“Anyway, yes, Lucille is single again, but I assume you don’t care.”
“Not one fucking bit,” Briggs said.
“Good. Fuck that chick,” Brooke said before glancing at her watch. “Shit, I gotta go. Book your tickets today, okay?”
“I will,” Briggs said.
“Love you, Briggs.”
He smiled at his baby sister. “Love you, Brookie.”
She made a face at her childhood nickname, popped him the bird, and ended the call. Grinning, he stuck his phone into his pocket and headed out of the kitchen. It had been a week since the witch attacked them at the restaurant, and he and Cece had barely left the house.
They’d spent the last week fucking like they were goddamn bunny shifters, and he grinned, had, in fact, just gotten out of bed an hour ago. Cece had wanted to top her magic up before working on potions, and he’d been more than happy to fuck her. The buzz of her magic had already dissipated for him, but Cece had been nearly vibrating with magic.
He paused in the hallway outside the living room, studying Cece as she stood at the altar. She wore her witch’s robe, her hair was pulled back in a bun, and she was studying one of her spell books that lay open on the altar next to a small cauldron. The room smelled of rosemary and vanilla, and as he watched, Cece dropped dried flower petals into the cauldron. A puff of violet smoke rose from it, and Cece smiled with delight before stirring the liquid in the cauldron vigorously.
Vines slithered out of the room and curled around his upper body, stroking his face gently as they wrapped around his arms. A vine tickled his ear before sliding through his hair, and he gently batted it away. “Cece?”
She glanced up, made a face, and waved her hand at the plants. The vines retreated with a final gentle squeeze. “Sorry, honey.”
“It’s fine,” he said. “Are you getting hungry? It’s almost noon.”
“Let me just finish this potion, and then we’ll eat. Ten minutes at the most. Okay?”
He nodded, and she blew him a kiss. His bear growled when there was a knock on the front door. He immediately grabbed his phone and opened the app to check the security camera he’d installed outside just two days ago.
His tense body relaxed, and he soothed his bear as he said, “Cece, we have visitors.”
“Hmm, be right there,” she said distractedly as she frowned at the contents in the cauldron before studying the spell book again.
He left her to her potion and opened the front door. “Hey, Mal. Hi, Willow.”
“Hi.” Willow smiled brightly at him. “Is this a bad time?”
“No,” he said. “Come in.”
They stepped inside, and Mal shut the door behind him. “This works better.”
“Yeah, Judd and I replaced it,” he said.
“Is Cece around?” Mal asked.
“She’s in the living room.”
They followed Briggs into the room, and he heard Willow’s soft gasp of surprise. “Oh my gosh.”
He studied the room, trying to see it as Willow saw it. He’d grown used to how it looked, but he supposed that to others it looked really fucking strange.
They’d moved a bunch of plants from Cece’s room throughout the rest of the house, and over fifty of them had found a new home in the living room. The sheer number of plants alone would have been a bit shocking to a person, he supposed, but add in the fact that they were growing like crazy and well… you ended up with this. A room that was practically alive with plants.
“This is amazing,” Willow breathed.
She studied the leaves, vines, and flowers that covered the living room walls. All of the vine plants in the room had crept up the walls, covering them with a thick layer of foliage. Large potted plants sat in every corner of the room, their broad leaves bright and vibrant. Smaller potted plants covered nearly every surface, and the room was humid, smelling of rich earth and plants.
“Cece,” Briggs said, “Willow and Mal are here.”
“Give me two more minutes,” she said as she stared at her spell book. “If I don’t finish this now, the potion will be ruined.”
