“I’m fine.” I left before she could argue anymore. I didn’t want her falling on her way to the bathroom.
Of course, the sofa was tiny, and when I sat on it, a cloud of dust poofed upward. I leaned my head back and closed my eyes. This was going to be a long night.
Chapter
Twenty-Two
Isobel
When I woke, I could hear someone puttering around in the kitchen. “Rafe?”
“I’ll be there in a moment!” he called.
I laid back on the pillow and stared up at the ceiling.
You’ve got a good one.
I popped my head off the pillow and looked down at the foot of the bed. “Poa? Where have you been?”
Doing important things, but I came in late last night and found him on the couch, asleep. Then I found you in here, like the princess and the pea.
“The princess and the pea? Hardly.”
Well, there might not be a hundred feather mattresses under you, but you’re on the bed, and he wasn’t.
“Because it’s my bed!”
You could have invited him in. It’s what I would have done.
I groaned and flopped back on the pillow. “I can’t with you right now.”
Well, maybe you can get me a sausage roll and latte from Margot’s.
“When hell freezes over.” I squeezed my eyes shut. “We’ve got a ton of work to do today. There will be no time for sausage rolls. You’ll be lucky not to be commandeered into service.”
As if I would ever.
I laughed.
“Knock, knock.” Rafe said the words rather than knocking, and I looked up to see him carrying a cup of coffee. He wasn’t alone, though. Katia the healer was beside him, holding her own mug.
“Katia?” I asked. “Why did you come back?” I was certain she’d told me to come into her office today if I needed her to fix my ankle. Which, from the faint throbbing, I did.
“This one here.” She hiked a thumb at Rafe. “Called me early and promised to pay double my house-call fee if I would be here before eight.”
“Rafe.” I scowled at him. “You didn’t have to do that. It’s so early.”
“Oh, I don’t mind.” Katia grinned. “It really is quite a bit of money.” She walked toward me. “How are you feeling?”
“The ankle still feels a bit crap, honestly.” I looked at Rafe, unable to help the smile on my face. “Thank you, really.”
He just nodded. “I’ll be in the kitchen.”
Before I could say anything else, he turned and left the room, coffee in hand. Katia watched him go, then said, “I’m pretty sure he intended that coffee for you. But then you spoke and scrambled his mind.”
I laughed. “That’s ridiculous.”
“It’s really not. I’ve never seen him like this.”
“Have you seen him much?”
“Well, no. And that’s the point. He’s always been alone. But with you, he’s distinctly not alone. He seems more whole, somehow.”
“Are you a therapist as well as a doctor?” I joked.
“No, but I’ve got an eye for this. People’s wellbeing is kind of my thing. That’s what it is to be a doctor, especially a small-town doctor.”
“Fair point.” I liked her a lot. She had a good energy about her.
Katia set her coffee on the bedside table and reached for the end of the duvet, holding her hands over it and looking up at me. “May I?”
“Of course.”
She pulled the blanket back, then winced. I leaned over to look. “Yikes.”
No kidding. It looks like a purple melon. Poa hopped off the bed. I can’t watch this. And I smell bacon.
“I can fix you up in no time,” Katia said. “But it’s a good thing Rafe called me. You wouldn’t be able to walk on this today.”
“Thank you for coming back,” I said.
“Thank you for waiting so nicely. Not all my patients understand when I need to rest to regenerate my powers. But then you’re a witch, so it works similarly.”
I nodded, understanding entirely. If a witch wore herself out, it took time to recover her magic. Werewolves and vampires were different, as were pixies and gremlins, so they didn’t always understand.
Carefully, she pressed her hand to my ankle and hummed. Her magic swelled on the air, and a gentle warmth flowed through my ankle. The pain slowly faded, and the bruising and swelling disappeared before my eyes.
“That’s amazing,” I said.
“Thank you.” She smiled and stood. “I’m quite good at my craft.”
I loved her confidence.
We said our goodbyes, and she left. Once she was gone, I leapt out of the bed and sneaked into the bathroom. I was still naked, and the last thing Rafe needed so early in the morning was to see my moon-white arse.
After brushing my teeth and washing my face, I found a set of work clothes and put them on, then tied my boots and headed into the kitchen. Rafe was just putting the bread on top of two bacon and egg sandwiches. At his feet, Poa demolished her own.
“Thank you,” I said. “Let me know what I owe you for her visit.”
“Don’t worry about it.”
“You can’t keep taking care of me.”
He just grunted and handed me a plate with my sandwich. “Eat.”
“All right, all right.” I smiled and took the plate, then ate, totally ravenous. When I was finished, we headed up to the house together.
We spent the day painting the walls and working on the cabinets. I was obviously in charge of paint, given that I lacked Rafe’s incredible skill with wood, but by lunchtime, the house was looking a lot better. Most of the rooms were painted, and the kitchen was nearly finished.
“I think the house is feeling a lot better,” Rafe said as we stood on the front yard and stared at it, each of us eating our midday sandwiches.
“I agree. It hasn’t popped a floorboard at me all morning.”
“And it hasn’t slammed a door on my arse.”
I grinned, so pleased that I could feel the warmth filling my chest. It had been a hassle to have a house with personality, but now that it was happier, I had the strongest sense of satisfaction.
There was still way too much work for us to do on our own, however, even with my magic giving us extra speed and strength. For one thing, the electric and roofing were outside of both our skillsets. Rafe was managing with the plumbing, but just barely. Anyway, there was probably too much for him to finish in addition to the doing all the cabinets and trim work.
But the house was happier now, which changed things. “I think I’m going to call the coven and see if they can come over and give it a seal of approval that the town contractors will respect. We need help with the rest of it.”
“We do,” he said. “Even if we could learn how to fix electricity in an old house, there isn’t time. And that roof probably needs to be replaced. Even some of the beams might need attention.”
“I’ll make the call.”
“I’m going to work on the upstairs master bath.” He popped the last of his sandwich in his mouth and went inside.
I called Emma, who picked up on the second ring. “Isobel? Hi!”
“Hi, Emma.” I relayed my request.
“Hmmm. We don’t really have a process for that, though we could possibly come up with something.” There was a frown in her voice. “But I’m not sure that’s what you need.”