Chapter 12 Caroline

Chapter 12

Caroline

"Adults-only meetings" took on a whole new context in a small-town, multigenerational coven. That wasn't the weirdest thought that had ever crossed Caroline's mind, but it was definitely in the top ten.

The three senior coven members were sitting on the porch of Shaddow House, drinking "grown-up cider" late into the night, discussing the kids' dizzying magical development. Plover did not appreciate his exclusion from the discussion, so they propped the door open so he could participate.

They could already detect which random antiques were attachment objects and which ones weren't—though Mina scored more accurately. Riley had set up a whole test involving pieces from Alice's family shop mixed with attachment objects from the house. Between the two of them, they managed to pick out the creepy stork with a saxophone, a murdered kayaker's paddle, and Natalie's dry-erase board—from the next room! But then, Charles had an actual tantrum when he saw his dearest Edith's favorite soup spoon being used in such a "disrespectful display of charlatanry."

Riley had to write him a personal note of apology—and judiciously left out the bit where she explained that the test wasn't "charlatanry" if it involved genuine psychic powers.

While Josh definitely enjoyed his time with "Mr. Plover," Mina was pretty much a daily presence at Shaddow House. If she wasn't working at the Rose, she was working at Shaddow House. Caroline got the impression that Mina wanted female company. She understood. There were times, growing up with three brothers, that she felt completely overrun by testosterone. And Caroline at least had her mom to balance things out.

"It feels weird, meeting without the kids," Alice noted, sipping her cider. "Like we've formed a club within a club."

"I know, but I don't want to say any of this in front of them and make them nervous," Riley said. "I feel like their advisor or their den mother, or something. The thing is, they're pretty much lapping us, in terms of development. Mina is already doing spells it took us months to master. And I know Josh can only hear, but he seems to communicate better with the ghosts than I do now."

"I'm just glad they're on our side," Caroline muttered. "Can you imagine if they were working against us?"

"There's no shame for you in their ‘promotion,' Miss," Plover assured Riley. "Frankly, the pair of them remind me of your mother and Miss Nora at that age."

"Is it because we're not progressing fast enough?" Alice asked. "Our magic decided we needed an A string, so to speak?"

"Oh, man, does that mean we're the B string?" Caroline gasped. "RUDE!"

"From what I understand, it's not a judgment of your work," Plover assured her. "Magic does what it will, to help maintain the balance of the house. Adding the young people to the effort is only meant to make you stronger, not replace you."

"Thanks, Plover," Riley said. "Though, I'm starting to feel like the youngest sibling on a family sitcom getting the ‘your parents will still love you, even when the new baby comes' very special episode talk."

"I did not understand a single word of what you just uttered," Plover said.

Riley laughed. "So, change of subject to adult topics we should not and could not talk about with the kids around—how are things with Ben?"

"Oooh, yes!" Alice cried, clapping her hands together. "I've wanted to ask, but I didn't want to intrude. Also, I didn't want to emotionally traumatize the kids talking about their father's sex life in front of them."

"There's no sex life," Caroline objected. "Not yet."

Riley's jaw dropped. "Really?"

"I'm going to excuse myself," Plover mumbled, disappearing from the front door. "There are some things I do not need to overhear about my ladies."

"Not me!" Natalie called from inside the house. "I want to hear every word! I can't live, but I can live vicariously! Well, sort of!"

"I realize that I am not exactly tightfisted with my favors," Caroline said.

"Is that really how you want to phrase that?" Riley asked.

"Now that I've heard myself saying it out loud, no," Caroline amended. "And no, we haven't had sex yet. For one, we haven't had time or opportunity. There's Ben's schedule at the clinic. And then the kids. And I've been wrapped up like a bruised mummy for weeks. So, yeah, we're taking things slow. Which is…nice? I mean, there's still baggage there—and by that, I mean emotionally, because I would never refer to his children as baggage. That's wrong. I actually expected to have more issues getting to know the kids and them adjusting to the idea of their dad dating again, but that part has been surprisingly easy."

"Magic is the great leveler of playing fields," Alice intoned solemnly, even as her lips twitched into a smile.

"I think we're just sort of moving past all the really old stuff, what happened between us when we were kids ourselves, because we don't have the words or the time or the emotional energy to explore all that," Caroline said.

"That doesn't sound great," Riley said carefully. "That sounds like leaving an unchecked land mine in the middle of your relationship and hoping for the best."

"I'm not disagreeing with you," Caroline said. "I just don't know how to approach it."

"Both Edison and I have our own ‘land mines,' and even when we do make the effort to talk about it, it can blow up in ways you don't expect," Riley told her. "And our past issues don't stem directly from each other."

