Total pages in book: 127
Estimated words: 129951 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 650(@200wpm)___ 520(@250wpm)___ 433(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 129951 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 650(@200wpm)___ 520(@250wpm)___ 433(@300wpm)
That was Solène.
And me.
We’d always been taught to try to find a bright side.
And this made me feel better.
“Though, she’d like you to call her,” Ravenna finished.
I decided to do that this evening.
“Can you…talk to dead people?” I asked.
Yup.
In those words I asked that.
Ravenna’s expression got kind(er), but she shook her head.
“And anyone who tells you they can is full of it,” she advised. “The dead can speak, but they do their own talking.”
Eek!
We finished our tea chatting, and Ravenna elevated herself even further with Tempie when we all tried to pay, and she said, “One session, it doesn’t matter how many readings. I charge by the hour. So, same price.”
This meant Prue forked over fifty pounds, we thanked Ravenna, and Chastity said, “Can I come back?”
“Of course, love. I have openings.”
She shouldn’t.
The bitch should have them lined up around Boots, for shit’s sake.
“I’ll get your number from Prue,” Chassie peeped.
And I’d get it from one of them.
As we were walking out, and I was the last, Ravenna grabbed my arm.
I turned to her.
“Whatever you choose will be right, but it might not reveal the answers you seek,” she said.
“I still don’t know what you’re talking about.”
“You will,” she replied, smiled at me, let me go and shut the door on me.
Everyone was silent on the way back to the Defender.
We all got in.
We all buckled up.
And then for some reason, we all sat there while Tempie did the same thing with her hands on the wheel, not switching on the ignition, just staring out the windshield.
Chassie, who was sitting next to her in the front (as she had on the way there), called, “Tempie?”
“I’m seeing someone, all right?” she demanded irately, like we’d been giving her shit for months about it. “And he’s a candidate, I think.”
“Can we meet him?” Chassie asked quietly.
“No,” Tempie answered.
“Why not?” Prue asked carefully.
“I don’t know,” Tempie said in a voice that made my heart squeeze.
“Leave it,” I advised quickly.
Chassie twisted in her seat to look back at me. “But—”
“Leave it, doll,” I said gently. Then to Tempie, “But you, sister, have three people in this car who will listen to you and support you. So don’t squander those resources. Hear me?”
She pulled out if it, started the car, and drawled, “My brother has fucked some bossy into you.”
“Euw!” Chassie cried.
I rolled my eyes.
“Ulk! I love them together, and I can’t love them together if I have to think about those things!” Prue complained loudly.
Tempie just smiled smugly at me in the rearview mirror.
Obviously, this made me roll my eyes again.
Tempie set us on our way.
“Wait, there’s a possibility my sister might be a duchess?” Solène said in my ear.
I was grinning loopily when I replied, “Maybe. He’s very fond of me. And I’m likewise fond of him.”
“Am I missing something with your emphasis on fond?”
“If you’re missing that I’m falling in love with him, and he’s not hiding he’s doing the same with me, but he says he’s fond of me when he’s a sex god, thinks Elizabeth the First was the greatest politician in history, and I agree, screw all those Roman senators, though Lincoln obviously had chops. Further, he’s an amazing brother and has been since he was a kid through some pretty extreme odds. And he thinks I’m smart, talented, and has a serious fascination with my ass. Therefore, fond doesn’t cover it by a long shot for either of us. But it is very sexy and also very English. They do tend to master the understatement.”
“There was a bit of TMI in all of that, but…wow, Vivi. I don’t know what else to say but wow.”
“Wait until I send you a picture of him.”
“So he’s hot.”
“Yes. Scorching. And I thought that when I first saw him. But he makes me laugh, Lenny. He thinks I’m funny. I don’t know…”
It was late.
I was in my bed in the main house, papers and my laptop and my cats (Prue’s, but yeah, mine, and Baby Blue had taken to hanging with me with Battle gone) strewn across the coverlet, but since I was at a loss for words, I fell back onto my pillows.
And admitted, “I could probably talk about him for the next three hours and not explain how amazing he is.”
“You’ve only been there a few weeks, honey.”
“When did you know with Alex?”
Heavy pause then, “Point taken.”
I grinned to myself because she called me the day after their first date and announced she was going to marry him.
My sister was an engineer. She was STEM. She got her jollies from quadratic equations (or whatever).
She was not a romantic like me.
But she knew with Alex immediately.
And she was right.
Just like I knew it was with Battle.
“Would Mom like him?” she asked.
Instantly, I said, “Yes. She’d spend five minutes with him with his sisters, and she’d know what I was going to get for a lifetime and be very happy for me.”