Page 86 of Waltzing With Witches

“Well, well, well,” Wren deadpans.

“Spill the beans, witch,” Thea says with a laugh. “You leaned over and kissed him like you haven’t been enemies for an entire month.”

“You look happy,” Lou says. I swear there are hearts in her eyes.

Hana laughs and folds her hands at her waist. “Did you break through?”

I wink at her as my girls turn to look up.

“Break through?” Wren sips at her latte.

Hana chuckles. “Keepers are a tough nut to crack, all that logic getting in the way of mating. But once you break through…”

Thea snorts. “So, you finally broke the Keeper’s nut, huh?”

“Erm, well, Abe’s not like that,” I’m quick to say.

“Wait, what?!” Wren shouts. Then she whisper-hisses, “His name is Abe?”

“Be quiet!” I wave at her to keep her voice down. “That slipped out; I shouldn’t have told you.”

“Of course you have to tell us,” Lou barks. “We’re your damn family! And, awww, that’s so cute! Is it short for something?”

Hana and I exchange a look. When she shrugs, I take it to mean it’s not a huge deal if I expose Abe’s name.

“Abemet,” I huff. “Mix of his fathers’ names.”

“It suits him,” Wren says finally. “I like it.”

I preen. If I know anything, it’s that my sisters’ and Lou’s opinions matter. I don’t think I realized how much I wanted them to be okay with our relationship until right this moment.

“You guys don’t think this is weird, me and the Keeper finally getting together?”

“You’re soulmates,” Hana says definitively.

“But did he apologize or explain it in a way that makes you feel okay about it?” Lou sips her coffee and levels me with her best mom impression.

I gulp around a sudden lump in my throat. “He asked me this morning if I felt I needed a grovel, and what that might look like.”

“Good for him,” my sisters say at the same time.

Lou laughs. “Does he know what a grovel is? It’s pretty uniquely human.”

Hana breaks in, “What in the hells is a grovel?”

For the next half hour, we teach Hana all about what a grovel means. She thinks it’s ridiculous and expounds at length on how a simple apology should suffice.

While we talk, I put my hands all over Higher Grounds. But there’s none of that dark, insidious blackness I felt when I touched her the first time.

“She's good, thanks to you,” Hana says, resting her palm on mine. “Shall we go along Main and check in with all the buildings? We can fix anything we find along the way.”

“Hell yes,” I breathe. “Let’s go.”

CHAPTER TWENTY-FOUR

KEEPER

I’ve left a meeting with the entire protector team. We’re ready for tonight’s celebration of life for Leighton. But more than anything, a fire burns deep and hot inside me. We need to get ahead of Wesley for once.

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