26. Blaine #2
“You’re going with logic?” Making a tsking sound, he did his best to frown. “We’re going to have to work on your arguments. That was weak. Falling back on logic.”
He was ridiculous.
But he made me smile as he shook his head, which had been his plan all along, so I acted silly and dramatic as we climbed out of the truck. “Logic is the basis for all manipulation. You just like going directly for the insane.”
He shrugged as he came around the front of the truck. “It’s genetic. I can’t help it.”
I crossed my arms over my chest. “Cheater. There’s no way for me to fight back against that without either insulting you or claiming your family is perfectly normal.”
He widened his eyes and cocked his head. “Really? Is that what I did? Oh dear.”
Brat.
He was adorable…even if his family was insane.
Shaking my head, I sighed and started toward the front of the house. “I’m going to remember this later.”
Ha.
His eyes flashed wide with worry that time. “Why? Why are you going to remember this? Because I was entertaining and cute? I was really cute.”
Staying silent was more fun but it also came in handy because the door opened before we stepped up on the porch.
Serena again.
“You timed that really well.” My mate wasn’t as reserved with his questions as I was. “Do you have a regular job? Is managing the coven a full-time career? Do you just work odd hours?”
Since they were good questions, rude or not, I smiled and let him keep going.
“Did you know we were coming because of some kind of magic?” Looking around, my adorable mate frowned. “Do you have cameras? I didn’t see any but they come in a lot of different forms. I was kind of surprised you didn’t have one of those doorbell ones.”
Doorbell ones?
Doorbell cameras?
As he gave me another question to put on my list, Serena smiled. “I work from home…well…I work from the coven house.”
Pausing, she frowned. “Um, I work here at this house a few days a week.”
I really hadn’t thought about how odd this would be from her perspective and based on Henley’s silence he hadn’t considered it either. He also didn’t seem to be sure what to say because he looked over at me.
Yeah, this kind of was something I needed to handle.
“I don’t know enough to even guess who owns the house or who has legal rights to it anymore, but I have no intention of taking it away from the coven.
” Doing my best to look relaxed, I took Henley’s hand and smiled at her.
“We have other commitments that will take us away for long periods of time, so I don’t need this as a primary residence. ”
And I wasn’t sure I’d want it even if we’d decided to stay locally.
It had too many memories and seeing the wrong furniture just made it feel more like I’d walked into an alternate universe like in Henley’s animated TV shows.
“I’d already been living on my own for several years before the…before the situation occurred, and while I’m glad it’s in such wonderful condition, I don’t walk into it and see my house.” Did that make sense? “From the way you talk about it, I’m assuming you see it as your house?”
Nodding, she gestured toward the door. “Please come in.”
Following her in, we let her lead us to a small living room that had once been a more formal room where my father had received visitors.
I liked the comfortable-looking couches and warm colors that she’d decorated the room with more.
“This looks nice. The space before was formal and not very welcoming.”
He hadn’t wanted visitors to stay long.
Looking more at ease, she smiled. “Have a seat. I’ve always liked this room. I think there are some old pictures where it shows that formal room but it was changed before I was born.”
So they’d been living in the house for a long time.
As she sat down on a comfortable-looking leather chair, we moved to the couch across from her. “Can you tell me what happened after the spell? I should’ve looked it up online but that just felt…”
I wasn’t sure I could explain it, but her understanding nod said I didn’t have to.
“I’d be glad to. We originally thought we’d find you fairly quickly but that didn’t go as planned.
Even tracking spells didn’t work. We’re still not sure why but we think it’s because of your mother’s line.
You have a strong connection to her lineage even if you were never trained, from what I was told. ”
Ah.
“Um, no. I was always more interested in shifting and sports and things like that.” Getting into trouble had also taken up a lot of my time. “And my mother’s parents were old when she was born, so I never had a lot of family on that side.”
When I had the chance of going to a football game or spending the weekend with distant cousins and a coven I’d only met a handful of times as a child, I’d always picked the game or something else that was more fun.
Shaking her head, she held up her hands. “No guilt here. It’s got to be something you want, not that you do just because you can.”
She was more understanding than my relatives had been.
“That might’ve made it hard to track me, though?” I’d have never thought of it. I mostly ignored that side of things.
“We think so.” Settling back in her chair, she let out a breath and seemed like she had to work not to let stress take over. “Honestly, I find not knowing to be very frustrating but there just wasn’t enough specific information from the incident to explain it exactly.”
Ah.
I could understand that and it seemed like Henley could too based on his nod and how low his own stress was.
“You did your best and you fixed me once I was found.” That was all I could ask. “You even took good care of my life in the meantime.”