"I know, I know," Caroline sighed. "I think we're just moving slow and waiting to see what develops naturally. Without too much pressure or heavy conversations."

"Well, I will not tell you ‘I told you so' when the fight springs up out of nowhere," Riley assured her. "We will just be here to liquor you up and assure you that your point in the fight was absolutely correct and he was super wrong, even if he is objectively right."

Alice squeezed Caroline's hand. "We will pretend that logic and accountability do not exist, for your sake."

Caroline nodded, taking both of their hands. "You are really, really good friends."

Their laughter fell short as Mina exploded out of the side door of Gray Fern, stomping down the steps and into the street.

"Well, that's not good," Caroline said, watching Mina storming toward the Main Square, toward the Rose. She was practically leaving a steam trail in her wake.

"Yeah, um, we should go," Riley agreed, hopping up to lock the front door.

The three of them followed Mina as she half ran down the street. Caroline was able, to her surprise, to keep up with Riley and Alice, which she considered progress in her healing. But Mina was smaller and faster, not to mention younger. The three of them arrived at the bar just in time to see Mina tossing a rock at the front door.

"Um, Mina, I'm already pretty much capped out on my construction budget, so if we could not break the windows, that would be great," Caroline told her, bending at the waist and panting.

"Come on out here!" Mina yelled, tears streaming down her cheeks. "Come out here and answer for that bullshit, you hateful old…"

"Mina!" Riley cried. "What is going on?"

The purple ghost slipped through the front door, grinning at Mina like she was a favorite treat. She didn't speak, only glided closer to the teenager.

"Shut up," Mina cried. "You don't know what you're talking about!"

"What in the hell?" Riley huffed. "That's the ghost you two have been dealing with here?"

Alice shuddered. "She's terrifying. She reminds me of my grandmother."

"Ouch," Caroline muttered as Mina took a large box of kosher salt she'd carried from home and poured it as close to the ghost's feet as she could get. But the ghost wouldn't hold still, slipping away from Mina like a kid playing keep-away. Caroline could see the ghost laughing, but couldn't hear any sound, which was disconcerting.

"Just hold still and shut up ," Mina cried.

"OK, I applaud the ingenuity, but that's really not how we do things," Riley said. "Let's just slow down."

Mina grunted and ripped the top of the salt box off, tossing the contents at the ghost, who just sort of sauntered back through the front door, as if Mina didn't matter at all. Mina fell to her knees, crying.

"Oh, honey, no," Riley cooed as they rushed to her. "You're gonna get salt all embedded in your kneecaps."

"I just want her to shut up," Mina sobbed. "I don't want her in my head, saying those awful things. It's like I'm not safe, even at home. She keeps sending me these nightmares."

"I thought you said she hadn't been talking to you," Caroline said, dropping to her own knees and hugging Mina tight. Riley was right. The salt crystals stung.

"I didn't want you to worry. You seemed so freaked out when I said I could see her. And she's tried to trick me," Mina sniffed. "She tried to play mom, to make me see her as this poor, defenseless thing. But she's not; she's crafty. She's been telling me all this stuff about my mom and you and how no one is gonna love me and she's the only one who understands and it was some accident that I got magic. And soon enough, Riley's gonna take it back. It should have gone to Josh because he's the one who's sensitive and talented, not me."

"That's not true," Alice told her.

"She used to live here. She's so angry. And she says you don't really like me, that Wiltons don't know how to love, not really, but that you'll fool my dad and he'll forget all about me and Josh and—You're a lying old bitch!" Mina hollered, stomping toward the half-constructed entrance.

"Easy, killer," Riley said, catching Mina around the waist and preventing her from getting too close to the door.

Mina swiped at her cheeks. "She showed me all this stuff…and she's so mean ."

"OK, OK, but you don't need to talk to her alone anymore. OK?" Caroline told her. "You're basically all paid up, in terms of labor swap for medical expenses. So maybe you and Josh just shouldn't spend any more time here at the bar."

"No, no, don't send me away!" Mina squeaked, clinging tighter to Caroline.

"I'm not sending you away," Caroline promised, kissing her damp hair. "I will come to your house as much as you want. And you're welcome at Shaddow House any time."

She looked to Riley, who nodded. "Yep. Any time at all. If you're scared, you come over. If you're sad, you come over. If you're suddenly feeling like you're gonna storm through town in a blind rage and throw some rocks at a historical building… maybe call first."

Mina snorted. "OK."

They heard footsteps approaching. Josh and Ben were running up the hill, obviously winded.

"I need to work out more," Ben huffed, holding up a device in a glittery blue case. "Mina, if you're going to run out of the house like a bat out of hell, at least take your cell phone."

