I don’t use the dining room often. As much as I love having my friends over, we usually end up taking our plates into the living room, crowding around the coffee table as we talk, eat, and laugh. This room has become a bit of a catch-all, and I use the china cabinet to store extra magical supplies instead of fancy dishes.
“I think it’ll look good here,” I say, grabbing the mismatched set of extra wine glasses from the counter part of the cabinet. I crouch down, opening one of the cabinet doors. I’ve also been meaning to go through all my magical supplies, taking out the almost-empty jars so I know what I need to replenish. Might as well knock that out now, since I need to make room for the wine glasses.
I take a few jars out, thinking they’d be better stored upstairs in my closet, though now that Lucas’s clothes are in it, there’s hardly any room at all. We really need to move. This house hardly fits the two of us. There’s no way it will fit the two of us plus a baby.
Eliza brings the rest of the tea set in while I take everything out of the cabinets, a project I’m sure I’ll regret the second I stand up and look at the mess I have to deal with. Some of the herbs have been in here for well over a year, and while they haven’t gone bad, they’ve lost their magical potency and need to be recharged.
It takes a few minutes to get things rearranged, and I get the last wine glass in right as Eliza picks up a Mason jar from the floor. I notice at the very last second.
“No! Don’t open that!” I telekinetically swat the jar out of Eliza’s hands. It clanks to the floor and rolls over to where I’m sitting.
“What the fuck?” She looks at me, arching her perfectly filled-in eyebrows.
“Those are demon ashes. If you open it, it will resurrect.” I pick up the jar and look at the ashes before tightening the lid.
“Do I even want to ask why you have a jar full of demon ashes?”
I shrug. “You never know when it might come in handy.”
“You’re lucky the jar didn’t break.”
“The glass is magically reinforced, don’t worry. I should probably label this. I almost mistook it for cinnamon once. Which would have made my French toast a lot more interesting than it was that morning. But I would have been pissed to deal with a demon before I even finished my coffee. At least wait until a witch is fully caffeinated, okay?” I tap the jar. “Okay. Glad we have an understanding.”
Eliza slowly shakes her head. “I said it the first time I saw you and I’m saying it again: there is something seriously wrong with you.”
“I don’t disagree,” I tell her.
“I do.” Lucas’s deep voice rumbles right through me, and I look up, heart skipping a beat. “Callie is perfect.”
Eliza makes an exaggerated gagging noise and rolls her eyes. “Well, your perfect little wife has demon ashes in the dining room. You might want to talk about properly baby-proofing this place, because if little Callie Junior gets bored and resurrects a demon, you’ll have a lot of explaining to do to the babysitter.”
“We won’t have a babysitter,” Lucas replies without even thinking.
“Excuse me?” My eyebrows go up. “What if I want to go out?”
“I assumed we’d have Kristy or Evander watch the kid.” Lucas looks at Eliza. “Or you. I only trust two people in this world, and you are both in this room. I’m willing to possibly let your friends watch our child solely because you trust them,” he tells me.
“I almost feel sorry for you,” Eliza huffs. “But you were the one who spread your legs.”
“We’re getting ahead of ourselves,” I say, head spinning. “All I want is to make it through the rest of the day without throwing up, okay?”
“Of course, my love.” Lucas strides forward and pulls me to my feet. He tangles me in an embrace, eyes looking into mine. Our love is so strong it’s tangible, and right now desperation to show him just how much I love him is more than I can handle.
I’d blame it on hormones, but I’m always desperate to feel him next to me. On me. In me.
“I got a new tea set,” I say, voice coming out a little breathy. “Along with a Book of Shadows, it’s a traditional thing to pass through a magical family line. And now…now…”
“Now we have our own family line,” Lucas finishes, bending his head down so his forehead rests against mine. “You have to leave soon, don’t you?” Lucas sweeps his hands down to cup my butt. Desire washes over me, fueled by hormones.
“I have a few minutes.” I wiggle my eyebrows.