him as it did for me. He’d nodded off to sleep and had almost fallen off the stool behind the counter.
“What time you finishing? I’ll make dinner.”
I wasn’t about to say no. “Five-ish?” I said. With it being winter and dark early, the store traffic dried up quick late afternoon. Which reminded me. “I’ll have to take a rain check. I told Trish I’d meet her at the diner.”
“Then it’s time to test your local pizza delivery.” He rubbed his hands together.
I laughed. “That is way too much excitement for cheese on a flat bread.”
“I’ve seen you with steak. Don’t talk.”
“Don’t talk smack about a nice bacon-wrapped six-ounce tenderloin.” I just about drooled.
“Give me a fatty rib eye and a baked potato.”
“Mmm. Rib eye.” I wasn’t picky about my meat. Bring the meat. I’d eat all the meat.
I might have said that out loud, because my son cleared his throat. “Are you hungry or something?”
“Nope. A coffee is all I need.” I prepped my travel mug and saluted him as I headed for the door. My stockinged feet slid over the circle and symbols etched into the varnished planks. Not just any circle. A magical one that my blood could activate. I’d killed a demon with it.
I think.
With no evidence of the death, I sometimes wondered if I’d dreamed it.
The house shivered. It didn’t like it when I doubted. I could feel its frustration.
Then I was discomfited because you’re not supposed to feel your house. Just like houses aren’t supposed to widen stairs, add basements, or suddenly transform a shed into a garage. Yet my house did all that and more.
The town was right when it claimed my family were witches. Although I wasn’t too sure if I counted given most of the magic I’d done came about by accident. I had no idea how I did stuff. There was no one to teach me except for an arrogant prick trying to get in my pants and an old book left to me by my grandma. I’d not had much time to read what with my new social life, job, and hobbies. Why care about magic when I had everything I needed?
Except apparently a doorbell. I opened the door, juggling one arm into my coat, hovering the coffee while the other arm sought out the sleeve. My left foot was halfway in my boot because something was stuffed in the toe. I didn’t even notice the box.
I fell over it, smacking my chin, clacking my teeth, watering my eyes, but the biggest tragedy? My morning ambrosia. Gone. I almost cried at the loss.
“What the ever-loving fuck? Why put a package so close to the door?” My new potty mouth exclaimed before I could stop it.
“Mom! Language!” Poor Geoff sounded so shocked, and with good reason. Used to be I threatened his bad words with a bar of soap. Now, I could curse up a storm if I wanted.
It felt liberating and ironically cleansing.
“It’s justified. That box almost killed me!” A slight exaggeration. The tree that fell on my car and the wolves hunting me had been slightly more perilous.
“I didn’t hear anyone knock. They must have left it before I came upstairs.”
It still blew my mind that I now had a basement level with a walkout. Before Geoff’s arrival, I lived in a two-bedroom cozy cottage with my suite in the attic and Winnie in a small bedroom on the first floor.
Then my other child arrived, and a basement appeared with another bedroom, a full bathroom, and a rec area with a plaid couch, old fat television in a wooden base that probably needed four men to move, and a sliding glass door to a stone patio with a picnic table.
I didn’t understand how that happened, but it was freaking cool. Made me wonder if I wished for a greenhouse or an arts and crafts room, what would happen?
I carried the box inside, not bothering to shut the door. The house did it for me. As I set it on the kitchen island, my kitty, Grisou, vaulted onto the granite top. It used to be butcher-block wood, but I really didn’t like how the cat hair stuck to it. The house changed it. Just like the simple wooden cabinets, painted over a few times, now had a shaker style to them, and the sink was a deep farmhouse with a faucet pullout.
Ever since I’d bled on the house and started believing, it was as if it thrived and sought to