Page 34 of Black and White, Twice the Might (Cadenbury Town #8)

I sigh as I come awake the next morning. I ache. Who knew lifting so many boxes would hurt so much? It might be cheating, but I use my magic to heal my aching muscles and send a bit into Sly to help him.

Today is the final day of living out of hotels and B&Bs. I can honestly say I won’t miss them. The constant travelling around, never staying somewhere for longer than a month. Not only was it expensive, but also tiring. To have somewhere that we don’t need to leave for the day, bliss.

We need to pack our rooms up before we leave and drop the bags and cases at the house on the way out of town.

I manage to crawl out of bed without waking Sly and walk into the bathroom. Half an hour later, I walk out and put Sly’s coffee on.

“I can’t believe we have our own shopping mall,” Sly says.

I turn and see him lying there, wide awake and staring at me. “I know, right? We might need to buy more clothes to fill it.”

Sly gets out of bed and all but stalks over to me, pulling me into his arms and kissing the heck out of me.

I wrap my arms around him and happily kiss him back.

We finally draw back.

“I can’t believe how much I love you,” he says softly.

“Probably as much as I love you.”

He grins. “Probably. Our last morning waking up in a B&B.”

“Thank goodness. Let me dress and make sure the boys are up and packing their things, then I’ll start packing our stuff.”

“Sounds like a plan, but I need my coffee first.”

I laugh and pull out of his arms. “Your coffee is done and waiting for you.”

“And that’s why I love you,” he says, walking over to the coffee machine and taking his filled mug before putting a pod in for me and a fresh mug. “We should get one of these machines. They have good coffee.”

I nod as I pull on my clothes. “We can do that. We’ll have to make a list of the smaller things that will be needed. We also need to find a supermarket and pick up food.

“We can do that,” he says, sitting on the bed. “The boys are staying behind, so there will be room in the car for food, or we could find a supermarket that delivers.”

“I’d not thought of that. Yes, let’s do that then,” I say as I finish dressing. “I’m going to make sure Xander and Enoch are awake and up.”

“They will either still be asleep or have been up for hours.”

I laugh. “Probably. Be back in a bit.” I pick up the room key and leave our room. I knock on their door. “Xander, Enoch, you guys awake?”

I jump as the door flies open, and Enoch is standing there, dressed and ready to go. There is also a pile of bags and their cases stacked up.

“Finally, Ebby. We’ve been waiting for hours.”

“Yeah,” Xander says, walking to the door. “We were about to come knocking for you.”

I shake my head at them. “Just a little excited then.”

“Yep,” they say at the same time, grinning at each other.

“Okay, head down to breakfast. We’ll join you in a bit.”

“There will be no food left then,” Enoch says.

“True,” Xander replies, as they walk towards the stairs.

I shake my head at them and close their bedroom door, walking back into my room.

I hear Sly in the shower, so I retrieve my coffee and sit down. I should really be packing. I push my magic out, and suddenly, on the bed are our cases and bags, hopefully now filled with our things.

I drink my coffee and wait for Sly. It’s not long before he comes out of the bathroom and spies our packed bags on the bed.

“I hope you remembered to leave me some clothes out,” he says, walking to the wardrobe and opening the door.

I look, and the wardrobe is completely empty.

“Really?” he asks, looking at me.

I laugh. “Sorry, I never gave that a thought.”

“That’s fine. I’ll walk around naked today,” he says, grinning at me.

I laugh again. “Carrying boxes when naked. Good luck with that then.”

Sly fake frowns. “Maybe not,” he clicks his fingers and is soon clothed in jeans, a checked shirt and trainers.

“Much better,” I say, standing up. “The boys are downstairs starting on breakfast, and they are all packed.”

“Who are they and what have they done with our brothers?” he asks, holding his hand out to me.

I take it. “Excitement. Apparently, they’ve been awake for hours and were on the point of coming to wake us up.”

Sly laughs as we walk down the stairs. “I can understand that. I think we’re all excited.”

“We are,” I agree, as we walk into the breakfast room.

“I’ll get coffee,” Sly says, dropping my hand and walking to the coffeepot.

I sit at the table with my brothers, just as Janice walks over with a plate of muffins.

“Just a little something special as it’s your last breakfast here,” she says, putting it on the table.

“Thank you, Janice,” I say to her.

Enoch blasts her with his cheeky grin. “Yeah, thanks, Janice, you’re awesome.”

“We’ll miss your cheeky smile each morning, well, all of you really. You’ve been a pleasure. Your breakfasts will be out in a few moments.”

“Thanks, Janice,” I say again, as she smiles and goes off to serve someone else.

“Yay, muffins,” Sly says, sitting down and passing me my coffee.

We all take one and munch on it.

“This will be the last fried breakfast for a while. Once we’re in our house, we’ll be eating healthy foods.”

The smile falls off their faces.

“But we’ve been eating healthy at the manor,” Xander protests.

“And we will be at home,” Sly tells him, just as Larry and Janice bring our breakfasts out to us.

“Enjoy,” Larry says.

“We will, thanks,” Enoch replies.