Page 41 of Black and White, Twice the Might (Cadenbury Town #8)

I wake up the next morning and sigh. I don’t care what the time is; we don’t need to hurry out of bed and get down to breakfast. I don’t need to go and make sure the boys are up, and for the moment, I can’t get Sly his first coffee of the morning as we don’t have a coffee machine up here, and I don’t fancy walking down to the kitchen and making him one just yet.

Plus, Sly is totally snuggled up against me, my arms are around him, holding him tight.

I smile to myself as I think about our first morning together.

I woke up first, and just like now, Sly was a snuggle bunny.

We didn’t get much sleep that evening, just like last night, and it was just perfect.

Sly was perfect. I secretly hoped it was the start of something special, and I had been right; it really was.

I chance a look at the time and see it is just coming up to eight. This is the longest we’ve slept in for I don’t know how long. But now Sly has been asleep long enough. I move and gently push Sly onto his back, flinging the covers off and scooting down the bed. Now to wake my husband up.

I’m in the kitchen making breakfast and tidying up from last night.

Sly loved his wake-up call, so much so that we made love again, and then again in the shower.

I left Sly dressing as I came downstairs.

The boys aren’t up yet, which isn’t surprising.

If they get up before lunchtime, I’ll be impressed.

I put our dinner things into the dishwasher and then realise that we don’t have any washing-up tablets. I shut the door on everything and add them to my list of things to purchase later.

I look at all the boxes that are still stacked up.

All my chocolate-making equipment. I’m so glad they were one of the first things we packed up into the car.

I’ll get my brothers to help me take everything down to my new workshop later.

I need to give the place a deep clean and then wash my equipment.

I can feel my hands twitching at the thought of creating my chocolate delights again.

I’ll need to sort out my website, but that can wait until I am properly up and running.

I pull my phone out of my pocket and put some music on as I wipe down the sides. Today starts our new healthier eating regime, so I’ve created four fruit bowls. The boys will complain, but tough, we need to counteract all the rubbish we’ve been eating.

I’m dancing as I clean, and suddenly Sly spins me round and takes my hands, dances around the kitchen with me. We’re completely ignoring the music beat and just dance, swaying and spinning.

“And I’m off back to bed,” I hear Xander suddenly say from the doorway.

Sly and I laugh.

“Don’t go, breakfast is ready,” I tell him, as we stop dancing.

“I’m impressed you’re up already,” Sly says, dropping a kiss on my head and pulling away.

“Not used to sleeping in,” Xander confesses. “I tried just lying in bed, but got bored. I looked in on Enoch, and he was snoring his head off.”

“How late were you two up last night?” I ask, walking over to the bowls and putting them on the table.

Xander grins, walking to the table. “Late.” The smile falls off his face when he sees the fruit.

“I made sure you had lots of strawberries,” I tell him, as Sly brings drinks over.

“Yay,” he flops down onto a chair. “Yummy.”

Sly and I laugh at him.

“There’s yoghurt in the fridge, if you want to add it,” Sly informs him.

Xander shakes his head. “No, I will suffer the boring fruit bowl on its own.”

“Your sacrifice is appreciated by us, and your body,” I tease. “I’m popping out to the shops after breakfast, want to come?”

Xander nods. “Yep, please.”

“I’ll stay here and start sorting my study out,” Sly says.

“If you get bored, you and Enoch can start carrying my chocolate equipment down to the workshop.”

Sly nods. “We can do that.”

“Thanks.”

Xander and I are walking to the shops. It’s cold, like really cold, and both of us are wrapped up.

“Do you think we might get snow?” Xander asks hopefully, shoving his hands in his coat pocket.

“Maybe, it’s cold enough for it,” I say. I love snow. Not driving in it obviously, but looking at it on the grass and trees.

As we walk past some shops, we bump into Ben and Elliot.

“How’s the new house?” Elliot asks. “Ben told me you’ve just moved in.”

“The house is perfect,” Xander says, before I can.

“If you’re still here Sunday, come to our family lunch,” I offer.

“Thanks, I’ll check with the others. A few of us are sticking around for the fireworks event, but they are heading out straight after. I’ll see if I can stay an extra couple of days,” Elliot says.

“If you need somewhere to stay, we have a spare room,” I tell him.

Elliot grins. “Thanks, I’ll let you know.”

