Page 84 of Black and White, Twice the Might

I shake my head. “No, because I do too.” It looks like we have all finished eating. I just need to finish my drink, and we canhead for the storage lockers. The Stone family will be meeting us there at around eleven, so we can pack some of the smaller boxes in our car while we wait for Adhan to bring their big van.

I finish my drink and look at Sly and my brothers. “Shall we go?”

“Yes,” both Xander and Enoch say excitedly, jumping up.

I laugh and get up slower, Sly following, and we make our way out of the B&B towards the car.

Sly offers to drive, so as we leave, I remember to message everyone with the address.

We stop off at the baker's and pick up cakes, sausage rolls and bottles of water. Patty wraps the sausage rolls up in heatproof wrappers before putting them into a bag. The cakes are in another and the water bottles are in another few. We couldn’t not buy refreshments for those who help us. We might have brought too much, but I’d rather have too much food than not enough.

We settle back in the car and start our journey.

As we drive away, I pull my phone out to check for messages.

Patty wasn’t kidding about the town chat. Ernest added Sly and me, so now we know the local gossip, even if we don’t know the actual people. We were also added to the Stone family group, as well as the town witches’ group and a true witches group, which seems to be anything the witchlings don’t want their mates to know about.

Seeing both Sly and I added to the family group and true witches’ group gave me a sense of belonging and filled me with the warm fuzzies.

I click on the town chat, and I’m surprised to see that we’re the gossip of the moment. “So, we’re the hot topic on the town chat. So far, everyone seems happy that we’re moving into the old Myers house.”

“As they should be,” Sly replies, with a laugh.

I chuckle. “Looks like the town is looking forward to sampling my chocolates.”

“Good job, you have a dedicated workshop as you’re going to be busy.”

I laugh. “Yeah, I think I might be. Well, I can hope anyway.”

“Sweetheart, you don’t need to hope. Just watch.”

I place my hand on his thigh. “Love you too.”

Sly picks up my hand and kisses the back before putting it back on the wheel.

The boys are happily sitting in the back, headphones on, watching something on their tablets.

“I can’t wait to see all our possessions in our house,” I say happily.

“Me either,” he pauses for a moment. “I had another email from my father, again inviting me to the family meeting. But I received one from my mother as well, telling me how much she misses me and how much she wants to see me.”

“What are you going to do?” I ask. If I had my way, I would delete those emails without him opening them.

Sly sighs. “I honestly don’t know. Part of me would like to see my mum again, just to make sure she’s not gone full-on psycho, but I honestly don’t know.”

“If you want to visit them, we can leave the boys either at the manor or with John or Jodie, and I can come with you,” I offer. There is no way in hell I’d let Sly go and see them without backup.

“I’ll settle us into the house first and then decide,” Sal replies.

“Okay,” I say, but I’m not feeling okay, pretty sure and knowing Sly, he’s going to do something stupid, like meet with them.

We reachour first storage locker. I open the door, and Sly opens the boot of the car. We made sure it was empty of everything but a first aid kit. This locker holds, amongst other things, all my chocolate-making equipment. With the boys’ help, we load my equipment into our boot, just as a truck and a parade of cars turn up.

“Cavalry’s arrived,” Sly says, grinning.

“The whole infantry, by the looks of things,” I add.

Everyone gets out of their vehicles and joins us.