AllFreeNovel
Share Us
“Thank you. Maybe. I thought maybe I’d pass those recipes on to another light witch who needs her own path and land and home.” She cleared her throat, and I realized I might finally get more insight into her past and why the jams were so important to her. “The other recipes mean so much to me, which is why I can infuse them with my magic.”
“Your family?” I tried, having thought she didn’t know them.
She smiled sadly. “The only family I knew, but she was my foster mom. I was with her for five years and she was the best ever. She was from South America, mostly Brazil. She immigrated here and couldn’t have kids, but then she found me and said we were a pair meant to be like sweet and tart.”
“I’m sorry,” I whispered, getting she was gone. I reached over and moved my arm around her, thrilled when she leaned into me.
“She got a lot of flak for taking me in. Here she fosters a child with the last name Gomes and they all assumed I was like them. Her sister was not kind about it and bitched constantly that shetook in a little White girl instead of someone who really needed help. She blamed me when my mom had a heart attack, saying it was because I was spoiled and demanded too much of her.”
“That’s just shitty, no matter how much she was grieving too.”
She nodded. “She wouldn’t let me take anything, saying I was greedy, but I just wanted one of her blankets we’d made together. I got put back into the system since none of her family wanted me, said it was my fault. I was glad later she didn’t give me a blanket because it probably would have gotten damaged as I was bounced all around, and I would have been crushed if I’d set it on fire.”
I didn’t want her to talk about all her pain and hardships. Well, unless she wanted to, but I didn’t think it helped, just poked old wounds. “I’m sure she’d beveryproud of you for turning what she taught you into something so awesome.”
“I hope so,” she whispered against my chest. “That’s why I wanted to make nice ones with the right moods. I can make people feel bad emotions too, and I get why Thora’s asked me to and it was needed, but I just want happy. I want to spread happy and help people.”
“You do. Your damn name means happiness, cinnamon. I know you were born to bring happiness to all who need it, including me.”
“You know what my name means?” she asked, kissing my neck when I nodded. “And you just looked that up?”
“It’s a pretty name and I was curious.”
“Eat your pancakes, ogre, because you need to eat me after.”
Fuck the pancakes, I went for her first. Twice.
And then I ate the pancakes that were still awesome. She was laughing so hard when I did that, I knew she was past her sad mood. Good.
I got my answer on the greenhouses and they hadexploded. There was no hiding it before people started arriving, but Adrena reminded me we’d also been focused elsewhere, and the same people weren’t in the same greenhouses every day to notice. Good point.
I had all the carts full and was driving a train over when most people were clocking in. “There’s a lot to catch up on now that the launch is over. We’re really light on the pickup tomorrow, so we’re focused on pomegranates and jabuticaba so Adrena can have jelly going while we work. From there all the citrus since we’re doing a massive juicing and sending the rinds. Then I want loofah.”
I had Robby and Alice get their teams to start unloading and then went to assign a few of the college kids what teams to handle. I sighed when one gave me a look that I needed to chill out.
“Look, I get it, you’re older,” I said, realizing we’d just need to get this out. “But this is my career and it’s your part-time gig. So enough. I know the players and the parts, and this is the way things are. I’m going to be working right there with you, but I’m the manager.”
“And he has the authority to fire bad kids and recommend team leads,” Adrena sang as she walked by us.
“I do?”
“Yes, ogre, you do. Chop chop. We’ve got orders coming in fast and that’s also a lot to box in the cool AC to break from the greenhouses. But they gotta earn that AC.”
That seemed to work, not the AC perk, but knowing I could really fire them. They backed off then which was nice because it set a bad example for the other college kids.
And Adrena wanted to hire more. The farmers markets would stop, but she was having a store and offices built on the property.
But I appreciated the backup, and that night I made sure she knew it. I’d about jumped her in the pool and offered up our first pool sex to Gaia. I drilled her so good she was limp against me while we recovered.
“Fuck, my ogre, what did I do to deserve that because I want to do it again,” she said with a slight giggle as she curled up on my lap as I sat on the bench.
“You always deserve that, and if my woman wants to be fucked, I will beg to fuck her good,” I murmured in her ear. “But I wanted to make sure you knew how much I appreciated the backing today.”
She smiled up at me. “You back me and I back you. That’s how this works.”
Apparently, it also worked that if I appreciated her, she’d ride me in the pool. Hot. She was so fucking hot.
Things just kept getting better and better and I didn’t mean sex-wise. No, the closeness and need were back.
