Chapter 4
Felix trudged up the Witchery’s steps to the apartment above, totally defeated.
His car getting impounded for unpaid parking tickets had just been the icing on the cake.
He’d spent the day holed up in his office, reviewing applications and crying into his coffee.
Every last one of them had either been asking for way more money than Havers could afford or been laughably unqualified.
The handful that he might’ve considered couldn’t start until late January, which he supposed was fair, given the holiday and the two weeks’ notice thing, but that didn’t help them now.
And dear God, they needed help now. An answer had to be filed by January second.
He scrubbed a hand through his curls and gave the door to Jena’s apartment a perfunctory knock below a wreath of mistletoe and holly, pausing before he let himself in.
The vibe had changed with Chase living there, and the last thing he needed was to walk in on the two of them in the middle of things again.
As delightful as Chase’s bare backside was, it only reminded Felix of his current dry spell.
Hopefully Able would be home for the holidays.
He was always up for some casual fun, and Felix really needed the distraction.
“It’s safe,” Aggie’s acerbic voice called out as he peeked in.
“I told those two if I caught them fucking on the couch again, they were buying me a new one. You know how hard it is to get lube off corduroy? It’s bad enough the hallway outside their bedroom smells like the set of a porno, I don’t need them fluffing in here. ”
All Felix could smell was garlic and sauce, but he wasn’t about to disagree with the crotchety witch as he set a bottle of pre-chilled Chablis on the butcher block counter.
Probably should’ve picked up two in his current mood, but that ship had sailed.
He sourly eyed the mistletoe hanging in the kitchen doorway.
“And how would you know what a set of a porno smells like?”
Aggie picked up the bottle and grunted her approval. She was in a zippered tracksuit, but her silver hair had been set in finger waves. Very ragtime chic. “Consider it a door prize for living through the seventies. You’re early. What went to hell?”
“Leave him alone,” Jena scolded, coming into the room.
“He can help me with the charcuterie board. And by help, I mean bring plates and napkins into the other room. Though we do have enough lasagna to feed the entire Westside Fire Department, I don’t want to risk him setting anything ablaze.
” Her brow rose at Felix’s silence. “What? No quip?”
He waved a hand at her. “It’s been a day, and I’m pretty sure everything is already burning at this point.” It certainly would be if he lent a hand.
“Then pop that bottle, and tell me all about it.” She turned to Aggie. “Didn’t you want to get changed before Gorman got here?”
“I did,” the older witch sniffed, eyeing the bottle. “But you better save me a glass.”
“No promises,” he muttered, rifling through a drawer for the corkscrew.
“Then no lasagna.”
Damn it. “Fine. One glass,” he relented.
“Make it two, there’s garlic bread,” she said, sashaying out the door.
Felix grunted. “You’d think being in remission would’ve improved her attitude.”
“I heard that!”
“You’d be wrong.” Jena laughed.
God, she looked so happy. Pregnancy was certainly agreeing with her.
She had that glow everyone talked about, and her green eyes sparkled.
Being with Chase had given her a confidence she hadn’t had before, and the curvy girl was killing it in that little black dress.
Felix’s heart swelled for her, and he blinked the tears from his eyes, but whether those were for her or his own miserable existence, he wasn’t sure.
“Shit,” she said, her dark brows furrowing. “Something did go to hell.”
He nodded, wiping a hand across his face and then grabbed the bottle. “Fayet is suing us for the willful appropriation of magic, we don’t have a town lawyer on retainer anymore, my sister’s in the wind again—Oh, and they impounded my car, so I’ve got that going for me, too.”
Jena gaped at him, then put down the massive cutting board she’d hauled out from beneath the kitchen island. “I told you that was going to happen if you didn’t pay those tickets, but are you serious about the rest of it?”
Felix pulled the cork with a loud pop. “Yep. But what we do have is a response to file by January second. Tell me you have litigation skills I don’t know about.”
“Unfortunately, no,” she said, taking containers from the fridge. “But even if Havers did still have Patrick on retainer, he’d have to recuse himself because of his involvement with the turbines.”
“Fair point, but that still doesn’t do anything to help us,” Felix said, grabbing a glass from the Hoosier cabinet. “We’ve got zero candidates to fill the position and even less funds to pay them with.”
Jena chewed her lip, pausing in her artistic placement of tubed meat slices. “You have an ad running?”
“Yes, and believe me when I say, it’s only highlighted what an absolute debacle this is. It’s going to take a Christmas miracle to find someone on such short notice at this time of the year, willing to work for a pittance.”
