Magical Midlife Flowers: A Magical Midlife Novella 7.5, page 1
MAGICAL MIDLIFE FLOWERS
LEVELING UP SERIES
BOOK 7.5
K.F. BREENE
Copyright © 2023 by K.F. Breene
All rights reserved.
No part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any electronic or mechanical means, including information storage and retrieval systems, without written permission from the author, except for the use of brief quotations in a book review.
CONTENTS
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Chapter 8
Chapter 9
Chapter 10
Chapter 11
Chapter 12
Chapter 13
Also by K.F. Breene
About the Author
ONE
Jessie
“G minus several seconds, Jessie,” Edgar said as he poked his head into my small sitting room at the back of the house. He reached in a spindly finger. “G minus several seconds. Sound the alarm. The all-clear commences tomorrow.”
He issued a thumbs up, nodded, and slowly disappeared from the doorway.
Austin, sitting beside me on the couch with his arm around me, stared at the doorway silently for a long moment. I waited patiently, holding back laughter at the bewilderment tumbling through our bonds.
“What?” he finally asked. Then, “Wait…do I want to know?”
The laughter finally bubbled out. “This is Nessa’s doing. She said ‘T minus eight minutes’ the other day. Edgar decided it was a great way to do a countdown, except he muddled it badly and kept changing letters, then the numbers were wrong too—he just went completely off the rails. Nessa thought that was hilarious, and has been teaching him other stuff.”
“The all-clear commences tomorrow?”
“He doesn’t seem to understand the things she’s teaching him. I’m just letting them roll with it. It’s like their own secret code where neither party has the decoder ring.”
He shook his head, taking a deep breath. “This place is like a circus.”
“Yeah. With drunk clowns. It keeps things interesting.”
“So…what is he actually counting down to?”
I leaned forward to grab my phone. “The flower exhibit, remember? He’s been working all week to set up his entry at the Martin County Fair.”
“Ah.” He nodded, squeezing me closer as I leaned back. “That’s tomorrow, right?”
“Yep,” I replied. “He hasn’t allowed anyone to see his design. He’s going to unveil it to us tomorrow morning, right before the judging. They’re going to keep the exhibits up for the entire week of the fair, I guess, so it should keep him out of the way while we get ready to head to Kingsley’s territory. You know he’s probably not going to want to leave his flowers.”
“Who’d you decide to bring as security?”
I wouldn’t really need security, especially with the whole house crew there, but we had a bunch of new gargoyle guardians in the territory, and Austin wanted to take them out for a test drive. Not to mention they were accustomed to escorting their cairn leader everywhere and wouldn’t understand if I didn’t bring any of them.
“Tristan, of course.” I’d only known him for a short time, and already he seemed like the most competent choice. “He’s picking a team of five.”
“Only five?”
“I mean…yeah. We’re going to a non-magical town for a flower show. We’ll have ten people from the house, including me, and two additional mages. Adding another six hardcore guardians will be plenty. More than plenty. We’re going to stand out.”
“Not the new healer?”
A healer had arrived not long ago, responding to a summons I’d sent out after the battle in the basajaunak lands. She was staying on the outskirts of O’Briens, getting a feeling for what she’d randomly and apparently thoughtlessly walked into. I was giving her time and space before we figured out if she was a good fit, although her lack of planning definitely suggested she might be one of us.
“Nah. We don’t need to expose her to Edgar’s flower obsession so soon,” I said.
He stroked his thumb against the bare skin on my arm. “I’m part of the house. Don’t I get to go?”
I pulled away to look at his face. “Do you want to go?”
A handsome smirk flitted across his lips. “Not even remotely, no. But I do want to see who Tristan chooses and how he handles the guardians.”
“He’s been exceptional in training. I can’t imagine this would be much different.”
It had only been two weeks since Tristan and the other new guardians had joined our ranks, and already they fit like cogs in a well-oiled machine. Part of that was Austin’s infallible leadership and natural ability to structure a large pack, but Tristan had helped the other guardians acclimate.
With all of our new additions, our territory was currently bursting at the seams. We’d already put out feelers to purchase land to build more housing.
“He has, yes,” Austin said, sipping a bourbon. “I want to see how he handles chaos, though. Outside of training, your crew always descends into chaos.”
I rolled my eyes but couldn’t come up with a rebuttal. He wasn’t wrong.
My phone buzzed with an alert, and I distractedly clicked through to social media.
“What did you have—“ Austin paused as I sucked in a startled breath. “What is it?”
“Nothing,” I said, scanning the image that had popped up.
He leaned over my shoulder to see what had my attention. For some reason I couldn’t really understand, I jerked the phone away from his prying eyes.
A woman smiled up at the camera, joy written plainly across her pretty face and lighting up her brown eyes. She held up her hand, showing off her new diamond solitaire. The caption said, “She said yes!” and Matt, my ex, was smiling for the camera next to her. Although she and I weren’t connected online, he was tagged in the post.
