Give me a thousand years to save up and I could have bought it on my own.
I’d done well on my own before I met Lucas, and the fact that Kristy and I had a successful business by the time we were twenty-two is still something I’m so damn proud of. I really do miss the bookstore, and after I get all the papers signed and make sure the pool crew doesn’t need anything else from me, I might go into town and visit Kristy and whoever else is working today. I should probably go grocery shopping anyway. Who knows what tomorrow will bring, and I’m way too pregnant not to have a craving satisfied in the middle of the night while on demon-duty.
Scarlet is running around the yard playing with a dead rabbit she hunted and killed this morning—and promptly let me know it was too easy of a kill for her—when the pool guys show up. After gushing over my giant Irish Wolfhound for a moment, they go over the pool layout, have me sign a few things, and then get to work.
Lucas is in the conservatory, holding a wine glass full of warm blood from one of the blood bags Eliza brought over, watching out the window. Not being able to go outside in the daylight bothers me more than it bothers him, and I work really hard not to let it get to me.
He’s a vampire. I never expected to be able to pull off the spell that I did to enchant the windows in such a way that he can walk around during the day like this. I refuse to accept this is as good as it gets, and finding a way for Lucas to daywalk is yet another thing on my quickly expanding to-do list before our daughter is born.
“I’m going to be very anxiously waiting for this all to be done,” I tell Lucas, putting my coffee cup in the sink.
Lucas takes a drink of the blood with a grimace on his face. Drinking bagged blood is the equivalent to drinking a diet shake. It provides you with the nutrients you need but doesn’t fill you up or taste good in the least. My angel-infused witch blood tastes better than regular human blood, making it an even harder switch for him to get used to until after I have the baby.
“You’ll be waiting about two months.”
I make a face. “The vampire crew can’t come in and speed things up overnight?”
“The pool contractors wouldn’t work with vampires,” he says ruefully. “We have to wait like regular people.”
“Ugh. Regular people suck.” I wrinkle my nose. “I’m impatient.”
“You are.” He raises his eyebrows, likely thinking about how impatient I am with sex. He likes to tease me, to draw things out. But that’s the glory in having multiple orgasms. Give it to me now and then give me another—and another, and another—later.
Opening the fridge, I do a mental inventory. One of these days I’m going to sit down and meal plan. Today is not that day, and I’ll wing it at the grocery store like I always do.
“I’m going to shower and then run into town.” I pull a package of chicken from the fridge and bring it to my face to smell. It doesn’t get that close before I can tell it’s gone bad. “I need groceries, and I want to stop in the bookstore.” I close the fridge and pick up Binx.
“Yes, you can come with,” I tell him. Scarlet, who smells like the dead rabbit she was playing with, perks up. “I know, you want to come too, but you’re a little harder to hide than a cat.” She gives me puppy-dog eyes and I wink at her, hoping she’s able to understand that I’m joking the same way my familiars do. “Okay, but only if we take Lucas’s fancy sports car,” I say and then remember Lucas doesn’t know what I’m saying since my words come out in Enochian when I talk to Scarlet. “Never mind, and you can’t sit in the car when I’m in the store. You can survive the literal fires of Hell, but since I can’t tell people that, I’ll get the cops called on me for leaving my dog in the car.”
“I have no idea what you said, but it was hot,” Lucas tells me.
I let out a snort of laugher. “I told Scarlet she can come to the store with me but only if we take the McClaren.”
The glint in Lucas’s eyes goes away. “That’s not funny.”
“It would have been if I said it in English and could have seen your face.”
“She wouldn’t even fit in there.”
“If I rolled the window down and let her hang her paws out, ya know, scratching the paint, she’d be fine.”