Page 12 of Having the Time of My Midlife

“Fuck. Fuckity, fuck, fuck, fuck,” Candy muttered, walking over to the fireplace, waving her hands and starting a roaring fire.

I looked at Gideon. He stared back at me. Well, I supposed a fire in the correct place was better than Candy blowing the back wall off the house.

“Speak,” I insisted. “Now.”

She turned around. Her expression was hard and she was glowing. With the fire in back of her, she looked terrifying. “Cecily did indeed see the Higher Power. She got Pandora out of her, and now there are two Goddesses of the Darkness again.”

“That’s good, right?” I questioned. “The balance is in check.”

“That part is good,” Candy agreed in a tight tone. “However, Cecily threatened the Higher Power, and It’s after her now.”

“Wait. What?” Gideon ground out between clenched teeth, handing Alana Catherine over to me. “Why did we not know this?”

“No one asked,” Candy pointed out. “It ain’t our problem.”

I handed my baby to Charlie. The Keeper of Fate might not have blown the back wall off the house, but I was tempted to. “It is now,” I snapped. “You should have led with that.”

Candy looked at the floor for a long beat. I wasn’t sure if I was about to get electrocuted or not. I didn’t care. Beating around the bush at this point was bullshit. There was some kind of tear in the Light and people who should be there had come back as shells of themselves. All of it was my problem.

I wasn’t sure how great it was to owe a favor to the Goddess of the Darkness, but Cecily was now my niece by marriage and as new to this crazy as I was. Besides, I liked her and she liked me.

I turned to Gideon. “Call her. Ask her to come.”

He nodded and pulled out his phone. As I’d heard the newly minted goddess say a few times… it was time to get the party started.

CHAPTER FOUR

“They’ll be here shortly,”Gideon said as he took Alana Catherine back from Charlie.

“They?” I asked.

“Cecily and Abaddon,” he replied, sniffing our baby’s bottom and wincing. “She pooped.”

“I got it,” Jennifer said, scooping a giggling Alana Catherine out of Gideon’s arms and kissing her nose. “You guys can keep discussing all your sparkly friends. We’ll be right back!”

My baby giggled all the way up the stairs as Jennifer sang a song about how everybody poops. I giggled, too. My dogs were right on Jennifer’s heels, with their tails wagging a mile a minute. When she got to the part about how whenCandy Vargo poops her pants, they fall on the floor because she doesn’t wear underpants, even the Keeper of Fate threw back her head and laughed.

It was the little things I was living for right now. Laughing about poop might be on the humor level of a second-grade boy, but I’d take it. My daughter’s giggle was the most gorgeous sound in the Universe. I was made whole by my child’s laugh.

“I’d suggest we go over the discussion we had at Cecily’s home in California before she visited the Higher Power,” Timannounced, pulling out a notebook and pen from the pocket of his mail uniform. “There was much valuable information shared. Our situation is different, but knowledge is power.”

Tim was correct. Before Cecily had embarked on that journey, Gideon, Candy Vargo, Charlie, Tim, Heather and I went to meet with her. I wasn’t very useful, but my friends and family had been. Heather wasn’t here now, but between the rest of us, we could piece it together. It would save time in the long run. If I was going to deal with the Higher Power, it was beneficial to know as much as possible.

“Darlings!” Dirk said, popping his head in where the front door used to be. “We’ve spotted nothing unusual yet! How’s it going in here? Have the ones who should be in the Light come back?”

“No, not yet,” I told him, glancing around just in case I was wrong. Honestly, I didn’t know if we would see them again at all. Steve’s words were forefront in my mind—'You have only days to discover the riddle and solve it. Start with the ending you desire and work your way back. It’s the only way. Remember, nothing is impossible… you just have to believe.’

“Alrightyroo! Back to work!” Dirk blew kisses and returned to his post in the yard with the other queens.

I did believe, and I would continue to believe. But believing blindly wasn’t something I was going to do. Getting armed with an much info as possible was my plan. “Should we just talk through what we recall?” I asked.

“How about we watch it?” Charlie suggested.

I looked at him warily. If he was suggesting we go back in time and relive it, I was going to let him have it. Yep, he was the Immortal Enforcer and could end me with a blink of his eyes, but I was never turning time back again. I’d done it once and almost hadn’t lived to tell. “And how exactly would we do that?”

Charlie chuckled. He’d clearly read my mind or, more likely, my expression. “On the big screen TV.”

“Are you messing with me?” I asked, still cautious.

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