This was the woman he’d left me for. A decade younger, it looked like, with flawless tanned skin and shiny straight black hair. Her smile was so big, teeth pristine and white. Her eyes were so happy.
Something heavy lodged in my gut, and my heart started beating a little too quickly.
“Are you okay?” Austin asked me, concern and confusion muddling the bonds.
“Yeah, I’m fine.”
Unable to help it, I clicked into her profile and started scrolling through photos of the new life they shared, with a big house and brand new cars. I hadn’t kept up with him since our breakup, much too busy and not really caring, but now it hit me like a Mack truck. He clearly took her out to fancy dinners and theater shows. He’d lost a little weight and dyed his thinning hair black to look a little younger than his mid-forties. To keep up with her, probably. Or maybe because of a midlife crisis, who knew.
It had barely been a year, and he was moving on. For good.
I’d already moved on, of course, but I guess I hadn’t fully processed the end of an era. The feeling of the book slamming shut on part of my life story. I felt…strangely panicked, like I needed to lurch forward and rip the book back open. I had no idea why.
Then I wondered if he’d told our son, or if Jimmy would find out the same way.
In a moment I’d tapped Jimmy’s name on the screen of my phone. I could feel Austin watching me, but he didn’t try to interfere.
“Hello?” Jimmy answered.
“Hey, it’s me.”
“Hi Mom. What’s up?”
“Did you hear about your dad? I just saw what I gather is an engagement photo.”
“Yeah.” Jimmy couldn’t have sounded more bored if he’d tried. “He said he’d be asking her to marry him when I visited last spring.”
“Did he ask you for permission or just tell you?”
“Why would he ask me for permission?” Jimmy asked, confused.
“I don’t know…in case you didn’t like her, maybe?”
“Nah, she’s fine. Just a little too nice or something, I don’t know. She tries way too hard. It’s weird.”
“She’s young,” I said, trying to be nonchalant about that. For some reason I couldn’t explain, it galled that he’d essentially traded me in for a younger model.
”I mean…she’s not that young. Why? You don’t care, do you? Aren’t you still with your boyfriend?”
“Yeah, yes, I am. It just…feels so sudden, I don’t know. It’s kind of a shock.”
“Well, Mom, I mean…he was always going to find someone else, you know that, right?”
I paused. “What do you mean?”
“He doesn’t cook or clean or do anything for himself. All he does is work. That’s all he ever did. So obviously he was going to find someone to do that for him when you two separated. He probably knew he had to seal the deal with her quickly or risk her leaving. And anyway, you’ve moved on, too. You have Austin, right? I like him a lot. You’re a lot happier now. I doubt it’ll be long before he pops the question to you, so it’s not like you’ve been left high and dry or anything, right?”
“He won’t pop the question, no. That’s not really…how shifters work. But…yeah, you’re right.” I sighed, shaking my head. “I was just blindsided, is all. I just ran across a picture on social media.”
“Trust me, Mom,
“Right. Definitely.”
When had I started needing pep talks from my son instead of the other way around? I laughed at the absurdity of it all—my reaction, the reality check from my son, and the fact that I cared at all about the man I’d moved on from when I had the catch of the century right next to me.
“Anyway,” I said. “The beat goes on.”
“Oh-kay. I gotta go, though. You sure you’re good?”
“Yes. Thanks for parenting your mother, Jimmy,” I said with a laugh. “Are you still coming for Christmas?”
“Yeah, definitely. I’ll probably have to visit Dad for a couple days. He is already trying to schedule everything—you know how he gets. But I’ll spend most of my time with you, if that’s okay?”
“Of course! I’d be thrilled.”
“Okay, gotta go. I’ll call tomorrow. Bye.”
“Bye,” I said, but he’d already severed the connection. I sighed and placed the phone on the coffee table before sitting back. Only then did I notice how still Austin was, his demeanor solemn.
Confusion and then alarm bled into me. How must this mild freak-out have looked to him?
“I’m sorry,” I said quickly, hugging him from the side and leaning my cheek against his shoulder. “I really don’t care, honestly. I was just blindsided, as I said to Jimmy. I knew Matt would get married again, it was just weird putting a face to the situation. And she’s younger and super pretty and…” I shrugged. “It makes no sense, I know, but—”
“You have nothing to be sorry for,” he replied, rubbing my arm. “It makes perfect sense. Do you need some time? Should I give you space to sort your feelings out?”
“What? No! Not at all.” I hugged him a little tighter. “I don’t even know why it struck me. Or why seeing her face, all happy like that, would annoy me. There’s no logical reason for it. I wish it would just stop.”
“What has happened?” Mr. Tom pushed his way into the room, his tux a little rumpled from being worn all day. “Has Austin Steele said or done something to affect you, miss?”