“Devils,” a man shouts at us from across the street. “You’re all dragging us to hell.”

I glance to the side to see who is yelling. A priest is standing there holding up a large crucifix. He looks middle-aged, a little on the tubby side and has the most horrendous comb-over.

Ben sighs. “Reverend Portello.”

“I didn’t know the town had a priest,” Sal says, walking over and joining us.

The priest comes storming over. “This town is a disgrace, you abominations are going to hell, where you’ll burn in the internal fires of damnation.”

“Will it be warm there?” Xander asks, “Because it’s freezing today.”

I’m not the only one who laughs at that.

“This is no laughing matter, young man. This town, the very essence of it, is corrupting us, honest warriors of our lord. Come with me and I’ll save your soul,” he holds out his hand to Xander.

“You’re alright, thanks. I’ll take my chances with my family. By the way, comb-overs are never a good look,” Xander tells him.

I try to hide my laughter behind a cough, but I’m not sure it worked.

“I’ll pray for your souls and the souls of every poor person who lives in this cursed town.” And with that, the reverend storms off in the direction of the church.

“Wasn’t he delightful?” Elliot comments.

Sal looks confused. “I don’t remember seeing him before.”

“The good reverend splits his time between here and the next town over. He tends to spend more time there, as you saw, he’s not a fan of this town. It’s the first time he’s been this vocal, though. I’ll have to let Adhan know,” Ben replies.

“What a dick. The guy is nuts, and seriously, who has a comb-over nowadays?” Xander says. “Plus, there is nothing wrong with my soul.”

I put a hand on Xander’s shoulder. “No, there isn’t, and yes, he was.”

“Don’t worry, Xander,” Elliot says. “We can all meet up in hell and have a party. With all of us down there, there is no way hell will be boring.”

We laugh at that.

“That’s true. Thank goodness I dropped Connie off at home before we saw him. I need to get to the shop. Oh, before I forget, we’re off to the bunker tonight if you want to join us. Now I’ve got to run, catch you all later.”

“Bye,” we all say.

“Elliot, take my number. Then message me if you want to stay at ours.”

We swap numbers and then leave Ben and Elliot and carry on to the hardware store.

“Can you believe that nut job?” Xander asks.

“There are always nut jobs out there. Always some religious person who thinks anything outside of their little black and white boxes is evil and that anyone outside of those boxes is going to hell.”

“Why can’t people just let people live their lives without interference?” Xander asks.

“I can never figure that out. You would think in this day and age that they would, but there you go. If everyone got on and let people live their own authentic lives, what would they have to complain about?”

“The weather?”

I snort out a laugh and one-armed hug him.

We arrive home hours later, carrying lots of bags and exhausted.

Sly meets us at the door and takes some of our bags. “Just a little bit of shopping then.”

“Yeah, but we had fun,” I reply.

“We needed it after having to deal with that nut job,” Xander says, walking in.

“What nut job?” Enoch asks, coming to take some bags from his brother.

“The Cadenbury vicar. A total nutter who said we’re all going to burn in hell because we live in a cursed town and are abominations,” I tell them, walking towards the kitchen.

Xander puts his bags down. “He shouldn’t be preaching anything looking like he did. Can you believe the guy actually had a comb-over? I mean, who has them nowadays?”

“Men of god, obviously,” Enoch comments, putting the bags he is carrying on the kitchen island.

“We ran into Ben and Elliot. I invited Elliot to the family lunch on Sunday. He said if he was still here, he’d come, but that they had somewhere to be. I offered him a bed for the night if he needed one.”

“Good. It’s a shame that he doesn’t live close, the fun we could all have,” Sly adds, putting his bags down.

“Talking of fun, Sal said they were off to the bunker tonight if we want to join them.”

Sly grins. “That would be fun. I’ll message the others about timings and seeing about dropping Xander and Enoch off at the manor.”

“We can stay here,” Xander says, surprising us all.

“We can?” Enoch asks, looking at his brother.

Xander nods. “Yeah. This place is protected by wards from all the true witches; we have protection pendants and the protection rune. Plus, we can stay in our secret room, and I can beat you at all the games.”

“You wish,” Enoch says, but looks at us and nods. “We can stay here.”

I pull them both into hugs. “I am so proud of you both.”

“But you know if Grandpops wants to visit us tonight, he’s very welcome,” Enoch adds.

I’ll message John later and see what he says.