Jena hummed, drumming her fingers on the counter for a breath. “You should ask the coven to do a manifestation spell.”
Felix blinked at her mid-pour. A manifestation— “You’re brilliant. Why the hell didn’t I think of that?”
“Maybe because you’re also drowning in your stupid sister’s drama,” Jena muttered, moving on to sliced cheese. She was about as far from Team Felicia as you could get. “How long has she been gone this time?”
Felix shrugged. “More than a week and less than a month?” He swirled the wine in his glass and took a sip. “Mom had Matilda scry for her, and she couldn’t find her.”
“Then my money’s on a trucker.”
Felix grunted. “Yeah. That’s what I said.”
“You think she’ll be back for Yule?” Jena asked, glancing up from assembling veggies.
“Is it wrong to say I hope not? Like, yes, I wish she would get her shit together and actually be there for her spawn, but dipping in and out of their lives is seriously fucking them up…right along with my parents.” And him. God, he literally couldn’t anymore with her drama.
Jena’s lips pinched together, probably thinking about her own pending bundle of indentured servitude.
She was just coming around to the idea of having a baby, though Chase was over the moon.
That kid was going to want for nothing except breathing space.
Felix couldn’t wait to kidnap the little blighter and actually enjoy being an uncle. Surrogate parenting sucked.
“No,” Jena finally said. “I think that’s fair. Honestly, I don’t know why your mom didn’t have Matilda curse Felicia with infertility years ago.”
“One, karma, and two, it’s an Irish Catholic thing,” Felix muttered, though he didn’t disagree with the sentiment.
Lord knows the sour witch had offered. “And there’s no putting that genie back in the bottle.
You’d think after four urchins and I don’t know how many miscarriages, she’d see the value in birth control. ”
Jena snorted. “Don’t forget the ectopic pregnancy that landed her in Klineville General for a month and cost your parents a second mortgage. Carry this out for me? I’m not supposed to be lifting.”
Felix eyed the mountain of food she’d assembled. “Maybe you shouldn’t have put thirty pounds of crap on it then. This is supposed to be the appetizer? How many people are coming? Maybe I should set something on fire,” he said, hefting up the slab.
“Har har. Aside from you, me, Aggie, and Chase, there’s Gorman and Kelsey.” She glanced askance at Felix, and his stomach flipped.
“Don’t say it.” If Liam Montgomery was going to be here…
“Fine, I won’t, but he hasn’t been doing well, Felix. He got into it with Pete at Cups today, and I heard it was ugly. Not to mention how badly Samhain messed him up, and with everything else that’s going on with Jenny—”
“Lalala I don’t want to hear it. He looked fine when I saw him yesterday.
Too good in fact,” Felix grumbled, setting the charcuterie board down on the coffee table in the center of the mismatched overstuffed chairs and couches ringing the living room.
Chase’s renovations hadn’t made it to this end of the apartment yet, and it was still a Frankensteined seventies nightmare of white paint and linoleum.
But at least the tree hid the crated-up fireplace, and the swags of tinsel and fake pine were nice.
“You saw him?” Jena asked, pulling his attention back to her.
“Mmm. When I went to pick up the urchins. He was there for his kids.” Felix smoothed his tie and claimed a corner of one of the big couches, pointedly avoiding the corduroy one.
“Felix,” Jena said slowly, fanning napkins. “You know they’re not his right? Well, the younger ones aren’t. I guess the oldest might be, but they’re still waiting on the results. That’s one of the reasons the divorce is so ugly.”
Felix just stared at her, then snapped his mouth closed for a breath. He hadn’t, but— “Then why was he at the school?”
Jena shook her head. “I dunno, but you could ask him.”
Felix huffed. Fat chance of that happening.
She rolled her eyes. “You know, forgiveness is actually a thing.”
“So is nurturing a grudge, and in my experience, it’s a hell of a lot more satisfying,” Aggie said, sweeping into the room in a bedazzled, green water-silk caftan and a tiara. “What do you think? Too much bling?”
Jena’s brow rose. “Umm—”
“Oh, who the hell asked you?” Aggie waved her away. “Where’s my wine?”
“Still in the bottle,” Felix said, taking another sip of his.
“Then I hope you’ve got enough upper body strength to serve yourself.” She sniffed, looking him up and down. “Never mind, you’ll have to get Chase to take pity on you, if he ever shows up. Where is he?”