Ten
Rhett
After dinner, Calix suggested walking through the park and getting ice cream for dessert, and it sounded great to me. We hit up the ice cream shop first, each getting cones, which was why I dared what I did.
The second we hit the park, I slipped my hand into his. Calix’s hands were attractive in their own right. He had long, pianist fingers, blunt at the tips, with strong cords that flexed whenever he moved.
Yes, I fantasized about his hands on me, don’t judge.
Calix immediately twined his fingers around mine and shot me a smile that threatened to melt my kneecaps. I smiled back on reflex and wished like hell my house wasn’t filled with nosy ghosts. I couldn’t invite him back to my place because of it. I was very, very upset about this too.
The park was peaceful, and basically empty, which wasn’t a surprise at this time of the evening. I liked the privacy because it let me focus on him.
“So you had a witch friend in high school.” Calix said this in a ruminating tone while looking at me. “And she obviously told you a lot. Did she tell you there’s many creatures in the world that don’t fit with modern conceptions?”
“Oh, like faeries and stuff? Sure. I never saw one myself, but she warned me of what to look out for. To avoid getting myself in trouble, y’know.” I shrugged to show it didn’t alarm me any. “I was absolutely fascinated as a teen. I’d pump her for all sorts of information.”
“And you believed all of it?”
“Sure. For one thing, Kanna was one of the most truthful people I knew. For another, I saw her do things that just weren’t explainable except by magic. Hell, she gave me healing potions and stones several times when I was dog sick and they were the only thing that made me feel better. Just because I don’t see it, doesn’t mean it doesn’t exist.”
“You really are one of a kind,” he murmured, giving me the same warm look from earlier. “And I’m so glad for it.”
I had a feeling people had either dismissed him or scoffed at him, and I aimed a mental kick in the direction of those people. Calix had a beautiful soul. He was a man who wouldn’t hurt anyone on purpose. Any person who had an issue with him just had issues, period.
He didn’t need it from me, but I reassured him again anyway. “I think what you and other witches can do is absolutely amazing, and I wish I had the talent.”
“You can learn, you know.”
I blinked at him. “Eh? Come again?”
“You’re clearly magical. You have not one, but two familiars.”
My feet just about tripped over each other and I stopped dead on the sidewalk. Words, needed words, but huh? The hell?!
Calix stopped with me, a half smile kicking his mouth up on one side, like he had expected this reaction.
“Lucy’s a familiar. I guarantee that. I’ve seen her do too many things that a normal cat just wouldn’t do. The fact she brought Myst in with her—who’s already guarding you—cinches it for me. They’re both familiars.”
“Geh huh, whaaaa?!”
“So articulate.”
I scowled at him for the teasing. “But I’m not a witch!”
“Hmm, maybe? Maybe not. I’m not sure what you are. I know you have to be something to have two familiars just land in your lap.” Calix tilted his head to the side, eyes shrewd on me. Like he was studying me and trying to figure some mystery out. “It could very well be that you’re not attuned to the world around you, so you’re not able to see the ghosts yourself. Tell me something. Your witch friend, when she handed you a spelled stone, what did it feel like in your hand?”
“Uh…hot, generally. And tingling.”
“Ah-ha. Only another magician would be able to feel anything distinctly. You’re a natural. A little training, and I’d bet the world would open up to your third eye.”
I couldn’t have heard him right. I absolutely couldn’t have.
But he looked dead serious.
“How are you sure about Lucy?” I don’t know why that was the first question to pop out of my mouth, but there we had it.
“Hmm, well, there were multiple things, but the clincher for me was when she was at my apartment. I have a house Brownie—uh, you know what those are?”
I nodded dumbly. “Yeah, the little creatures that attach to a house and take care of it.”
“That’s the one. When I came back from the store, I found your cat and my Brownie curled up on the window bench and Lucy was giving it a bath.”
She…she’d done what, again?
“No way,” I breathed.
“Now, any normal cat would have tried to attack it because of hunting instincts.”
Man made a really good point. A normal cat would have done exactly that.
“But your cat treated the Brownie like a friend and groomed it. Lucy’s got to be a familiar. No way around it.”
“Damn, that’s a good argument. But Myst?”
“With the way he was guarding you at the house? And he’s only a puppy.”
Also a good argument.
“Plus, magic tends to run through families. With your Aunt Ruth such a strong witch, it would be stranger if you weren’t .”
Hard to counter that argument, too. Um. I wasn’t entirely sure how to feel about this? I’d always been a tech and science kind of guy. Not that I didn’t believe in magic, I just didn’t believe it had much to do with me. Hearing otherwise was throwing me for a loop.
Calix’s tone gentled. “I’m not pushing an agenda here. You can pursue this or not, it’s up to you. I’m just telling you what I’m seeing. If you don’t want to open up to the world, that’s okay. Not everyone wants to. Just sleep on it.”
Man dropped a bombshell like that and then expected me to sleep tonight? Hell no, I’d be tossing and turning like a rotisserie chicken all night.
Calix leaned in and kissed my forehead, his lips soft and warm against my skin. “Eat your ice cream before it melts. Don’t stress. And I’m going back home with you tonight to set some boundaries for your ghosts so you don’t have a heart attack.”
I obediently licked my ice cream. He was right about it threatening to melt all over my hand. Still…priorities. “Will you stay with me tonight, then?”
A flash of heat in his eyes made my heart skip a beat.
“I’d be more than happy to.”
With that reaction, odds were good this wouldn’t be a chaste sleepover. And with him setting boundaries, I wouldn’t need to worry about the ghosts.
At least some part of today would go according to plan.
And I was really, really looking forward to it.