“Where’s your car?” Adhan asks.
“Jude dropped us off, then he went to collect Connie,” Cam says.
We’re saved from replying by the arrival of Jude. He pulls up and gets out, before opening the back door and getting the baby seat out.
“House looks good,” he says, walking up to us.
“Thanks, we just did it,” Tie answers.
“While we were inside,” Ben complains.
“Wait, you were inside?” Jude asks, sounding surprised.
“Oh please, you’re still alive, so what’s the problem?” Kean asks grinning, not caring that his younger brothers had been inside a magically changing house.
“I’m gonna sic Nora on you,” Ben says, scowling at Kean.
Kean takes a step back, the smile falling off his face. “That’s just mean.”
I ignore them and bend down to see Connie, who looks to be just waking up. “Hello, princess, did you have good dreams?” I ask stroking her hand.
She grabs my finger and smiles.
“Do you want Uncle Ernest to pick you up?” I ask her.
“You can hold her,” Jude says, setting the car seat down on the ground, so I can get her out. She is wearing the cutest jeans and a top printed with the wordPrincessthat has a crown above the word. I swear she thinks her name is actually Princess as we all tend to call her that.
I pull her out and as I lift her up, I blow a raspberry on her cheek, and she smiles. I’ve never really been into children, babies especially, but little Connie and Nora are the exception, and probably whatever other children join our family.
We all walk inside so the brothers can discuss what still needs doing, and there is a lot. We could use magic and have this done in seconds, but they want to do it the non-magic way and have family bonding as they do.
Molly is always talking about building bonds, so we now try to do that as much as possible together. Except now I’m bored with walking around and looking at walls. “Connie and I will meet you outside,” I say, as Connie chews on my finger.
“There’s milk in her bag. She’s due her feed,” Jude tells me. “Her bag’s in the car.”
“Then I’ll feed her,” I look at her as I walk away. “Now, do you fancy; fish and chips, pizza or Chinese?”
She just grins and doesn’t reply. Not that I expect her to, even I know babies this young don’t talk.
“You better not answer me anyway, otherwise you’ll hear me scream and everyone will come running, especially my Adhan and then they’ll all laugh at me, especially my darling Adhan,” I tell her as we walk outside.
“We really would,” Titus agrees from behind me.
I turn around and smile at him.
“I got bored.”
I laugh. “Me too. Here you go, hold Connie while I get her bag,” I say handing her over, and going to the car.
Tie happily takes her and holds her close, talking quietly to her. He’s going to make an amazing father one day.
When I first met Titus he was a bit pompous, well more than a bit, but he changed, especially when he started dating Kean and his brothers entered his life. Mind you, his upbringing was horrible. I internally shake my head at what happened to him when he was a child. Now, however, he laughs, jokes and has fun.
Titus works for the Witches Council. One of his jobs is looking after us true witches and making sure we don’t go off the rails. He got the shock of his life on his last birthday when he became a true witch himself.
Emilia Porter, one of the original lines of light witches died and having no living relatives she gifted her magic to Tie. To say he was shocked was an understatement, but it’s fun having him as a true witch as well.
I carry the bag back to them, open the front porch and pull out the bottle, I take the lid off and hand the bottle to Tie.
