Chapter 16
Madly, we decided to walk to the bookshop. I know it’s not far, but we didn’t bring a stroller for Lyric and Connie is attached to Jude’s chest.
Lyric wanted to walk a bit, so held Nora and Enoch’s hands, with Kean and me staying close. It was a slow walk, but it’s our first family walk to town, so I’m not complaining.
We wave and say hello to those we pass, and a few have come over to meet Lyric, all of them enchanted with him.
“Unk Addy,” Lyric suddenly calls out.
Adhan stops walking and turns to him. “What’s wrong, little man?”
He drops Nora and Enoch’s hands and holds his arms out. “Up.”
Adhan laughs and picks him up. “Demanding little thing, aren’t you? First, I have to change your nappy, and now I have to carry you.”
Lyric pats his cheek, which makes us all laugh.
“Ebby and I moved the boys’ furniture around and unpacked everything. Use magic to change it if you don’t like what we did,” Sly says.
“Thanks for doing that. I only meant for you to take the cases upstairs, not sort everything,” I reply.
Ebby shrugs. “You helped us unpack, we just returned the favour.”
I grin at that, remembering unpacking day. “Pretty sure we had fun playing with magic that day.”
They both laugh. “Yep, we did. Are you still going to come to magical playtime?” Sly asks.
Our magical playtime is defence against dark magic lessons. Justice, Sal, Callum and Sly always make it interesting and fun. None of us thinks we need them anymore, but us true witches, along with the town witches, all have fun playing with magic.
“I am. We still need to get that magic box open.” When there were issues with Sly’s family, we sent our magic out to check out a farmhouse. None of our magic came back; Ebby found it trapped in a box. We rescued the box, but even months later, we still can’t get the box open to retrieve our magic.
“As long as one of us is with Lyric, everything should be fine,” I say, hoping that’s true.
Sly shakes his head. “I can’t even imagine what he’s going through at the moment, the confusion and having to be around new people. He’s a brave little boy. I know you have everyone at home, but if there is anything we can do, just ask.”
“We will,” I say, meaning it. “I’m sure we can call on you for babysitting duties.”
“Enoch will love that,” Ebby says.
“Xander too,” Sly says, nodding towards where Xander is walking next to Adhan, chatting to him and Lyric and making him laugh.
We finally reach the bookshop and walk in. Ernest is busy serving someone but waves as we carry on to the tearoom, where we see Alfred, Justice and Sal sat down laughing and joking.
“What’s this, a family outing?” Justice asks.
“Yep,” Jude says happily, walking over to Sal and kissing him.
Apart from our family, the tearoom is empty, so tables are moved around and we all sit.
“Dad,” Alfred says, grinning at him. “Something you want to tell me?”
Adhan laughs as he sits down. “Yes, Lyric’s a demanding little man. Aren’t you?”
Lyric looks at Adhan and grins, before snuggling onto his chest, making sure he can see both Kean and me.
“You and Ernest need to have a baby,” Alfred throws out there, still grinning.
“Don’t make me squirt you,” Ernest says, walking over to the table and putting his hand on Adhan’s shoulder. “We are both quite happy being uncles, thank you very much. Anyway, we’re waiting for you and Justice to have children.”
Alfred blushes, and Justice laughs.
“Wait, Alfred, are you pregnant?” Sly teases.
Justice throws a napkin at him. “No, idiot.”
“We’ve spoken about adopting, but we’re going to wait a year or two before we start down that route,” Alfred replies.
“Where’s River?” Justice asks.
“Sleeping at home with Mum watching over him. Lyric had a little scare earlier, so Adhan invited us to join him coming here. Everyone else came along for the fun of it,” Kean tells him.
“Poor thing. He seems happy with Adhan.”
Kean laughs. “Yep, the big bad Alpha, felled by our son.”
We all laugh at that.
“How long is the adoption process now? Do you need assessments and stuff before you go before a judge and have the adoption legalised?” Alfred asks.
I shake my head. “All the paperwork has already been signed, and the boys are officially ours. It’s why we were so late back yesterday. Just before we were due to leave, our case worker turned up with everything finalised.”
“I thought it would take longer than that,” Sal says.
“It probably should, but Monica helped get everything processed quickly,” Kean tells him.
“Justin, our case worker, will still need to do checks every two weeks for about six months, but that’s just procedure,” I add.
As we’re talking, Cal and Clarence deliver our drinks and cakes. I’ve no idea who ordered for me, but I’m not complaining as the cupcake in front of me looks incredible. The decoration looks like a mini work of art.
“Cal, this looks too nice to eat,” I tell him.
He beams. “Thanks, but they were made to be eaten. Also, a lady from out of town came in earlier. Someone had told her about my cakes, and she ordered a three-tier birthday cake, with forty cupcakes for her goth son’s birthday.”
“That’s amazing, Cal,” Sal says, jumping up and hugging his brother, while the rest of us offer our congratulations.
“I’m letting Clarence sort out prices,” Cal says, beaming at his partner.
Clarence is looking at Cal with a look of love and pride on his face.
“We can hire you to make our wedding cake,” Kean says to him, before looking at Clarence. “We can let you know the date and what we want, then we can sort the payment out.”
“Oh no, I won't charge you, you’re family, but I’ll happily make your wedding cake.”
Kean looks at Callum. “We’re paying you for the cake, Cal.”
Callum shakes his head. “Clarence will charge you a small amount then, like ten pounds or something.”
Kean looks at Clarence. “We’ll talk proper amounts.”
“We will,” he agrees.
“But Ernest gets a birthday cake for free, for helping me see I should give cake decorating a try and helping me solve my buttercream problem.”
“Okay, I’ll accept that then. But the drama society will be hiring you to make a cake for the opening of our play.” Ernest says.
I see Callum bite his lip. “I might need a diary.”
“I’ll handle everything, baby boy, you just concentrate on making the cakes,” Clarence says, slipping an arm around Cal’s waist and kissing the side of his head.
Cal nods, leaning against him. “I can do that, thanks, honey.”
“Down, Unk Addy,” Lyric suddenly demands.
Adhan gently puts him down, and he toddles around to Kean.
“Up Clean,” he says, smiling.
Kean laughs and picks him up and sits him on his lap. “This is your Uncle Clarence and Uncle Callum. Guys, this is our son Lyric.”
“I love your name,” Cal says to him.
Lyric laughs and the next moment, quickly falls forward and splats his face in Kean’s colourful cupcake.
Everyone laughs as Kean pulls him up and picks the cupcake off his face.
Lyric has buttercream all over his face and uses his hands to wipe it off, smudging it around and licking his fingers.
I glare at Kean. “Really? Wolf reflexes, and you couldn’t stop him?”
“He was fast,” Kean mutters.
“I’ll get you a towel. There is no way a wet wipe will clear all that up,” Clarence says, walking off and laughing.
Lyric holds his dirty hand out to me. “Five Tus.”
I shake my head. “No way, little man, not until Kean has cleaned you up. And stop eating the buttercream off your hands, that’s too much sugar,” I say, gently grabbing his wrists.
“Here,” Clarence says, coming back and holding out a towel and a new dishcloth.
“Thanks,” I say, taking them and handing them to Kean, grinning. “Good luck.”
“Thanks,” Kean mutters, getting up and holding Lyric away from his body on his way to the toilets to clean our son.