Testing Recipes for Disaster (Emberwood #2)

Chapter 25- Lauren

I felt his large arm around me before I opened my eyes. I let all the images from last night filter in through my sleepy haze, and my heart rate sped up thinking about it.

Christ, he’s good in bed , I thought.

I knew it was more than that, though. His attention and the way he handled me was far and above more of a turn on than anything he did physically, but damn . I was sore in all the best ways. My runaway thoughts were reined in slightly when I remembered before the wedding shower and the issue with my car. But that was far less fun to think about.

I tried to squirm out from under his arm to go brush my teeth and make us some coffee or something, but the moment I moved, his grip tightened around my middle.

“Nope.”

His voice was thick with sleep, but it still sounded sexy.

“I was going to make coffee. And you know, brush my teeth.”

I couldn’t believe he was still here, in my bed the next morning. It wasn’t a sight I thought I’d ever see.

“You stay here. I’ll make coffee. And pancakes. I know where all your stuff is now, so this can be a bonus for you letting me use your kitchen.”

“I mean, twist my arm. I guess I’ll let you make me breakfast.”

“Before that, though... I need to eat breakfast.”

“Are you not going to also have pancakes?” I asked, confused, until a smirk appeared on his face, and he reached under my oversized T-shirt for my underwear.

“Oh my god. You are ridiculous. And insatiable. And...” I trailed off once his mouth was on me.

“Keep telling me what I am, Laur. I’m listening.”

He laughed against me when I could no longer form sentences, but I couldn’t have cared less. This was how waking up should be every day.

PANCAKES DEVOURED, I now had to deal with the fact that I had no car. I had Jer drop me at my parents’ house to clean up. He tried to stay, too, but his time was better spent diagnosing what I’d done to my poor little Beetle. So stupid . I was busy collecting glasses and dishes and scraping bits of hardened petit fours off dessert trays.

“What can I do to help?”

I turned at the familiar voice because I was confused.

“You can’t clean up your own wedding shower. You should be sleeping. Or happily doing things with your fiancé, whom for this moment I shall pretend is not my brother. What are you doing here?”

“First of all, I can do whatever I want. I’m the bride. Second, I hardly got to talk to you last night, and that’s dumb. Third, I’m a nosy bitch. Something is going on with you and Jer because your energies were quite literally visible to me last night, but it’s also seemed like you’ve been avoiding each other again for, like, two weeks. So, I need to know what is the what.”

“So, what you’re saying is that your cleaning help comes with demands.”

“Obviously.”

She picked up a napkin from the ground as if to say See? Helpful! I thought about holding back like I had been because I was trying to keep the focus on her and this wedding and not be a drama queen. But here she was, asking . So, it didn’t count as being an attention whore.

“Well. If you want the story about last night, we’ll have to back up to the Fourth of July...”

Sam arched an eyebrow at me but stayed silent, still pretending like she was helping me pick up. While I talked, I did put her to work helping me move the patio tables back to their original positions.

“You used fake astrology to get laid?” she asked.

“Well, kinda. I guess.”

“I am going to turn you into a witch yet, I swear it. But let it be known that I am furious with you for not disclosing this earlier. So, okay, that happened, and then things got weird?”

“I guess? We just... were being too polite. None of the usual shit-talking, and it was weird. He was using my house to bake, but I told him I didn’t want to talk about it if nothing had changed, and it hadn’t. So, we ignored it. We’re very mentally healthy.”

“Clearly.”

“Oh! Speaking of mental health, I think I have ADHD.”

Sam looked thoughtful for a moment, her eyes focusing just past me, so I knew she was seeing or hearing or doing something psychic-y.

“Yes.”

“Oh, you’re a doctor now?”

“No, but I could tell you more about what the actual doctor will say if you let me read for you.”

“Huh. Well, it would be nice to have some universal validation. I’ve been... struggling. And I think having a reason for it might help. I looked up, like, all these checklists this morning, and I swear to god, Sam, it’s like seeing my life explained in bullet points.”

