Page 19 of A Shade of Myself
I took note of her carefully casual tone. Sadie didn’t know that anything had happened between Laurent and me, but she hadn’t quite sorted out her feelings about the existence of magic. She adored Emmett and thought Tatiana was great, but there was a reticence around Laurent.
Then again, she’d had the same hesitation about Naveen, Laurent’s best friend who her father was interested in, so on second thought, maybe magic wasn’t the problem. At least she wasn’t a fan of Zev. Their first encounter had put her off vamps, though lucky for BatKian, it hadn’t extended to our Buffy rewatch. I’d have been pissed off if he’d ruined that for us.
“He came home early.” I screwed the lid back on the Nutella jar. “What are you up to tonight? Seeing Caleb?”
“No. The kids exhausted me today.” She sounded so much like a disgruntled mother that I laughed. “We were making props for ‘Under the Sea’ and it’s like they were all high on sugar. They fingerpainted my arms. It took me ages to clean it.”
“Ah. Hence the seaweed.” I motioned at one of her two long black braids.
“Little monsters.” She plucked a dark green strand out and flicked it into the trash. “I thought I’d caught all that. No wonder I got weird looks on the bus home. Okay, I’m going to nap. Let me know when dinner’s ready.”
I bobbed a curtsy to her. “Yes, ma’am. Any other needs I can attend to?”
“That will be all for now,” she said loftily, yelping when I swatted her butt. “I’ll be on cleanup duty.”
“You sure will.”
Between my kid and a hot shower, my crankiness had dialed down to a simmering three out of ten. I collapsed on the sofa, stuffing an ice pack under each of my hamstrings and the heating pad under my back for twenty minutes of rest and relaxation before making dinner.
My shitty day was over, and I’d negotiated a day off tomorrow. Tonight, I’d veg out with that bottle of Moscato chilling in my fridge, and then sleep in. Take a full day to rest before diving in to investigate whatever job my parents had been working when they were killed.
It was an excellent plan. So of course, it was doomed to go to hell.
