Table of Contents
VALENTINES AND VALKYRIES
DEDICATION
CHAPTER ONE
CHAPTER TWO
CHAPTER THREE
CHAPTER FOUR
CHAPTER FIVE
CHAPTER SIX
CHAPTER SEVEN
CHAPTER EIGHT
CHAPTER NINE
CHAPTER TEN
Also By Amanda A. Allen
Also By Beth Byers
Copyright
Sneak Peek of Spaghetti, Meatballs & Murder
Sneak Peek of Spaghetti, Meatballs, & Murder Chapter 2
Valentines and Valkyries
Mystic Cove Mysteries Book 8
By Amanda A. Allen
Pamela Welsh, I am ever blessed by your friendship.
Love you.
CHAPTER ONE
Scarlett tripped over the laundry pile in her hallway and tried not to whimper at the size of it. The truth was the word ‘pile’ was generous. Mountain. Profusion. Abundance. Eminence. Peak. She wouldn’t be surprised to find herself dying of suffocation from dirty clothes. Death by laundry. It felt like it could be some sort of single parent Hallmark movie. Except, in the end, she’d be saved by some well-intentioned, too-handsome, inexplicably-single neighbor.
She wondered, for a second, whether the threat of laundry versus the typical hallmark movie threat of a stalker or evil ex would sell the same? Maybe if there were women on the creative board. Especially mothers. It took having children to understand the horror of dirty clothes. Scarlett looked at her laundry again and then held back a shriek.
“Mommy, I don’t have any clean undies!” Ella said from the doorway to her room.
“Me neither!” Luna added, running out of her bedroom, stark naked, chased by a squirrel and a parakeet. Their dog, Max, thumped his tail, but didn’t get up from his bed. Scarlett didn’t know where Luna’s three cats where, but all evidence pointed to them nesting in one of the laundry piles.
Scarlett sighed at the sight of her naked daughter and decided she didn’t have the energy to discuss modesty with Luna yet again. Scarlett was running epically late, of course. Of course she was. She’d spent the last hour puking into her sink. Puking into the toilet made the heaving last longer. Scarlett popped a ginger hard candy into her mouth that had been magicked by the witch Tessa from the shop downstairs and hoped it would work.
Would the ultra sound office let Scarlett have her appointment if she was late? Actually leaving the house on time was a level of accomplishment she’d probably never reach. Especially since no one had underwear. Scarlett went to empty the dryer, crossing her fingers that it had clean underwear and found musty clothes.
Scarlett cursed inside of her mind.
“Those stink, Mommy,” Luna said. “Are you gonna say potty talk?”
“I didn’t,” Scarlett said, striving for calm.
“Not even in your head,” Luna piped up. “If you need to use potty talk, you can say heck. Or stink. That’s what you said. Heck,” Luna sang. “Heck! Heck! Stink! Heeecccckk. Stinky heck!”
Scarlett gritted her teeth before she snapped at her daughter and then hauled the clothes out of the dryer and threw them back on the floor. She opened the washing machine and found the same scent. When had she last done laundry? She pulled out everything, threw it on top of the other musty clothes, and then filled the washing machine with just underwear for her and the girls. She started the washing machine on a small load and went to jump into the shower.
When she got out, she wrapped herself in the towel hanging in her bathroom, scrunching her nose at how it was musty too and then went to throw the underwear in the dryer. Her girls were sitting at the table naked. Scarlett’s sister, Harper, had poured everyone cereal and was making toast.
“Is Quinton here?” Scarlett asked, shoving her wet hair back. The magicked ginger candy wasn’t enough to hold back the nausea fully against the musty scent. Plus, she doubted her boyfriend, Lex, would be okay with all of them being naked around Quinton. Even if Q was head over heels for Harper.
“He left when Luna opened the door naked.”
Scarlett closed her eyes for a moment and tried to remember they were in a building where only family could enter. She tried to remember that her girls were young. She tried to remember that they were innocent little beans. It wasn’t helping.
