12
The next morningI woke up and my foot was screaming in pain. I was so distracted with thoughts of Hank I’d totally forgotten to take my medicine. Pepper was also not a great nurse. She offered me a shot of vodka before bed and handed me my crutches before sitting down and turning Netflix on. I had to admit being carried was way easier than slogging around on crutches like a drunkengrandma.
It had taken me forever to go to sleep and when I finally did, the look on Hank’s face haunted me. But I knew I shouldn’t feel bad. Hank had made it clear from the beginning he wasn’t interested in me, and when he finally did admit it, he was already dating someone else. Even if he hadn’t fully realizedit.
Lucien happened to be in the right place at the right time and even though he had screwed up when he was skulking on my property, he had become someone I knew I could have a strong friendship with or maybe evenmore.
When Hank left last night, I think he finally realized that. I wasn’t sure if he was giving up or what his thought process was. But I knew I missedhim.
I groaned as I carefully swung myself out of bed. I took a long swig of water from the glass on my nightstand and popped a pain pill. Thank goodness I remembered to bring them in my room. It would have been so much better had I remembered to take them,though.
Once I was up and my crutches were under my arm, I slowly hobbled my way out of the room and into the kitchen. Pepper was nowhere to be found. I should have called Lucien to take care of me. At least he would have carried me around thehouse.
Making coffee on crutches was a real pain in the ass, and it took me three times as long to get it going. I didn’t remember how long I was supposed to be in this stupid cast, but it was already toolong.
I wouldn’t even be able to do any work until it was off either. At least not in the house. I did all my work outside and I needed both feet to touch the earth to properly ground my energy and control thebindings.
I was feeling extra grumbly by the time the coffee had finished brewing. I reached up, hissed at the pain in my foot, and grabbed a mug. Margo padded in beside me and sat there looking expectantly at me. “Five sips,” I bargained. She huffed and walked over to her food bowl so she could nose it around and make as much noise as humanlypossible.
After I gave up and fed her, I looked at my mug and then my crutches and knew there was no way I was going to be able to get to the couch without spilling my coffee all over the place. With a disgruntled sigh, I settled myself on one of the stools around my counter and took asip.
Pepper stumbled out about ten minutes later asking what all the commotion was. I gestured to Margo, and Pepper glared at the puppy while she went to fix herself some coffee. She settled in across from me. “How’d yousleep?”
“I forgot to take my pain meds so waking up this morning wasn’t the most fun I’ve everhad.”
Pepper winced. “Sorry.”
I sipped my coffee. “Lucien is a way better nurse than youare.”
“What aboutHank?”
“He ran out of here like his tail was on fireyesterday.”
“Typical man. Try to get them to commit and they leave you in thelurch.”
That seemed an odd thing to say. I wasn’t aware she was dating anyone. “Are you seeing someone?” I waggled my eyebrows. “I thought we told each other everything, but I’m wondering if you’re hiding a mansomewhere.”
She set her mug down. “No. Not anymore. It was the guy with the momproblem.”
My eyebrows shot to my hairline. “That was...just a few days ago. You wanted to be committed thatfast?”
Pepper’s laugh was harsh. “No. I’m not crazy. I just wanted him to commit to a date. But his family is anti-paranormal.”
We both rolled our eyes at the same time. “He lives here of all places and doesn’t want to get involved with a witch because he’s afraid of what his family wouldsay.”
“How many dates did you go on before he realizedit?”
Her eyes were shiny with unshed tears. “Three. We were just getting to the fun part when he saw the family tattoo on myback.”
“Oh, Pepper, I’m sosorry.”
“You should have seen him. It was like he realized I had some horrible contagiousdisease.”
I reached over and took her hand. All of the witches in the city were required to have an identifier, whether it was a tattoo or a chip, something had to be there to denote what House they belonged to. It wasn’t just a Midnight Cove thing, it was a witch thing. Portia might have controlled the city, but she couldn’t control the paranormals and their odd traditions. Humans and other paranormals knew about it, but most couldn’t tell someone was a witch unless their identifier was somewhere that could be seen. Most witches, for good reason, chose to keep their markings concealed byclothing.
“I don’t think any of us truly realize how big this city is until something like this happens. The amount of humans versus us is insanely low.” I gave her a bright smile. “Now that I’m in with Portia maybe we can nudge her a little bit to throw some good ones yourway.”
A wan smile crossed her face. “Maybe. Right now I don’t want anything to do withmen.”
