead costs low. This worked perfectly for me, as I could do my web design projects around the pack patrol schedule. I had been seriously contemplating starting my own small business, but so far this company loved the work I was doing. I had been assigned so many clients that I hadn't even considered working for myself; I simply didn't have the time.
The best thing about my new job was the money. Since I was able to keep my living arrangements and lifestyle the same, I suddenly had a great deal more cash on hand than before. The first few paychecks I had purchased a few really nice things for Claire, and then Daniel sat me down for a conversation.
"Quil, I know that you have a new job. How is that going for you?" Daniel began.
"Really great, Daniel! I love what I do, and I can do my work in between my other obligations," I answered.
"So, they seem to be paying you really well," He said with a tone that left me wondering where he was heading with this. Then a thought occurred to me.
"Yeah, did you want me to pay you back for the classes you paid for?" I asked.
"Oh, no, no, that's not…" He paused and took a deep breath, and started over. "Quil, is it still your intention to marry Claire when she's old enough."
I blushed and instantly looked down at my feet. I took a deep breath and raised my head to look him in the eye again and answered, "If Claire wants to marry me that will always be what I want."
"Then how do you plan on supporting her?" Daniel asked pointedly.
This question caught me totally off guard and I just sat looking at Daniel and blinking in confusion. All I could manage to get out was a befuddled, "Huh?"
Daniel's mouth smiled a little at the edges before he clarified his question. "How are you going to pay for a house, a car, food, and clothes? How are you going to make sure you have enough money for medical bills and insurance things like that?"
I was completely confused by this. "I don't get it. I finally have a real job earning serious adult amounts of money, and now is when you choose to question my ability to financially provide for Claire? Now is when I am actually able to pay for all of that," I answered, still confused at what he was expecting from me.
"Quil, if I gave you a million dollars today and you spent it all today, how much cash would you have tomorrow?" Daniel asked gently with a slight edge of a challenge to his tone.
"The fifteen dollars I still have in my wallet," I answered with just a little bit of sarcasm.
"Exactly," Daniel said with the first bit of relief in his demeanor since we began the conversation. "Let's talk about a house. I am guessing that when you get married, you don't want Claire moving into that werewolf bachelor pad you share with half the pack, right?" He asked with some challenge returning to his face and voice.
"Yeah," I responded.
"Oh, and you know how you promised to always follow our family rules? Well, our family rule is that our daughters be virgins when they get married," Daniel said leaning over the table and looking pointedly at me with one eyebrow raised in a challenge.
"Yes, sir," I managed to choke out. It seemed the only appropriate response to that kind of topic. The conversation had become one where I longed more and more to be anywhere but where I was.
"Good," Daniel said and sat back in his chair, visibly more relaxed. "At least that's one of them." He mumbled under his breath.
I couldn't help but chuckle at that comment. Skye at fourteen had become quite boy-crazy and had her father sweating a little. "I'm glad you know you can trust me," I said in response.
"Right, I forget about your super hearing sometimes," he chuckled. "But back to my original point. You'll probably do best if you have twenty to forty thousand dollars saved up for a down payment on a house, and you can't save up that kind of money if you spend it all."
"Are you upset with the gifts I bought for Claire?" I asked worried that they would want me to take them away from her and return them.
"It's not that we are worried about specific gifts or amounts of money spent on Claire. We are more concerned that you might be thinking that you have a lot of money, and all kinds of time, and instead of saving like the ant, you are spending like the grasshopper," Daniel said quickly as he tried to get through his point.
I thought about the analogy of the ant that works and works to save up for the cold winter, and the grasshopper that eats and plays when times are good, and has to ask for help when times are rough. I could see how Daniel would make that comparison with the way I had been acting the last month.
Daniel got up from the table and went to the desk drawer. He pulled out a pad of paper and a pencil and still turned toward the desk asked, "When do you see you and Claire getting married?"
What he hadn't heard with super werewolf hearing was Claire walking into the room. What he did hear was her swift intake of air as she gasped upon hearing his question. Every muscle in his back immediately tensed, before his head hung down in shame at getting caught by Claire. This was a conversation that was tough enough for Daniel and me to be having. Explaining to Claire why we were discussing marriage of an eleven year old would just be weird.
"Claire..." Daniel paused as he turned around to face her, his face was bright red and he looked completely embarrassed. "Uh, Quil and I were just…" He looked to me for help and I couldn't help but chuckle a little at how the tables had now turned.
Claire looked from her embarrassed father over to me, relaxed and amused, and walked over to me. "Quil, why are you and my dad talking about us getting married?"
"I think he wants to make sure that we will have our own house and food to eat so we don't live here and eat them out of house and home. Right?" I asked looking up at Daniel.
"Um, yeah," was all Daniel could get out as he sat down in his chair before he put the paper and pencil on the table.
