Chapter 36
Walking to work was . . . not too bad. Davin liked it, except for the part where he didn’t get to drive his car every single morning anymore.
Me? It added a half hour to my morning, having to get up and shower and get dressed and all that before we even left for the office, but still, it was nice to do it all with Davin.
All of that, and not having to deal with him being embarrassed that I was mostly naked in the office.
Twist walked alongside us on a little harness that couldn’t have hoped to hold her back if she wanted to go after someone, but it was the law, so we did it. All pets on the beach walk had to be leashed.
I’d considered registering her as a familiar to avoid it, but neither Davin nor I were mages, so it’d be kind of a pain to convince anyone to let us. Grady had managed, sure, but Grady was a legal god among mere mortals.
I also didn’t see a reason to bother telling the beach cops that Twist wasn’t a pet, but family. They wouldn’t care about that.
Besides, if anything, Twist seemed amused by the concept of a leash.
She sauntered along, tail in the air, and when we passed people walking their dogs who warned that their dogs weren’t always nice to cats, well . . . Apparently dogs could recognize that Twist wasn’t just a kitten. We had yet to have one so much as step foot next to her.
There’d been a few friendly ones who’d wanted to play, but that had been fine too.
Twist was still a kitten, after all. She loved to play.
We took the path down the beach each morning, and stopped into Teas(e) first thing, because if someone offered me food, well .
. . I was gonna eat it. And Amelia always had a table ready for us, our own reserved table, and served us our favorite tea and all the incredible things she was baking up in the kitchen every day.
We tried not to stay too long, because frankly, we took up seats that paying customers wanted.
Teas(e) had become one of the most popular spots in Avalon, and was constantly busy nearly from open to close.
They’d started having to wait our weekly dinners until after they closed for the night, because they simply didn’t have the room or time before they shoved the day’s last customers out of the shop.
With one last scone for the road . . . okay, three, and a cup of tea and a box of chocolates .
. . we headed over to the office for the morning.
Olive was already there clicking away on her knitting, this time a full-size blanket for her daughter-in-law.
She opened up in the morning, and everyone was happy with the reliable hours.
“Morning boys,” she said to both of us with a bright smile, then looked down to the floor, where Twist was brushing sand off her paws on our doormat. “Good morning, Plot Twist, dear. Ms. Knight has sent a lovely tuna fish for you this morning, and it’s all set out for you in the back.”
And sure enough, there was a whole tuna fish laid out and ready for my kitten’s breakfast in the back room. The back room, which was no longer a place where someone lived, with a half-dead sofa and mini-fridge.
We’d replaced it with more shelves and stock, and of course, Twist’s perch for her breakfast.
This, now, was my life. A whole regular schedule, which we kept to quite tightly thanks to Davin liking his routine.
My friends.
My family.
My kitten.
My love.
My whole world, and the community I’d always wanted but never known how to look for.
It was absolutely perfect.