“Oh, Laur. Can I ask why you haven’t talked to me? I know I’ve been preoccupied. And I know you think I’m crazy for having this wedding so soon. But I’m not going anywhere. You can tell me things. I can still come over for movie nights—in fact, I insist upon it. But you’re not, like, burdening me with your problems. If anything, I owe you a year’s worth of listening to your issues without complaint.”

I nodded, feeling a coil of stress in my gut loosen slightly. I had needed her. I still needed her. And I was only making things harder by trying to be fine .

“You’re right. I’ll be cashing in on those coupons soon. Like, in five minutes when I tell you what happened last night.”

Sam’s eyes lit up with the promise of good gossip.

Her eyes only got wider when I launched into the story about the heaters and the car and Jer coming to rescue me and then allllll the delightful things from after the wedding shower. I was worried they might detach from the sockets.

“ Lauren! ”

“Yeah?”

“Only you would tell that story casually. All of that happened in one afternoon?”

“Yeah, I guess it did.”

She shook her head in disbelief. We’d finally completed thoroughly picking up the back deck and went inside to start washing dishes.

“And also, I thought my mystical car dragon was supposed to protect me from things like this?”

Sam had given me a little dragon statue to keep in my car. It was true that she’d explained the whole concept of a dragon from another realm protecting my vehicle probably six times, but I just thought the statue was cute.

“Your dragon cannot force you to make good choices about car maintenance, Laur. But the fact that you broke down in a safe place and were able to get help right away? I’m going to say it did its job exactly as expected.”

I squinted at her, trying to think of a retort. But I couldn’t. I’d have to thank my dragon.

“Fine.”

“So... what does that mean? He dropped you off here this morning and what? Two or three more weeks of awkwardness until the couple-ette party? Or are you going to get over yourselves and be together?”

“Do not call it that. We need a better name. I’ve seen it called a Stag and Doe party, and I feel like that fits your nature vibe. Let’s go with that.”

“Hmmm. I do like that very much and I’m now planning invitations in my head. But do not try to get me off topic.”

“Well, that’s it, isn’t it? I have no idea what to do, and I’m asking you . My psychic best friend. So, psychic already!”

A satisfied grin spread across Sam’s face. She practically skipped to her purse, leaving me to finish the dishes, and pulled out her tarot deck. She sat at the counter and did her things, talking to herself or the universe, I wasn’t sure, but cards started flying through her fingers.

“Right, right, right, obviously,” she said.

I assumed she would address me if she needed some sort of response.

“Yeah, what does that mean? ” she continued.

She huffed a breath and threw more cards down on the counter, and she ended with a smile.

“Well, they worked with me a little bit, but I still think your people are being stingy with their information. Bottom line: it is going to be so much easier to stop fighting this thing between the two of you. The image they showed me was like trying to build this wall, one of you on each side, putting up ridiculous things to strengthen it. Like feathers and tiny sticks and school glue. Because neither of you wants a wall there.”

I bit my lip between my teeth. She was scarily good.

“Okay. We’ll say that makes sense.”

She rolled her eyes.

“I guess what I’m saying is that the wall is easy to take down. However...”

“I knew there would be a ‘but.’”

“It’s not. I mean, it kind of is, but not really. Just listen!”

I crossed my arms, dishes now forgotten.

“I’m going to stick with the wall metaphor if that works for you. If you take it down, great, but you’re left with a mess of feathers and sticks and glue on the ground. Cleaning it up is tedious, and it’s work . It doesn’t mean anything bad is happening, it doesn’t mean you shouldn’t try to make it work. Just clean it up. Even if it feels... they keep telling me to say ‘boring,’ even though that’s not the word I’d use. Cleaning it up will be boring, and you won’t like it. Do it anyway.”

No matter how many times she read for me, I always got a shiver down my spine when she said something so on the money that it was like the line between dimensions was thinning in front of me.

“Yeah. That makes too much sense.”

And it was my biggest fear that I’d get bored or change my mind on a dime. But couldn’t I push through that if I knew something better was on the other side?

Maybe . For Jer.

“Excellent. Now, let’s get your car-less self home, shall we?”