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Now he’d probably think I was stupid. I should have asked him if he liked pot instead, because there was no way he wanted to get his nails done.
My phone vibrated, and I almost dropped it in my excitement.
Finn:I’ll bring beer and pizza. Is there anything you don’t like on it?
I didn’t have the heart to tell him I didn’t like beer, but that was what the wine and the Pucker were for, so I’d be okay.
Isobel:I don’t think veggies belong on a pizza. Lots of meat. Lots of cheese. Extra sauce for dipping, and I do mean EXTRA. It’s one of the most important parts.
I texted him the address to Rain’s cabin after that, and then I freaked out a little bit. What if Rain got mad that I invited him over here? This was my home too, but I had never invited anyone over before, so I didn’t know the protocol. I decided to text him just to be safe.
Isobel:Hey. I’m having a girls’ night tonight at home with Finn. See you when you get home after work.
No, I wasn’t embarrassed by the pink heart emoji I put at the end of that. I had no shame. But I felt good about not asking and just telling him what was happening. He wasn’t my dad, and I wasn’t a guest here. He made it a point to tell me this was my home too, and it was about time I started acting like it.
Boo Daddy:Don’t let him get you into trouble. Be smart and stay safe.
Of course there was no emoji at the end of his message, but that was okay, Rain didn’t really seem like an emoji kind of guy.
I looked around the cabin frantically, making sure the place was suitable for company. I lived with two males, and I was the messiest one out of the bunch. Rain always picked up after himself, and the man never even left a dirty dish sitting in the sink. Baxter was so used to having nothing and taking care of his sick mother that I didn’t think he even knew how to make a mess.
That left me, and I left my shit all over the place. Neither of them complained or seemed to care. They also didn’t pick up after me either.
From the outside, the cabin looked on the small side, quaint even. On the inside, it was much bigger than it looked. There were four bedrooms, two on each side of the house. Rain’s was the only one with its own en-suite bathroom. Mine was on the opposite side of the house from his and across the hall from Baxter’s. We shared a bathroom, the poor kid. There was a living room, kitchen, laundry room, and one more half bath. There was a decent-sized front porch and a cement patio out back off of the living room.
When Rain had first brought me here, all the furniture and pretty much everything in the place had been old and very well used. I’d been here for less than a week when it had all been replaced. It was a mix of brand-new things and stuff Rain said came from his family home.
It made me sad, because I’d once had a family home. I’d also been told while growing up that it wasn’t therealfamily home that belonged to the coven because the Council had known about that one and we were in hiding from them.
For all the good that did us in the end.
Now I knew there was a home out there somewhere that I’d never been to that was and always would be abandoned, and it held all the secrets to my family’s past.
There was no time for that now. Finn would be here within the hour, and I had to get ready and pick up after myself.
I couldn’t overdo it and scare him. This was just two potential friends getting together and hanging out. Nothing to see here.
I took the fastest shower ever and wasted way too much time blow-drying my long, thick, black hair. I plaited two French braids, one hanging down from each side of my head. I could have left it wet, but ever since… ever since that water filled that hole and my wet hair clung to my skin, I just couldn’t stand to leave it wet.
I had thought about cutting it off, but before everything had happened, I’d taken a great deal of pride in how beautiful my hair was.
My mother had once told me she’d cry if I ever cut my hair because that was how much she’d loved it. I just couldn’t bear to do it. Even though she was dead, the thought of breaking her heart killed something inside of me, and I just couldn’t fuckingdo it.
I put on the cute new comfy pajamas I had picked out for this night because dressing up didn’t seem right. It was a two-piece cami and shorts set. They were silk and blush pink.
I was one of those girls who adored pink, and now that I had my own income, I was replacing my clothes with thingsIactually liked. Ariel and her husband Damien had put together my whole wardrobe for me, and as nice as it had been of them to do so, the clothes were more to Ariel’s taste than my own. That girl wore enough black to be a goth princess, and that really wasn’t my thing and never would be. I didn’t have the heart to tell them that, though, because the last thing I wanted to do was hurt their feelings when they’d only been trying to do something kind for me.
Rain had given me a credit card and told me to buy whatever the hell I wanted with it, but it never felt right to spend his money when I already felt like a freeloader living in his home. It would have been different when I told him I chose him and wanted to be a part of his one-man coven, but he didn’t choose me back and decided to stay the lone wolf.
Covens took care of their members and each other. As much as we were a family now, or I was considered a part ofthefamily because of Ariel and Rain, I craved that belonging part of being in a coven, and with the way my life went, I was resigned to the fact that I’d likely never get it.
How come Ariel got to get everything a female witch could possibly want, and I’d yet to even find an ounce of that happiness?
I shook off my sad thoughts that had the potential to make me very depressed and ran around the whole house, picking up after myself and cleaning up.
My bedroom wasn’t spotless, but at least I’d made my bed and there were no longer piles of my clothes all over the floor in random places. And the bathroom I shared with Baxter was now shiny and spotless.
The bed in my room was queen-sized, and both the headboard and footboard were a dark brown wood with very intricate swirls carved into them. They were very pretty and something from Rain’s family home, so likely antique. Rain had purchased my bedding for me, and the man clearly paid attention, because my comforter was white, but my sheets and pillowcases were a sweet, light shade of pink.