"Sorry, Dad," Mina sniffed as he hugged her. "I'm OK."

"Ghost stuff?" Ben asked Caroline, his chin balanced on Mina's head. She nodded. "Can we talk?"

"It's OK, Meanie," Josh said, putting his arm around her shoulders. "I'll make you that gross herbal tea you like. The kind that tastes like feet and social ostracism."

"We'll get them home," Alice told Ben. "Can you walk Caroline to her cottage?"

"Sure," Ben said. "I'll see you two back at the house. Lock up until I get there."

The two of them walked into the darkness, the moon lighting their path back to the Wiltons' property. Ben was oddly quiet, tucking his hand around Caroline's waist, though it felt like he was trying to carry her along without her realizing it. Which was weird.

Her big old family house loomed high on the hill, but she led him to the cottage, even as his feet wandered toward the porch where he'd kissed her goodnight so many times. He finally spoke when they reached her front door. "Look, are my kids safe?"

She opened her door, making a sweeping gesture to welcome him inside.

"I don't know if any kid is safe . This isn't a safe world. But I'll talk to Riley and Alice to figure out a way to protect both kids from ghosts messing with them in their sleep. Honestly, we should have thought of that before," she said, raking her hand through her hair as she sat on the couch. He walked over to the fridge to get her a glass of water. Of course, he knew where the glasses were. When they were young, this cottage was where they'd gone when they wanted to do…things, because his parents were light sleepers and eventually figured out how good Caroline was at climbing up his trellis. After her grandmother died, the cottage sat empty, and her parents were not nearly as careful with the keys as they should have been.

"Do you think the house is trying to turn the kids into the new Stewards?" Ben asked.

Caroline's mouth dropped open. She hadn't considered that, but honestly, she could see why Ben would be concerned. "I don't know."

"Should I be worried about that?"

She pursed her lips. "I don't know. Possibly?"

He flopped onto the couch, next to her. "Am I being insensitive, asking you this?"

"No," she assured him. "You're worried for your kids. It's a good thing. I am also worried for your kids, because I like them, very much."

"That makes me weirdly happy." He took her hand, lacing together their fingers. "This is nice, being together at the end of the day, even if that day was punctuated with ghost issues."

"Most of my days are punctuated with ghost issues," Caroline said.

"I just mean, I've never had this, talking about my kids with someone who really understood them," Ben told her, pulling her close.

Caroline frowned. "Um, what about their mom?"

"Isabelle… This is going to sound like ‘sour grapes' ex talk, but I don't know if Isabelle understands either of the kids. That was…never really her goal? She worried about their futures, their grades, their extracurriculars, the college choices, their career paths. She didn't worry so much about their happiness," Ben said.

"Well, that's…no, it's a dynamic I'm painfully familiar with. I'm not going to lie," Caroline said.

"There are reasons we're not together anymore. That's just one of them," Ben said. "I know that nostalgia can do a lot to influence one's recall, but…nothing has been as easy or comfortable as being with you."

"I don't know if relationships are supposed to be easy or comfortable," Caroline said, studying their joined hands. It was a weird feeling, to know how his hand was going to feel against hers. The long fingers, the long road map lines across his palm, the square, neatly clipped nails and how they would gently scrape against the base of her thumb. How could someone's hands not change in more than fifteen years?

"Yeah, it probably doesn't speak well of me to look at it that way," he said, "but nearly every relationship since you has felt like wearing a pair of shoes that was two sizes two small, on the wrong feet."

"I'm not sure being a cozy old pair of shoes speaks very well of me ," Caroline replied dryly.

"You know that's not what I mean," he scoffed, kissing her knuckles. "I mean, it pinches at you. Every step hurts to the point that you dread moving. Just when you get used to the old hurts, new ones pop up."

"OK, I think I understand the shoe metaphor a little better," she admitted.

"I think I married Isabelle because it felt like it pinched the least? Which again, sounds like a terrible reason to marry someone, particularly when the person who seemed so easygoing and encouraging turned out to not be who she was, at all," Ben said.

"Well, I can't say I was looking for something easy or difficult," Caroline said. "I think I was just…bored, looking to fill time and not feel so alone. Which I will also admit, is not a great look, in terms of grown-up interactions. But when your life is so defined—knowing that you're going to live your life in one place, that there are no other options, you stop seeing other big life steps for yourself—relationships, marriage, children," she said as he buried his face in her hair. "And after you, I wasn't sure I really wanted any of that long-term stuff. It hurt less, looking for something that also had a finite window. I felt like I was in control of it, when I controlled nothing else."

"Quite a pair, aren't we?" he mumbled into her neck.