“Ella came out naked after Luna opened the door and Quinton left. I’m pretty sure Ella stripped as soon as we got here.” Harper tucked one of her red and black strands of hair behind her ears and pulled her tank over the just showing baby bump.
“Luna,” Scarlett said carefully, “Don’t open the door naked.”
“But I don’t have any underwear,” Luna said. “And I already took off my dirty clothes. I couldn’t put them back on. Heck, Mom. That’d be stinky.”
“Then don’t open the door.”
“But it was Harper,” Luna said, looking at Scarlett as if she were stupid.
“It was me,” Harper said, laughing. She stuck two pieces of toast into Scarlett’s toaster.
“Oh my stars,” Scarlett moaned. There wasn’t enough energy for this nonsense she thought and opened the washing machine. The small load had completed while she’d taken the extra time to shave. She and Harper had their appointments, so hurrying was necessary.
Harper laughed again while Scarlett started the dryer and she spun to face her sister, “You know it’s just a matter of time before your little devil is opening the door naked. Just imagine how Quinton will feel about that. Quinton is way prissier than me or Lex.”
“Shut up,” Harper snarled, handing Scarlett some dry toast and nausea tea. The two of them met each other’s gazes. “The breakfast of champions,” Harper sighed.
“Pregnant champions,” Scarlett muttered. She sniffed and took a sip of the tea. It rolled slowly down her throat as if it were thicker than normal drinks. That was the magic, she knew. As the tea coated her stomach, the nausea started to fade. Morning sickness this time was a thousand times worse than either of the pregnancies for Ella and Luna. Living in Mystic Cove, instead of Spokane, made it easier to bear since there were witches and druids and their magic around to help, but Scarlett still wasn’t sure she’d survive. She couldn’t wait until this baby wasn’t messing with her hormones and digestive system anymore.
“You ready for this?” Scarlett asked her sister. They’d be seeing their babies for the first time today. The ultra sound tech would measure their progress—not that they needed it. They’d both gotten pregnant when their apartment building had been cursed by a druid. Fertility cursed or blessed. Either way, it had messed them up and burned right through the birth control they’d been using.
Harper was taking it better than Scarlett. Probably because Quinton was her red thread—her one true love—her soulmate. If anyone could make having a baby easier for Harper, it was Quinton. Harper’s years in foster care and being passed around like an unwanted kitten had done a number on her. The official diagnosis was attachment disorder. The reality was that Harper had learned clearly that people left. Even if you loved them. Even if you should be able to count on them. They left you behind and didn’t look back. Not everyone could be trusted—so she didn’t trust easily. Happily ever afters were to be obtained by sheer obstinacy and the willingness to do anything to make them happen.
“No,” Harper said. “If I can see her, she’ll be extra real. It’s bad enough having baby stuff in the apartment and Quinton nesting. I am freaking out. Which makes me feel like crap and Quinton feel…not concerned. He’s too patient to be concerned. Just. Something. He feels…I don’t know. He notices. He deserves someone else. Someone like a young Henna. Someone who isn’t crazy and d
amaged.”
“But he loves you,” Scarlett reminded Harper who shrugged.
“I know he does. I love him. He’s not going to leave. I know it in my head. But my heart is still…scared. What is Lex doing about baby stuff?”
Harper glanced around. She should glance around and take note Scarlett thought. They hadn’t done one single thing to get ready for a baby. She knew she had time. And given that this was her third baby, she wasn’t as worried about all the little details. Her baby needed diapers, somewhere to sleep, and something to wear. Swaddles. Maybe one of those wrap-style baby carriers. A car seat. Lex, unlike Quinton, was not nesting. Lex was tiptoeing around Scarlett’s hormones. But then again, Lex and Scarlett weren’t all that sure they were ready for this, and they didn’t have that red thread thing going that Quinton and Harper had. As much as Scarlett loved Lex, and she did, she was jealous of the surety that Harper felt for Quinton. Scarlett wanted Harper to have that feeling. Scarlett knew Harper needed it, but Scarlett wanted it for herself too.
