Page 74 of Wild Scottish Beauty

“Holy shit,” I breathed.

“So this is Brice. Brice, meet Willow. Calvin belongs to her.”

Brice looked up at me, and squeezed Calvin harder, a mutinous look coming over his face.

“Who I will bring to visit you whenever you want,” I said quickly, realizing that Brice wanted to keep Calvin. “We live here too, so you two can play whenever.”

At that, the broonie brightened, chattering softly in Calvin’s ear, and Calvin flashed an image of happiness in my mind.Friend.

“I think they’re besties,” I said, happy to see Calvin not striking terror into the heart of at leastoneof the magickal beings in this place. “Also, I’m kind of freaking out right now.”

“It’s crazy, isn’t it?” Lia darted back to the stove, and I left Calvin and Brice to play in the pantry, not wanting tobe rude and stare at the little elf guy for too long in case I offended him.

But seriously. A house elf?

“Wild. Man, just wild.”

“I’ll admit, once you get used to him, he’s pretty useful. He likes to clean up, often anticipates my needs ahead of time, and will have ingredients for spells ready quickly.”

“Spells. Right. About that, how does that all work?”

“Turns out I come from a line of kitchen witches.” Lia plated food for us, bringing it over to the table, and topping off our coffee cups as she spoke. “There’s this amazing book of magickal spells for like teas and food and ointments that my gran helped contribute to. It’s become my guide as I learn how to use my powers.”

“Was it…like, I don’t know, how do you feel about all this?” I felt that I could speak with Lia in a way that maybe I couldn’t with Sophie, since Sophie technically employed me and financed my future.

“At first? Yeah, it was a lot to take in. Particularly having Brice around. But once I found the book and realized that this power was connected to me through my bloodline, I don’t know, I guess it brought me comfort. I’ve always been close with my family, so it just felt like another piece of them shared with me.” Lia’s eyes warmed, and she wrapped both hands around her cup of coffee, looking out the window at the rain that continued to come down in relentless sheets.

My stomach twisted. My family was small, but tightknit when my brother wasn’t acting like a controlling butthole, yet there’d always been a piece missing. At times, it seemed like my mother’s absence was stronger than her presencehad ever been. I’d been a pretty resilient little girl, always able to gauge when someone needed cheering up, determined to be the sunshine on someone’s rainy day. Maybe I could be the one to fill the hole my mom had left in her death—my young self had reasoned—and I’d been determined to never show that I was missing out on having a mother growing up. Now, as Lia’s face filled with love while speaking about her family, and her grandmother, a part of me wished that I could find that connection here too.

Even if I could just be one branch of my mother’s tree. Which reminded me—I needed to go see Gran. Maybe I could get Sophie to take me at some point.

“My mother was Scottish. We have some roots here. I haven’t had time to explore, but I’m hoping, hearing your story, that maybe I’ll find a similar connection.”

“Was?” Lia’s face took on that familiar expression of sympathy that I’d seen hundreds of times over the years.

“Yes, she passed when I was young.”

“I’m sorry to hear that. I’ll help you look for any connection, if I can. In fact, if you give me her name, I’ll look for it through my book. It’s really cool, here, let me show you.”

I let out a shaky breath and sat back from the table, anticipation traveling through me. What if my mother had been blessed with magick as well? It would be a link between us, one that maybe I hadn’t known I’d needed, and the thought made nerves twist low in my stomach.

“Welig,” I said faintly. “Her name was Welig. It means Willow.”

“Aw, that’s sweet,” Lia said, returning to the table with a beautiful leather-bound book with a pretty Celtic design onthe front. She glanced at the clock on the wall. “I won’t have time to look just now, but isn’t this fabulous?”

I opened the book and was surprised when a zip of energy buzzed through me. The pages were old, with handwritten recipes and spells, illustrations, and notations edging the margins of the recipes. It was a book made with love, I could feel that much, and my eyes caught on a recipe for patience.

“I could use this. I’m always wanting things now, now, now.” I laughed, tapping the recipe.

“Let me make it up for you before you go. It’s just a quick tea I can brew. You can finish your design that you wanted to get down on paper.”

I pulled out my iPad, and Lia and I fell into easy silence as Lia took the book to her prep table to brew the tea and I tried to bring to life the design I’d seen in my dreams.

And suddenly I was no longer in the kitchen anymore.

CHAPTER TWENTY-TWO

Willow

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