“Oh, hello, Abby dear. You’re not working, are you?”
“No, I’m not.”
“Good. I tried to get ahold of Phillip, but he didn’t answer.”
“Is everything all right?”
“Oh, it’s fine, dear. Better than fine, actually. You’ll never guess what I just won on the radio!”
Abby slows to a stop. “What did you win?”
“An Alaskan cruise! Two tickets for Paul and me!”
“Awesome!” Abby tells her mother-in-law. I don’t know the nature of her relationship with her in-laws, but I hope it’s a good one. Penny needs at least one set of decent grandparents, and lord knows she’s not going to get that from the Martins. “You’ve been talking about going for years and now you are!”
“Yes, we’re so excited, though the timing isn’t ideal.”
“When is it?”
“The week of Thanksgiving.” Rosalin sighs. “I suppose we could take the cash instead. It’s not equal to the value of the cruise, but it is an option. I know how much you and Phillip were looking forward to coming for dinner.”
“No, no, no,” Abby rushes out. “You guys go. We can have Thanksgiving when you get back.”
“Oh, honey, I don’t want to leave you with nowhere to go.”
“We’ll be fine,” Abby assures her. “I’ll go to my parents.”
“As long as you’re sure they’ll have a place for you. I know how fickle they can be.”
I stifle a laugh, taking that to mean Phil’s parents are more than aware the Martins are the scum of the earth.
“It’ll be fine,” Abby repeats, and beeping comes through the phone.
“Phillip is calling me back. I’ll talk to you soon, dear.”
Abby hangs up and looks at me. “I like them but was not looking forward to the four-hour drive.”
“You guys are welcome to come to our house for Thanksgiving. It’s my turn to host this year, and we should be in the estate by then.”
Abby smiles. “I’d really like that. Do witches celebrate Thanksgiving? I mean, I know it’s not a religious holiday or anything, but I, um, sound really dumb right now.”
“You don’t,” I laugh. “And it’s not something we celebrate with the coven, unlike Halloween or a Solstice. It’s up to the individual, and for the last few years, Kristy, Evander, Tabatha and I alternate hosting. Every other year, Kristy goes home to her parents’ condo in Scottsdale, so I go to Tabatha’s house. When Kristy is here, we cook at my place and have them over. I’ll probably invite Easton and Melinda this year too, since they’re on the outs with their demon-hunting group and have nowhere else to go.”
“Will Julian be there too?”
“Hopefully.”
“Witches, vampires, demon hunters, and an angel. At least if this dinner gets interrupted, you’ll have an advantage, right?”
I let out a snort of laughter. “You jinx us, and I’m sending you out there with my enchanted dagger.”
Abby laughs, taking her eye off the road for a moment to look at me. “Let me know what I can do to help, and we’ll be there.”“It’s good to be home.” I sink onto the couch and put my feet up on the coffee table. It’s just now noon, and we were able to drive home in the daylight thanks to my handy-dandy harmful light-blocking spell.
“It is,” Lucas agrees, coming over and joining me.
“Though now I’m bored. I’ve grown used to being entertained nonstop.”
Lucas laughs and wraps an arm around me. “We could have sex again. We’ve yet to try anal.”
“Saying it casually isn’t going to make me agree to it.”
Laughing again, Lucas pulls me onto his chest. His skin is smooth and cool to the touch. It was odd at first; now I find it comforting. “I’ll make it quite enjoyable for you.”
“If you didn’t have such a big dick, maybe.” I lift my head, looking into his eyes. “You’re taking that as a compliment and will happily rub my back instead, right?”
“Then casually slip it in your ass?” He brings his hands to my butt and gives my cheeks a squeeze. I laugh and jerk away. Lucas playfully flips us over, pinning me under his body. I bend my knees and curl my legs around his waist. He rests his head on my breasts, and I rake my fingers through his hair.
“You’re not allowed to cut your hair anytime soon,” I tell him. “I like how it’s starting to curl.”
“Maybe the baby will have curly hair.”
“If it ends up being a boy, I imagine he’ll look like you.” We talked more about the future while on vacation. Knowing Lucifer doesn’t have plans to kidnap our baby definitely takes away a huge stressor, but the weight it lifted left behind another one.
Lucifer warned me the demons will try to blackmail me into accepting the role of queen of Hell. What better bargaining chip than my child?
“If he’s lucky,” Lucas says with a grin. Scarlet plods through the living room and tries to jump up on the couch with us, only she doesn’t fit now that she’s freaking huge. “I’m going to have to get her a bigger dog bed. And a bigger house. We do not have the room for a hundred-pound dog here.”