She dropped her toast onto the counter and said, “I don’t know. He’s…protective, snappish, grumpy, paranoid, loving. He’s a mixed bag of what the ever-living hell.”
“Nice,” he said from the doorway. He glanced at Scarlett’s naked daughters and then quickly away watching Scarlett as she adjusted her musty towel. Scarlett shrugged and crossed back to the washing machine to throw some of the musty clothes in it. With the tea and toast in her finally, she might be able to function. She flipped on the hot water and doubled the soap and hoped she’d remember to change it this time.
She glanced back at him, entirely unrepentant for describing Lex’s pre-baby attitude. She was pretty sure she was a bag of what the hell too, so it wasn’t like she was blaming him. It didn’t change the fact that both of them were struggling with everything changing so quickly.
“It’s just a lot,” he said to her, carefully. His gaze was fixed on hers, and she knew he was trying.
“Yeah,” she replied. She was trying too. She really was. It was just…she had baggage before she had gotten pregnant and now…the baggage was so much heavier. In fact, she spent the last few months, puking and struggling to accomplish one task or another, failing and then thinking, You know what this situation needs? A baby. She barely had kept herself from crying at the idea of it. The reality was terrifying.
Scarlett glanced back down at her mostly naked self, over at her fully naked daughters, shook her head, and grabbed two throws from the couch, tossing them at her girls. She crossed to the bedroom wishing she wasn’t such a mess.
Lex followed her into the bedroom and closed the door behind him. “It’s going to be ok, Scarlett.”
Her eyes burned with tears, but she didn’t let them go. Instead she bit the inside of her cheek and dug through her drawers until she found a pair of lingerie style panties. They weren’t too bad. Lacy boy shorts not intended to be worn as regular panties. It would be weird to strip down in front of the doctor with them on, but she wasn’t wearing the matching corset top, and she didn’t expect to do much more than shove them down for the ultrasound tech.
She needed something right at that moment more than anything. She was feeling pretty unarmored to be standing in front of Lex without anything but a towel. She knew it didn’t make sense. She knew she was being irrational. She was having one of those PMS-style moments where she knew she was being crazy but the awareness didn’t temper the madness.
She slipped the underwear on, found a pair of clean jeans and threw those on top. Clothes would make everything better, she told herself. From there, she added a bra, a tank, and the first shirt she could find. The good news was the silk tee was nicer than her usual style. The bad news was that it didn’t really meld with her ancient, holey jeans.
“Scarlett…” Lex’s voice lifted in a question.
She knew he didn’t know what to say. She didn’t blame him. She wasn’t sure there was anything he could say.
“Scarlett,” he gently took her arm and turned her to him, holding her close. “This baby is earlier than we would have wanted.”
She nodded against his chest, her heart aching at the reality of his statement. She breathed him in deeply and whooshed out her breath, wishing that simple breathing would make it all easier. It didn’t. It hadn’t for a while. There was no talking yourself down when a baby was on the way.
“But she is wanted. I want her. I want you. I want Ella and Luna and Amelie. I want this family. We’re going to be fine. So we’ll have a baby a bit earlier than is maybe wise. That’s ok. I’ll take whatever binds you closer to me and I’ll be grateful for it.”
Scarlett took a shuddering breath in and realized that there was something perfect he could say, and he’d said it.
“How did you know I needed to…” She trailed off, looking up at him helplessly. This wasn’t who she was. She’d been through a lot. She’d forged her own path. The unexpected path. She was the druid who left circle and her grove. She’d dared to step away, to travel, to learn from other druids. She’d married and had children with a normal human, and then when it all fell apart, she came home. That had been harder than anything, but she’d done it. She’d packed up her druid babies and brought them home to her family, circle, and grove because it was best.
She was not weak, but this baby, this pregnancy, and this…crazy…relationship was making her doubt herself. This was not who she was. She looked up at Lex and hoped that he saw something other than the mess that was in his arms. She knew he loved her. She knew he loved their daughters. Amelie—his daughter and Luna and Ella—her daughters. She knew he loved her family as difficult as they could be. And her. Her loved her. Not just her, the druid, or her, the mother, or her, the partner. He loved her, the woman. In between all of that knowledge of his love, however, was this abyss of crazy, of baggage, of hormones, and it was slowly killing her. Especially when you added in the lack of sleep and the constant nausea.
