Page 26 of My Haven (Bewitched and Bewildered #16)

Meryn sniffed the bowl. “It smells funny.”

Genevieve rolled her eyes. “It’s probably the ginger.”

“Do I like ginger?” the smaller woman asked, looking down at the bowl.

“I have no idea.”

Meryn sighed. “I’m not that hungry.”

“Just try it,” Genevieve cajoled. “The ginger you’re unsure of, will help your appetite.”

Meryn lifted her spoon and dipped out a bite.

Genevieve watched Meryn discover she liked homemade chicken noodle soup.

Meryn lifted the bowl with her other hand and was practically shoveling the chicken and noodles into her mouth. “Hmmmmm.”

Ryuu poured her a glass of water. “Thank you, for thinking of my denka . I believe any other food would have been a bit difficult after this afternoon.”

“What happened this afternoon?” Aiden demanded, coming in through the back door, wiping off sweat from doing drills.

Meryn waved her spoon at him. “Got sick after meeting the Witches’ Council. But Genevieve made me Magic Soup, so now I’m feeling better.”

Aiden went to scoop her up and realized how sweaty he was. “You must like it if you’re calling it ‘magic’.”

“I hereby banish all canned soups from Merytopia!” Meryn exclaimed.

Pip giggled. “She’s feeling better.”

Aiden turned to face Ryuu. “Was it an attack?”

Ryuu shook his head. “She did her best to hide her reaction and it kicked back,” he explained.

Aiden looked to Kendrick. “Huh?”

Kendrick nodded. “What Ryuu said, is quite accurate. Meryn’s empathy was picking up a lot from the Council members, but she chose to ignore it to get access to their human contracts. When she finally allowed it to come forward, it packed a wallop.”

“Mer-yn!” Aiden growled.

“I’m fine now. The soup is really helping. More?” Meryn asked, looking pitifully in Genevieve’s direction.

Genevieve laughed, stood, got her bowl, and went to the stove to dish out some more. This time she added a bit more chicken to up her protein. She carefully set the bowl down in front of the wacky woman. “Here you go, you nut.”

“Thanks, this shit is delicious!”

Pip, Nigel and Neil echoed her sentiment.

Caiden leaned in. “They all had rough starts, including a lack of food. You may be their favorite person for a while.”

Genevieve felt her eyes fill. “Maybe tomorrow I can make chocolate chip cookies.”

Meryn heard her and held up a thumb. “Peez,” she said, mouthful of chicken.

“I add walnuts, is anyone allergic?”

Meryn looked around and everyone was shaking their heads. After chewing she said. “I’ve never had chocolate chip cookies with walnuts before.”

“How about homemade pasta?”

Meryn’s eyes widened. “You can make pasta?”

“Where did you think it comes from if you can’t make it?”

“A factory or something. It just gets shipped all dry in boxes to stores,” Meryn explained.

“What about…” Genevieve started.

Meryn held up a hand. “Until last year, when Ryuu started cooking for me, I lived off of Hot Pockets , Cheetos , coffee and Toast Ems . He can tell you what I’ve had since then.”

Genevieve laughed, then saw Meryn watching her. “Wait, are you serious?”

“Yup.”

Genevieve turned to Caiden and held out her hand. “I need a pad of paper and a pen.”

Caiden, smiling, went to a drawer and pulled out a small pad of paper and a pen. “Here you go.” His hand lingered on her, teasing her a bit.

She cleared her throat and sat down to think about the meals she wanted to make. The way Caiden’s fingers traced the top of her hand made her feel branded and she wasn’t entirely sure if she hated that. The more she thought about it, the more she wondered how his hands might feel elsewhere.

“Genevieve, you, okay? You look red,” Meryn said, eyeing her.

“I’m fine. It’s just a bit warm here by the stove,” she said.

Meryn’s eyes narrowed, then she grinned. “Right.”

“You really are a menace, aren’t you?” Genevieve asked.

“Hey, I get along with Arlo for a reason,” Meryn pointed out.

“Speaking of menaces,” Genevieve said, she pulled out her phone.

You alive?

A few seconds later.

Barely. It’s a good thing my man is a water witch, I’m parched from screaming.

She shook her head.

How long will you be sequestered?

She waited for a bit, seeing he was typing, before his reply came through.

You must not have tapped that witch of yours if you’re worried about me. Go see what an air witch can do and we’ll compare notes. Gotta go, round fifteen is about to start. Toodles.

She stared down at her phone, then quickly put it away.

Caiden walked over and placed a hand on her flaming cheeks. “Arlo?”

She nodded. “He said he’s doing well.”

Meryn snorted. “You mean he’s being done well.”

“Meryn!”

“What?”

“Where is Arlo?” Anne asked.

“He found out he was mated to the head of the Water Temple,” Genevieve replied.

