“The lights are beautiful,” I said, letting my curves find their resting places along his more angular planes. I liked that Tanner wasn’t overly muscled, at least when he was being regular Tanner, not extremely angry or irritated Tanner.
“I could kiss you right now.” The wards are up. The boys won’t be home until close to seven.
“Then do it,” Tanner murmured. “Kiss me, Calliope.”
All I had to do was pivot on the balls of my toes and lift my heels.
Tires on gravel and the thump-thump of loud music behind closed windows alerted us another car was pulling into the driveway. I planted a kiss on Tanner’s mouth, and he held me in place until every possible inch of our bodies that could touch…touched.
“That wasn’t what I had in mind,” he said.
“Me, either.” I lowered my heels to the floor.
Tanner slipped by me and headed down the hall. I stepped out to greet my sons.
“Cool wards, Mom,” Thatcher yelled.
Harper and Thatch were standing to either side of the Jeep, extracting whatever goodies they’d picked up from working at the farm and helping out at the market. They each hefted a box, slammed the Jeep’s doors shut, and tromped up the stairs, leaving little rectangular clumps of dirt in their wake.
I didn’t have to remind them to leave the boots and boxes on the deck and hose down whatever they’d hauled home. They were on it.
“Not the pies!” Thatch laughed. He handed over two familiar white boxes with red lettering. One oozed fruit juice along a bottom seam. “Sallie gave us a broken blueberry pie. And we bought a strawberry rhubarb.”
I took care of getting the dessert into the house. Tanner had seated himself on the couch, with his leather bag nearby and his laptop open on the low table.
Thatch paused at the bottom of the stairs. “Sallie’s having a rough time, Mom.”
“Did she say anything specific to you?”
“Yes. And no. She really wants to move out of her house.”
I felt the request coming and shook my head. “No. There’s too much going on to invite her to live with us, Thatch. I hope you didn’t—”
“I didn’t, Mom, but I wanted to.” He lifted his arm in my direction. A new bracelet looped his wrist. “See what she made for us? She’s trying to see if she can afford to live on her own so she’s experimenting with making stuff to sell. Harper has one too.”
Crouching down, I held his wrist and thumbed the braid until I’d seen the entire circle once, then twice.
“Did she make this on you, or did you pick it out randomly?” I asked, curious as to how Sallie had hidden the ends of the cording.
“She made one for each of us and tied them on while we waited.” He pulled his wrist away and flicked at the braid. “Hm. She really hid the ends, didn’t she?”
“Did you and Harper talk to her at all about what’s been happening?”
“Nope. Sallie’s cool, Mom, but she’s not in our circle of trust.” He shrugged. “Got a towel for these veggies?”
I ducked into the closet and handed out a stack of worn dishtowels. “Did she talk at all about why she wants to move out?”
Thatch shook his head and twisted the new bracelet around and around his wrist. “Not everybody gets a mom like you. Or a brother like Harp.”
Tuesday night was blessedly calm, and Wednesday was almost boring. After a full six hours, I left the GIAC’s office early to give myself time to prep for the great unknown of the coming ritual. I ended up in my garden, watering, weeding, and enjoying the calm before whatever was coming next.
Rounding the side of my house, I hung up the garden hose and took off my gardening gloves. An unfamiliar car slowed at the end of the driveway. When the driver rolled down the passenger side window and tooted the horn, there was no mistaking the beaming face behind the oversized sunglasses.
“Rowan!” I yelled, waving my gloves and picking up my pace.
Rowan pulled over and turned on her blinker. “Can I come in for a visit? I’m kind of curious to see the before-ceremony Calliope so I can compare her with the after-ceremony Calliope.”
I laughed. “Park your car and come inside. I have to dash, or I’m going to flood right here.”
The first floor of the house was empty, but deep voices rumbled from one of the boys’ rooms as I passed by the stairs on my way to the bathroom. Given that tonight was such a big night for me, I kind of expected the guys to be making dinner, if not seeing to my every need.
I ducked into my room, hoping to find the cluster of necklaces the witches had given me at my first ritual on my bureau. Or maybe my underwear drawer. I wanted to show them to Rowan and get her opinion on whether to wear them to my Blood Ceremony. And maybe even get her opinion on Tanner.
Ugh. I hated forgetting where I put things. And this kissing business between me and Tanner wasn’t cutting it. We were unattached adults. We also carried so much relationship baggage we could have used one of those wheeled luggage racks to help haul it all around.
I needed to stop thinking about Tanner and sex in the same breath. Maybe that werecougar was still available.
No. No, no, no.
My stomach rumbled. The fruit I had at breakfast was not getting me through this day, which only added to my woes. I found a clean pad, soaped up a washcloth, and forgave myself for being out of sorts.
Rowan must have read my body language as I dragged myself down the hall. She patted my cheeks and pulled a wrapped package out of her bag.
“This is for you,” she said, taking me into a quick, hard hug that crushed the paper package between our chests. “It’s for your special night.” She pulled another