"We were," she said, stroking his back. "As I recall, we were quite the pair, in this very room."

"We are . And I happen to recall the things that we used to do in this very room. I've gotten way better at those things," he promised, making her laugh.

"You weren't bad in the first place," she assured him.

He kissed her, and it felt different than those kisses in Riley's office. There was a giddy anticipation to it, because this was heading somewhere. Somewhere naked.

Ben pulled her into his lap, throwing her leg over his hips. He was so much bigger than she was, able to move her around easily. And while that could be intimidating with someone she didn't know—this was Ben.

Ben, who loved her. Ben, who would never hurt her. Ben, who was growing hard underneath her, dragging his hips against hers. His hand slipped carefully up her ribs, teasing along the sides of her breasts in that way that always made her ache—teasing but never quite touching where she wanted. He gently gripped the back of her neck, pulling her mouth to his.

She moaned into his mouth, chirping as he stood, carrying her back to what was her guest room. She took her lips from his, panting, "My room's at the end of the hall."

"Oh, right," he chuckled, nodding, turning into the primary bedroom. He didn't comment on the fact that it used to be her grandmother's bedroom, for which she was very grateful.

No, no, don't think about the potential ghosts of family members that could be watching you right now , her brain commanded. Thank goodness, her body obeyed, because she might have wept otherwise or finally unlocked Riley's upsetting telekinesis, powered by sexual frustration.

He set her on the bed with a tiny bounce, crawling carefully over her as she kicked off her shoes and then his. He dragged her jeans down her hips, dropping them to the floor. He bit gently at her hip bones, making her jerk up off the mattress. That had always been her secret weakness. And no one else had managed to find it unprompted.

"Unfair," she groaned.

"Never said I was," he said, grunting when she rolled onto him. Her ribs protested a little, but she ignored them for the sake of pressing his wrists down on the quilt while sucking on the pulse point at his throat. He whimpered, and that made her grin.

"Oh, that smile scares me so much," he whispered as she shimmied out of her shirt. While she was distracted, he tossed her back on the bed and dragged his lips between her breasts, down her stomach, until he reached her navel. He bit down gently on the skin of her belly as he reached between her thighs. He pushed her panties aside and found just the right place to touch, making her squeak.

"That's a new one," she murmured.

He grinned up at her. "You ain't seen nothing yet."

She rolled her eyes and yanked at his collar, pulling him to eye level with her while also removing his shirt. She felt his knee spreading her thighs, and she wrapped her legs around his waist. He kissed her and she tasted a memory—cinnamon toothpaste and summer nights and the sneaky thrill of stolen hours in a "misappropriated" bedroom.

With no little difficulty, she leveraged her way up on her elbows and rolled over him. She hissed at the pain rippling up her torso, but muffled the sound against his chest. He felt just like she remembered, sliding down his body until her hand wrapped around something that was also quite familiar. He groaned, the tail end of the sound just a little desperate. And when she wriggled her thumb in just the right spot, he shuddered as he always had.

It was good, knowing someone this well, knowing all the places and noises and scents. It was strange and yet not, even when he arched up, sliding inside her without the fumble and hesitation of their younger years. She rolled her hips, balanced on that edge of pleasure-pain, moving with him. His fingers clutched frantically at her hips to slow her down, something he used to do when he was afraid of finishing too quickly.

"Wait, wait, wait," he whimpered, making her giggle. "That's not nice."

Fueled by desire and delight, she canted her hips again until he made a little bleat of surrender. She leaned down, kissing him as they moved together, over and over. Teasing him was forgotten as the heat rose in her belly, making her dizzy. That sizzle of nerves seemed to spread through her entire body in a way that was entirely new. Was it magical? Or the sweetness of connecting with someone whose fingerprints were etched so deeply on her heart?

Ooof, reunion sex was making her weirdly poetic…and it wasn't particularly good poetry. But the sex…that was definitely good. Sweaty and satisfying and…when had Ben learned to do that with his thumb? It was almost too much, but… oh .

Caroline wasn't sure if she fell or she was pulled when she hit the mattress. But suddenly, Ben was splayed over her, and she could only hold on and wait while the stars building behind her eyes reached supernova.

She clutched at his shoulders, holding him close, listening to his heart thundering at this throat. He cupped her chin in his fingers, pulling her mouth up to meet his just before he cried out, hips stuttering, breath mingling with hers. She feathered her fingers through his damp hair, enjoying the expected spicy pine scent.

Ben collapsed, careful not to drop his entire body on top of Caroline's smaller frame. He pulled the sheet over them both as he leaned his forehead against hers. "I missed you."

She smiled. "I missed you, too."