“I love you, Scarlett.”
“Really?” Her voice cracked and she looked up at him through what were, no doubt, bloodshot eyes.
“Oh my gods, yes,” he said. He cursed into the top of her hair and said, “You’ve taken me over, Scarlett. I need you to need me back. Otherwise, I might lose my mind.”
“The apartment is a wreck,” she told him—reminded him really. He hadn’t moved in quite yet, but it was going to happen, she knew. Lex being Lex, he wasn’t even asking. He’d just started finishing the wide open space on the second floor of the apartment. He’d brought in a pack of friends and family started turning it into a play room, two more bedrooms, and a family room. He hadn’t told her that the rooms were for Amelie and her daughters, so they could put the nursery next to the master bedroom, but she knew what he was planning. He wasn’t a man who asked.
Somehow, she didn’t mind so much.
“It doesn’t matter,” he said. “We’ll figure out the mess.”
“I fall asleep during dinner every day.”
“I don’t care.” He pressed a kiss to the top of her head and squeezed her a little tighter. “You’re growing our baby. That’s amazing. If you need to sleep more to do it, I understand.”
“Amelie half-hates me.” Scarlett’s voice cracked on that truth.
“Amelie loves you and is jealous that Ella and Luna got you for a mom from the beginning. You know her mom isn’t…great. Amelie is jealous.”
Scarlett sniffed and said, “I look like I got sucked into a leaf blower and expelled into a pile of crap.”
His shout of laughter surprised them both and then he kissed her forehead, “You’re beautiful. I’ll take the girls to your Mom’s. Henna is covering the bakery tomorrow too. And we’re having our Valentine’s Day date. I got a room at a B&B near the ultrasound office.”
“I just want to sleep,” Scarlett admitted, feeling like an even bigger loser. Valentine’s date naps were totally romantic, right?
This baby was kicking her behind and she had been ti
red before she’d gotten pregnant. Running the bakery and parenting was more than she could handle before she got jinxed and pregnant. Being pregnant was knocking her flat and then kicking her while she was down.
“That can be arranged. A nap sounds good,” he lied.
She grinned wickedly and then admitted, “I knew I loved you.”
CHAPTER TWO
“What are we doing after this?” Lex asked as he pulled the Suburban into the ultrasound office parking lot.
“Food,” Scarlett moaned, leaning back in her seat. They had made it on time and a little ahead of Quinton.
“He drives like an old man. We could wait forever,” Lex said. His work phone buzzed, and Scarlett took it and threw it in the back seat. “Real mature, love.”
“Hey,” she said, “I’m pregnant and insane. Don’t mess with me. My hormones could kill you and I wouldn’t even know it. Besides,” she eyed his phone and then nudged it under the backseat. “We’re having our date. With napping,” she said and sniffed a little. “You don’t get to work during my nap. Or while we’re seeing our babies.”
“Those things,” Lex said, grinning at her and then giving that charming shrug, “are both true. But our police department is a mess. I can’t leave him alone.”
He grabbed the phone and read it and as he did, his face masked over.
“Is that your work?”
“Hmmm,” Lex said. Scarlett’s gaze narrowed on him, and he gave her that too-charming grin.
“What,” she asked silkily, “are you hiding?”
He grinned even wider, glinting those bright eyes at her.
“Really though,” she said.
“Nothing to worry about. A tourist had an accident and didn’t make it. Gus and the boys are taking care of it.”
Her gaze narrowed on him while she debated whether he was telling her the full-truth or protecting the pregnant woman. Someone knocked on the door behind her and she screamed. Lex’s laugh overwhelmed her shriek. She might be barely pregnant, but she was about one second from the pressure on her bladder exploding. She scowled at him, opened the door into Harper, and rushed into the office.
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