Phantom of the Library - Lidiya Foxglove Page 0,48

much they wouldn’t do. “It’s not weird.”

“Psssh. Not weird. Hawt,” Charlotte said. “And then you have two incubi and they’re always down to clown.” She paused. “A therapist probably wouldn’t say that.”

“It does seem like Byron is starting to mentor Graham on his incubus journey,” I said. “Graham’s loosened up a lot since he started talking to Byron more, and I think he needs someone to just shake off the human guilt. But I think what they all really want is…a family. A team. Or maybe I’m the one who wants more of a family. Either way, they’re not here just for sex. In Graham’s case, I think he’s actively suppressing his sex drive in order to have a family for the first time in his life.”

“I understand that. Well, I think you’ll be more than fine,” Charlotte said. “I love having a big family. I wouldn’t mind having a family of ten or some crazy thing.”

“Oof. Not ready to go that far yet. But thanks. I feel a little better.”

“You might want to start with a schedule, though,” Charlotte said. “Just for now. It takes the guesswork out of it all. I’ve mostly just embraced my role as a love slave. When I’m not raising the kids. Or scolding my grandfathers for unruly behavior.” She snickered. Right…I forgot that bond-mates and werewolves ran in her family.

“I wouldn’t mind being a love slave if I had the time.”

“Girl, you better make the time. You’re not going to want to start when you retire. You don’t want to look back and think about all the incubi dick you could have had.”

“You make good points.”

Chapter Seventeen

Helena

“It looks like there’s a home improvement big box and an upscale home fixtures store both about 45 minutes away, and we’ve got the van so I could go get the first round of supplies,” Jake said the next day.

“Is it safe to leave our bubble?” I asked. “Maybe I should go with you.”

“It’ll be safe,” Jake said. “It’s all main roads from here to there and I’m going to flow with the rush hour traffic toward Los Angeles. The council won’t have a chance to get into a magical fight with that many humans around. I’ll probably be gone for a while because of that. I know you wanted to finish up with the wallpaper today, so I won’t pull you away. But I need to hit the road right now.”

“Okay, well, I made a list of all the stuff we needed.” I fished the paper out of my pocket, unfolded it, and passed it across the table to him.

He looked at my list with a small frown. “Jasper—maybe you should come with me.”

“Is it too much?” I asked. I got pretty detailed with the notes after our discussion because I had figured out that if I didn’t cover everything possible, Billie would just go buy something that wasn’t in the plan. But I wasn’t asking them to buy a cast iron tub or anything heavy. Jake didn’t need manpower. He might need the empty seat space, however.

“It’s a long list,” Jake said.

“Most of it is actually just my little extra notes,” I said.

“I told you to send it to my phone.”

“I don’t even remember you saying that, but…”

“Helena, you should go with him,” Jasper said. He looked at Jake with brotherly eyes that conveyed a lot of love and trust in a blink. It was really cute. But I was still confused.

“Fucking fine,” Jake said. “Come on.”

I shot both of them a look and yanked on my boots, and followed him to the car, but once we were out there I said, “I’m not sure I really want to come with you with this mysterious attitude all of a sudden.”

“Jasper knows I don’t like talking about it,” Jake said. “But I guess he’s right that I have to be honest with you. Just get in the car.”

It’s never comforting when a man you’re starting to like tremendously starts saying cryptic things about needing to be honest when locking you in a vehicle with him for the rest of the day, but I could handle him.

Jake jammed an old drink cup into a trash bag and tossed it all in the back seat, turned on the ignition, and snapped off the radio. He buckled his seat belt.

“What’s your deal?” I asked, crossing my arms. “Why are you mad?”

He started driving. The old lady in the pink house waved at us. I assumed the dog sitting politely