"So we are going to get married?" Claire asked looking me in the eyes with a very serious expression.
"Well, my little wolf girl, you did propose to me when you were five. So unless you change your mind, and tell me we aren't getting married, I'm still planning on it." I answered her in the most casual joking manner I could manage.
Claire laughed at that, "Oh, right." She shrugged her shoulders and went over to kiss her dad on the cheek. "I'll be over at Willow's house. Bye, Quil, bye, Dad." She left out the kitchen door with a wave.
"How do you do that?" Daniel asked me as soon as she had shut the back door.
"What?" I asked not fully sure to what he was referring.
"Claire could have…you completely calmed her. That could have been so bad," Daniel stumbled to say.
"The whole reason you and I are even having this conversation is because we are both convinced that Claire will actually want to marry me when she is old enough to make that choice. I think there is a part of Claire that knows that too. When I talk about it casually, it's as normal as what we are going to eat for dinner. It just feels right, so she doesn't have any reason to be worried or upset," I answered. "By the way, what is for dinner?"
Daniel laughed, "Speaking of eating us out of house and home…"
"Just kidding," I added.
"I know. I actually think Sarah was planning on inviting you over for meatloaf tonight. But, back to the other question…" He looked over his shoulder before continuing, "When do you see the two of you getting married?"
I honestly hadn't really thought about a specific age for marriage. "I'm not sure when Claire will want to get married." I answered as Daniel's eyes got wide. I looked behind me to see Sarah walking into the room with her eyes wide. I put my head in my hands and mumbled, "Maybe we should have just held a meeting."
Daniel laughed at this and showed Sarah his notes that he had begun writing for our discussion while he explained to her, "We're just talking about what we went over last night."
Sarah nodded her head, "Well, I wouldn't count on Claire wanting to wait too long. Every time I ask her about what she wants to be when she grows up, all she ever says is that she wants to be a mommy. I have asked her about her favorite subject in school, and she doesn't really have any she favors. Next year in seventh grade, she will have electives and she has already expressed a strong interest in taking cooking and sewing. We can encourage all we want towards college, but if she doesn't change her mind and goals, I really don't see her going away for college."
I couldn't help but be a little pleased by that comment, and tried to be casual in my question to Daniel and Sarah, "So do you have an age limit for Claire to get married then? I mean, let's say she doesn't want to go to college. Let's say she wants to get married after graduating from high school. Her birthday is in August, would you want her to wait until then to be eighteen?"
Daniel visibly stiffened, and Sarah looked uncomfortable, but Sarah seemed to recover first. "Well, I don't think that we need to make a rule about it, but I don't think either of us like the idea of her being married at seventeen."
"Or twenty," Daniel muttered.
Sarah and I both laughed at that one. "Daniel, you know that isn't going to happen if we are insisting on the virginity before marriage as a family rule and they have been so close for as long as Claire can remember." She turned to me and added, "And we are insisting on that as a family rule."
I held up my hands in defense, "I got it. I got it."
"Let's just say for the sake of this financial planning exercise that the wedding will happen in August of 2021. That will be six and a half years. I really don't see us giving permission for Claire to be married before she finishes high school," Sarah stated.
"No kidding," Daniel said adamantly.
Sarah patted his shoulder calming him a little. "So let's just say the soonest it could happen is in six and a half years. If you plan and are ready financially by that time, and it turns out she wants to go to college, or travel, or something else, then you will just be ready a little early." Daniel very much relaxed as she explained it that way.
Daniel was now ready to talk numbers and Sarah excused herself from the room. "So, let's say you need forty-thousand dollars in six and a half years. How are you going to get that amount?"
He then went into detail about how to do it. "You have six and a half years that is seventy-eight months. You take forty-thousand, and divide it by seventy-eight, and you get a little over five-hundred and twelve. Can you spare five-hundred and twelve dollars each month?"
I thought about what my expanses were, and what my income had been, and I really thought that I could. "Yeah, I think that is an amount I will have available."
Daniel seemed pleased by this, and then went into detail about money market accounts, investing, interest rates and compounding interest. He showed me how with interest, I could have so much more money by that time. It seemed very possible and I knew with his help it would be easy.
"So basically what you are asking is for me to stop spoiling Claire now, so I can spoil her later, am I right?" I asked Daniel.
He laughed at my summary of the discussion, "Yeah, I guess that is what I am saying."
"Well, my next paycheck will arrive in three days; will you help me set up an account with that check?" I asked Daniel. Then I teased, "I either can do that or get Claire a pony."
"Very funny," Daniel said dryly before he added, "Seriously, no animals."
I began laughing and he joined in. Sarah came into the kitchen at that point and said, "Quil, Willow's mom has to go run some errands, would you go pick up Claire from her house?" I knew Claire had walked the short distance to Willow's house alone, so I was wondering if Sarah was giving me a chance to talk to Claire alone.
