He stepped into the doorway behind her. “Wow. What is all that?”
She let out a sigh. “My albatross. I’m going to have to start sorting through this, I guess. I know there aren’t any windows over here, but if it’ll work for you, we can clear you out a space. Set up extra lights or something.”
He edged past a pile of furniture covered by a tarp to see around it. “Holy cow. You can’t do all this alone. I’ll help.”
“Fair warning, Sachi is going to stay behind with me tonight and help me go through Julie’s clothes.”
“Will the Mistress of Snark be staying for dinner?”
Mandaline smiled. “Yes. But you know, you feed her once, we’ll never get her to go home.”
He laughed. “We need to find her a guy of her own.”
“From your lips to the Goddess’ ears. I doubt we’ll ever find one guy who can handle her.”
He laughed. “Well, I’ll wish for two, then.”
She loved that she could have conversations like this with him without feeling the slightest bit self-conscious or silly in the bad way. “So mote it be.”
He made his way back to her. “I could use this space. I’ll set up some extra lights. If I really need natural light, I’ll just go outside to the square. It’s a little stuffy, though. If you don’t mind, I could put in a window shaker AC unit up here. Make a hole in the back wall.”
“I don’t mind.”
His eyes met hers. She was once again struck by the duality of his nature. Today, all day, the “more there” Brad had been in residence.
No denying he made her panties damp.
“Well,” she said, “I am going to spend some time up here. In her will, Julie specifically said I was free to do whatever I wanted with the stuff in here. If I find anything I like, I might keep it…” Her face heated as she realized she was going to say “for the house,” as if she was already a fully vested partner.
He held her hands and brought them to his lips, a twinkle in his eye. “I think some of these pieces would look wonderful in our house,” he quietly said.
“How’d you know what I was going to say?”
He playfully smirked. “Because all morning I’ve been thinking things like, ‘I need to sit down with Mandaline about a color scheme for the master bedroom,’ and, ‘We need to start furniture shopping with Mandaline for our bedroom.’”
The heat that flared in her cheeks this time started somewhere in the vicinity of her pussy. She’d already put in a call to Dr. Smith that morning. He was busy today, but penciled her in for an appointment tomorrow at ten.
“What about Ellis?” she asked. “Doesn’t he get a say in it?”
He shrugged. “He tells me it’s my decision. I know what he doesn’t like. He cares more for function than form.”
Why am I waiting?
“Maybe tonight after Sachi leaves we can all snuggle in front of the TV,” she quietly suggested. “I probably won’t be in much of a romantic mood, though.”
“I’ll make sure we add popcorn to the shopping list.”
“Thanks.”
He left her alone as she turned back to all the stuff to sort through.
Ellis sandwiched calls to contractors between his appointments. He wanted the roofer out there ASAP to fix the damn leak, for starters. He’d have to go through his paperwork on the house to see who was responsible for the chicken-or-egg mess caused by the leak. He didn’t know if that vent stack was already there or something the plumbers put in when they updated the system. Some of the house’s plumbing was original, some was already modernized. If the plumbers put that vent stack in after the roofers, it was their fault.
And he’d damn well make whoever was responsible fix it and pay for the cleanup expenses. Especially after the scare they went through with Brad’s health.
What if I hadn’t given in to him to let Julie check out the house in the first place? God only knows how long it might have taken to figure out what was wrong. Or what Brad might have been put through as a result.
He didn’t want to wander down that path of what-ifs. He knew it wasn’t productive.
Yet deep in his gut, he realized what a close call it had been. No telling how long it might have taken to get to the bottom of the problem if not for Mandaline’s insight.
He definitely wanted to make her a nice dinner, at the very least, to show his appreciation.
Once she finally dropped her walls with them, however, he’d spend the rest of their lives together showing her how much he loved her.
Around four o’clock his last appointment of the day left, and he decided he’d had enough of his office. When he returned to Many Blessings, he was surprised to see Brad working behind the counter and wearing one of the neon-green-and-pink aprons the employees wore.
Brad grinned. “Hey, you’re early.”
Ellis let out a snort and pointed at the apron. “That’s…quite a fashion statement.”
“Aw, screw you, chief,” Sachi said. “He’s making killer cappuccino. You’re just a lawyer.” She smiled.
“How are you feeling?” he asked Brad.
He nodded. “A hell of a lot better than I was.” He stepped closer and leaned in. “I almost screwed up royally, though”
“Why?”
Brad told him about the reporter. Ellis felt anger flare deep within him on Mandaline’s behalf. “Maybe I should look into getting a court order against the asshole to stop him from harassing her.”
“Chill, chief,” Sachi said. “Mandaline held her own. Not even that jerk would mess with a pissed-off witch. She ran him out of here.”
The witch herself chose that moment to emerge from the stairwell. Ellis wasn’t sure, but thought her cheeks turned pinker when she met his gaze. “Hi, Ellis. I thought I heard you down here.”
He struggled and managed to contain his excitement that she rose up on her toes to give him a kiss.
“Oh, shit,” Sachi muttered.
“What?” Mandaline asked.
“Why don’t you go back upstairs,” Sachi said, “and let me handle this?”
“Handle wha—oh, you gotta be shitting me!”
The men turned as the front doorbell tinkled and a man walked in.
“What?” Ellis asked. “Another reporter?”
“Worse,” Sachi snarked. “Her ex-husband.”
Ellis turned to follow her progress across the store to greet the man. Barely taller than Mandaline, the portly man was growing perilously close to losing a goodly chunk of the curly brown hair on the top of his head, except that he’d attempted to master the art of the stealthy comb-over with unsettling results.
Brad crossed his arms over his chest and scowled. “I think we can take him,” he muttered to Ellis.
“Hell, I can take him,” Sachi snarked. “I won’t even need my skeet gun. He’s such a spineless ass the fucker will blow over in a stiff breeze.”
“Hello, Carl,” Mandaline said. Ellis didn’t know how Mandaline managed to keep the venom out of her voice. “What are you doing here?” She stopped in front of him, blocking his further progress into the store with her hands firmly planted on her hips.
Ellis, with Brad and Sachi in step, moved closer.
“I heard about Julie. Horrible news. Wanted to come pay my respects.”
“Why? You never paid her any respect when she was alive. Why start now?”
The man’s face reddened slightly. “I know I wasn’t always the nicest to her—”
“Ha!” Sachi snorted.
Mandaline briefly glanced over her shoulder at them but didn’t quiet Sachi down. “Just tell me what you really want. Why are you here?”
Now he wrung his hands together. Ellis didn’t know men still did that in this day and age. “I know we didn’t part on the best of terms—”