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“I like our bubble.”
I grin as I glide my fingers down his arm. “Me, too.”
“You’re here!”
My mom bursts out of her door with Hilda hot on her heels. They both envelop Xander’s mom, Shelly, and his grandma, Sandra, into big hugs.
“What am I, chopped liver?”
Mom grins at me over Shelly’s shoulder. “Right now? Yes. Oh, my dear friend, it’s so good to lay eyes on you.”
“You, too,” Shelly replies and then turns to hug Hilda. “You both look fabulous.”
“Did you try my anti-aging spell?” Sandra asks them. “Because neither of you has aged a day.”
“That, and some carrot oil around the eyes,” Mom replies. “Thank you for coming before the rest of the coven arrives. I needed a little time with you.”
“We wouldn’t have it any other way,” Sandra assures her as we all go inside the house and sit around the kitchen table. Jonas, Lucy, Breena, and Giles are already here, looking happy and full of the delicious gingersnap cookies Hilda made, which are sitting in the middle of the table. Lucy and Breena even brought their familiars, who are snuggled up together under the table. “Now, I know the others, but I don’t know you. That would make you Jonas, my many, many times great-uncle.”
Jonas smiles as he climbs to his feet and gently hugs the older woman, then he turns to Shelly and gives her a hug, as well.
“I’m not used to meeting family,” he confesses. If I’m not mistaken, I see tears gathering at the corners of his eyes. “It’s truly my pleasure to meet you.”
“Sit,” Sandra says, waving him into his seat. “Let’s all sit and have a nice chat. Of course, Xander has filled us in on most of what’s been going on, but I like to get the stories firsthand. So, I want you all to start at the beginning and tell us everything.”
“That’s going to be a long story,” Lucy warns her.
“Well, we just so happen to have tea, cookies, and time,” Sandra assures her. “Go on. Tell us.”
Goddess, I love Xander’s grandmother. Both of these women are special to me. As witches, they’re wise and gifted, and I can learn so much from them. As women, they’re kind and have been friends with the aunts since they were all children.
With Shelly living in Florida, and the loss of Agatha, my mom and Hilda have felt as if they’re missing two limbs.
Suddenly, in the middle of Breena telling her story about not wanting to live in her house, Shelly looks up at the kitchen doorway, and her face breaks out into a wide smile.
“Oh, my friend. I’ve missed you.”
I follow her gaze and see Agatha standing there, plain as the rest of us. She’s smiling back at Shelly.
“I miss you, too,” Agatha says, surprising me. She doesn’t usually say much; she generally just hovers around.
“I miss you, too, but you won’t show yourself to me,” Lucy reminds her mother, who just shrugs in the doorway.
“Anyway, keep going,” Shelly says to Breena. “And, for the record, I wouldn’t spend another minute in that house either.”
It takes us close to an hour to get through everything that’s happened, including the incident with Marydell just a few days ago.
“You’ve all been busy,” Sandra murmurs, watching Xander through narrowed eyes. “You didn’t tell us you were possessed and nearly killed.”
“No reason to worry you.”
“And that, my dear boy,” Shelly says, leaning forward, “is bullshit.”
We all snicker, and Xander has the decency to look chastised.
“Now that we’re up to date, we’ll be ready for the coven meeting,” Sandra says, nodding her head before turning back to Jonas. “I want you to know that, while I understand I can never take the place of your mother or your grandmother, you are my family, and I will happily fill that role for you if and when you need it. I see that Xander gave you your mother’s wedding ring to give to Lucy. It suits her.”
“Thank you.” Jonas shifts in his seat, obviously not entirely comfortable. I’ve never seen the man nervous before, and it’s fascinating. “Do you know much about my family? I know it was so long ago, and it surprised me that Xander had her ring. I don’t know how it survived.”
“It was passed down through Katrina to her children and so on, until it came to me,” Shelly says. “When I divorced Xander’s father, I put the ring back in the box that had been given to me and gave it to my son. It’s an heirloom, and I wanted it to be in the family. Of course, it went through quite the cleansing ritual.”
Shelly leans over to pat Lucy’s shoulder.
“No need to worry about bad juju being attached to the ring, darling.”
“I know there’s not,” Lucy says with a soft smile. “I would feel it if there were.”