"Do you mind if I take her for a ride before dinner?" I asked.
"Sure, no problem, just be home by six for dinner alright? We're having meatloaf tonight," She tempted me.
"We'll be back for sure then!" I said with enthusiasm. I turned to Daniel and added, "Thanks for the help Daniel; I really appreciate you guys helping me keep my long term goals in focus."
"Hey, like you said, if it keeps the two of you from living here and eating us out of house and home…" He joked.
"Alright, we'll be back by six. See you later!" I called as I headed out the door.
I walked over to Willow's house. Willow was in Claire's class at school. They had known each other since kindergarten. They had become close friends last year when Willow chose to remain friends with Claire when the other girls chose to follow Tracy Longman and her prejudice. I arrived at her house and picked up Claire.
As we started walking back in the direction of her house, I asked Claire, "So your mom said we didn't need to be home for dinner until six, would you like to go for a ride?"
Claire looked up the street and back at me before she raised one eyebrow and said, "A ride in your truck, or a real ride?"
I laughed at her defining a wolf ride as a real ride and whispered in her ear, "A real ride."
"Definitely!" She exclaimed and began running in the direction of her back yard to the spot where I usually changed. "Race you there!" She yelled over her shoulder.
I chuckled and took off after her scooping her up under my right arm like a football when I caught up with her. "First body part to cross the finish line wins." I told her and she stretched her arms in front of her like she was flying so that she could cross first.
"I won!" She called out as we reached the edge of the trees.
"Yes you did. Will you put my phone and keys in your pockets?" I asked handing her the items so that I could go and phase.
"Sure thing Quil," Claire said as she put the keys and phone in her jacket pockets and zipped them up. She then followed me into the forest just a little distance before I went behind the regular tree to change.
Claire climbed on my back, leaned all the way forward and gripped tightly to the fur on my neck prepared for speed. I took off and ran as fast as I thought I could without it being too much of a risk of her falling off. We got to the Dollhouse in record time, with Claire giggling in my ear the entire way there. I phased back and dressed to rejoin her.
"Okay, monkey elevator is going up," I said before I grabbed her and she held to my chest as I climbed the oversized ladder up the tree.
When we got up into the Dollhouse Claire asked, "Could we put together a puzzle today?"
"Sure, Claire, you can pick out the one you want. Is there something you want to talk about today?" I asked her. Claire usually enjoyed puzzles the most when she wanted something to keep her hands busy as she discussed something.
Claire picked out a thousand piece puzzle with a ski chalet and a lot of beautiful flowers in the window boxes. "Not really," she said as she dumped the pieces out onto the table. She sat down and we both began to turn over the pieces sorting them as we went. The edge pieces towards Claire and the sky pieces towards me.
We were quiet and diligently working; almost all the pieces had been turned over when Claire asked in a very casual tone, "So what were you and my dad talking about?"
I smiled and said, "I thought you might be wondering about that. Your dad was giving me some advice about money."
"Then why did he ask you, 'When do you see you and Claire getting married?' like he was planning on it or something?" She asked keeping her eyes on the pieces as she put together the edge of the puzzle.
Why did she have to come in on that particular part of the conversation? I thought to myself. I debated what to say to her over that as she obviously wasn't satisfied by what she had been told earlier. "Well, you know that I have imprinted on you, right Claire?"
She looked up at me at this point with her head cocked to one side looking slightly confused. "Yeah…" she said and waited for me to continue.
"Do you understand what that means?" I asked, searching to know her current level of understanding.
"Well, I guess it means you are my best friend and that you do things for me that you don't do for other people like how you built me the Dollhouse," she answered.
"That is true. It also means that when you are older, you will be the only girl I ever want to date," I told her.
"Is it hard for you to wait? Do you wish you could date some sixteen-year-old girl now?" Claire asked looking down at the table as she did.
"Claire, I am totally happy with the way things are right now. I am completely happy being here in the Dollhouse doing a puzzle with you. I have the freedom to date if I wanted to right now, I just really don't want to," I told her.
"And you think it's going to be the same way when you are thinking about someone to marry?" She asked me.
"Claire…Claire…" I paused and waited until she looked up at me. "I've imprinted on you, I know I will feel the same way when it's time for me to get married. Besides, you already proposed, and I already said yes. You know I can't break a promise to you," I added with a wink.
She rolled her eyes at me but had a huge grin on her face as she said, "Quil, I was five."
"I know my little wolf girl, but I'm still locked in. If anyone is going to change their mind, it will have to be you," I said smugly.
Claire came around the table to where I was sitting and gave me a big hug around the neck. She released me and went back to studying the edge pieces of the puzzle and simply sighed and said, "Thanks."