Anne smiled. “I heard he’s a bit prickly, but a sweetheart underneath the abrasiveness.” She looked up at Kendrick. “Reminds me of someone.”

Kendrick just stared flatly at his mate.

Genevieve went back to the list of meals she was planning. Half were for the children, the other half for Meryn and the boys.

She looked up at Caiden. “Do you do pre-made, frozen pancakes?”

“With the guy’s appetites? Yeah.” He walked past her, and his hands grazed her waist and lower back as he walked by.

“How many do you have?” she asked and winced when her voice cracked.

“Several dozen, why?” he replied, looking innocent.

“I was going to whip up a pancake casserole tomorrow for breakfast,” she said, going to the fridge.

She opened it and prayed the cool air helped the heat in her cheeks.

He had all the other components to make the recipe.

She closed the fridge and went back to her pad of paper feeling a bit relieved, she could make pancakes from scratch if she had to, but him having some pre-made would save a lot of time.

“I wanna try that,” Meryn declared.

Genevieve turned to Ryuu. “It’s relatively low in sugar, just monitor the maple drizzle.”

He inclined his head in thanks.

Caiden moved to stand behind her, his body nearly flush with hers. He looked over her shoulder. “I think the kids will like the chicken and cheesy rice dish,” he said, his breath sweeping across her neck, causing a full body shudder.

“Really?” she asked, trying to play it cool.

“Amelia loved cheesy rice as a kid.”

“Good to know,” she said, trying to remember what she was doing.

“Genevieve, can I get your phone number, por favor ?” Meryn asked.

“Sure,” Genevieve picked up her phone typed everything then slid it over to Meryn. “Do you speak Spanish?”

“Not really,” Meryn said, then proceeded to speak in what Genevieve could only vaguely identify as Spanish. She looked around the room. “What’d she say?”

Pierce was staring at Meryn frowning. “It was the scene from Lion King where Simba meets Timon and Pumbaa.”

Meryn nodded. “That’s the Spanish I know.”

Aiden was staring down at his mate as if he had never seen her before. “How can you speak Spanish, but not speak Spanish? And how come I didn’t know you could do that?”

Meryn shrugged as she tapped on her phone and Genevieve’s swapping info. “It never came up really.”

Kyran ruffled Meryn’s hair. “How’d you learn the words?”

Meryn kept her eyes on the phones. “My grandmother never rented any movies for me, so the only time I go to watch something was if I checked it out from the library. Of course, the English versions went missing fairly quickly, but no one ever checked out the Spanish versions. There wasn’t exactly a huge Latino presence around the small town I grew up in.

So, if I wanted to watch anything, it was usually in Spanish.

I can recite stuff, but don’t know how to make sentences. ” She passed Genevieve back her phone.

Genevieve looked up at Caiden’s expression. He unashamedly had tears running down his cheeks. Kyran scooped Meryn up, causing her to squeak and ran from the room.

An equally upset Aiden pointed. “Where is he taking my mate?”

Caiden smiled, then dashed away his tears. “Kyran is the Disney guru of the family. He took Amelia to see every one when they hit theaters. He has a couple copies of each Disney movie in existence. He’s probably going to try and have her watch all of them.”

“Tristan!” Kyran yelled.

“Popcorn and snacks, I know!” Tristan yelled back, then looked at Caiden. “Wanna help me throw a snack tray together?”

Caiden was already heading toward the pantry. He tossed unopened bags of popped popcorn at Pip, Nigel and Neil. That was followed by a huge ziplock bag of M&M’s . “That should get them started.” The boys held their treasures and ran after Meryn.

Zev looked at Konstantine, Aedan, and Hunter. The men shrugged, and also headed toward the family room.

Tristan began pulling out pepperoni, salami, and an assortment of cheeses. In a few short minutes he and Caiden made two large charcuterie boards. Aiden took one and Tristan the other, both followed the boys to watch Disney with Meryn, Pierce bringing up the rear.

Ryuu bowed. “Allow me to clean up after the soup. Also, if you leave directions, I can prep breakfast for you. It feels strange not having to cook for so long,” he admitted, ruefully.

Genevieve quickly wrote out what she needed and handed to him. Ryuu took one look and nodded. “Easily done. You two can relax, whether that be with Disney or elsewhere,” he said, his eyes smiling.

Caiden placed a hand on her back. “I have a sitting room as part of my suite. We could relax there,” he suggested.

She nodded shyly. “That sounds nice.”

Caiden went to head toward one cabinet, but Ryuu was already handing him a bottle of wine, an opener and two glasses. “Enjoy,” he said.

Caiden accepted the wine and steered her past the boisterous family room up the stairs.

Once upstairs he went the opposite direction of her room and led her toward the suites that were more central to the home. He paused at one door and opened it, turning on the light. “This was Amelia’s room. Me, Kyran and Tristan decorated it for her,” he said, looking proud.