“No, it’s nothing, Mr. Tom. My ex is getting re-married—”
“Oh.” Mr. Tom clasped his hands in front of him and tilted his head to the side in sympathy. “I see. You need a postmortem.” He nodded, coming farther into the room. “Well, we have a week or so before we leave for Kingsley’s, and your past lover is not far away. We can fly there tomorrow and pop in on them. It would get us out of having to go to Edgar’s ridiculous flower contest.”
“No, I don’t need a postmortem. It’s nothing, honest.”
But I couldn’t banish the memory of their smiling faces, and the sinking feeling in my gut wouldn’t relent. She wasn’t that much younger, for heaven’s sake! Plus, she was going to age and I wouldn’t. She’d catch up eventually. There was no need for this situation to trigger my insecurity. It was irrational.
“But seriously,” I said, still annoyed, glancing from Mr. Tom to Austin and then back, “since when did he let his significant other post pictures about their life together? He never let me do any of that.”
Was it because he’d been embarrassed of me, the way he’d always implied? I hadn’t come from a high-class family, or gone to private school before college (or even finished college because Matt wanted to start a family), or had nannies and horse-riding lessons. Maybe this new girl was everything he’d wanted me to be.
After another deep breath, I waved it away. “Maybe it’s just me being competitive, I don’t know. He’s all happy and smiling and on social media, and I haven’t said a peep to him about how happy I am.” I leaned into Austin, needing him to know my happiness was, in a large part, because of him. “Or that I’ve moved on to someone way better. I mean…I guess I’d like him to know that just because he initiated the split doesn’t mean I’m hanging on or anything.”
“You should post those things, Miss,” Mr. Tom said. “Let him see how happy you are.”
“I should. And what’s the deal with him taking her out all the time?” I clicked back into the app and flicked through her pictures, not able to help myself, now somewhat spiraling. “He hardly ever took me out. We always had to entertain his mom or his co-workers, and I had to cook and set up and do everything. Theater? Fat chance. He always said he hated the theater. His idea of going out was to have a couple of drinks at the cigar room after work with his buddies while I waited at home alone.” I crossed my arms over my chest. “When Jimmy visited him, he made it sound like it was the same ol’ Matt. Well, my Matt never took smiley pictures with me on nights out.”
“He might not have in the end, miss,” Mr. Tom said, “but I bet he did in the beginning, hmm?”
Austin just sat next to me silently, showing his support by listening, his arm draped around me.
I narrowed my eyes at Mr. Tom, thinking back. But it had been so long ago and we’d been so young. My memory was splotchy at best, the details long since washed away. All I remembered was how handsome and dashing he’d been, well-off and always nicely dressed. He’d had a nice car—an expensive car—and I’d been stunned by his attention to me. What we lacked in common I’d made up for by trying to learn his interests and appeal to him. So we hadn’t started on a good foundation, and with time, that foundation had crumbled.
“Regardless,” Mr. Tom said, “I think this is an easy problem to rectify.” He lifted his eyebrows. “We will invite him and his whole family for Thanksgiving or Christmas, and you can then shove your happiness in his face. That will be nice, won’t it?”
“His mom traditionally has a party the day after Christmas but no.” I furrowed my brow at him. “I’m not going to be petty. Honestly, let’s just forget about it. I’ll come to my senses any minute and go back to not caring. It’s fine.”
“If you say so, miss. Should I get you a glass of wine? Or something stronger? Maybe you’d like to dwell a little over a pint. The horrible Irishwoman is in her backyard drinking the basajaunak brew and singing like some sort of dying wild animal. She could be a distraction for you.”
“I’m good, Mr. Tom. Thanks.”
“Of course, miss. Let me know if you need anything, like a plan to out-happy your ex.” He exited the room and closed the door behind him.
I ran my hand up Austin’s thigh, smiling as he squeezed me closer.
“Sorry,” I repeated, snuggling into him. “I didn’t realize he could still throw me for a loop.”
“I understand how you feel, Jess,” and I could feel through our bonds that he did. He kissed my forehead. “When my first girlfriend moved on, I had some rage issues. I knew she was bad for me, but it still set me off. Some of these things hold onto us without us realizing. That’s why I offered to give you some space and let you deal with it.”
“And here I was worrying you might feel slighted or nervous that I still have feelings for my ex.”
“It would only be a matter of time before you came to your senses. I have zero fear of losing you to anyone else. Our bond is unshakable. Your heart is mine, and mine is yours. But I will admit it’s a little awkward dealing with an ex that I can’t just force into submission and make go away.”
“Well I mean…you could. I doubt it would be hard. It just wouldn’t be nice.”
He pushed up and angled before capturing my lips. Heat coursed through my body.
“I’ll meet him one day,” he murmured against my lips. “And when I do, I’ll make sure we shove our happiness in his face right before I prove how nice I most certainly am not.”
TWO
Jessie
“Wow.” Nessa eyed me as I came down the stairs. “You have a helluva glow about you today. Special occasion last night?”
