He looked surprised. “Cambridge? No, not really. I spent most of my years as a student pretty much blackout drunk, which, considering I’m Irish, is saying quite a lot. And teaching didn’t suit me.” His eyes cut to her, a smile flickering across them. “Turns out I was too grumpy, if you can believe that.”

“You? Grumpy? Impossible!” Mika leaned her heavy head on her elbow, finished the last of her cheeseburger, and studied his profile. “Was it hard? Coming back to Nowhere House and becoming a de facto parent to an infant witch at the age of, what? Twenty-six?”

“The witch part did come as something of a surprise because Lillian didn’t bother to warn us before turning up with a baby in tow, but Rosetta, you’ll be unsurprised to hear, was a placid, easy baby. Altamira, on the other hand”—here he shuddered, which made her laugh—“well, let’s just say that when she hit the terrible twos, I was ready to put her in a boat and set her adrift on the sea. Ian had the boat practically ready to go.”

“I assume, as Altamira is still safely ensconced in Nowhere House, that the more level heads of Lucie and Ken prevailed.”

“It takes a village.” Jamie turned right, cutting across traffic. Mika, who was very possessive of the Broomstick, found she rather liked watching him behind the wheel of her car. “How did it go with Primrose?”

“It was the most peculiar thing. I lied about where I’ve been and I don’t think she suspects anything, so that’s all fine, but she also told me a whole lot of other stuff.” Mika gave him a brief description of Primrose’s various revelations. “It was so weird. I must have asked her the same kinds of questions dozens of times as a child, only to be told each time that my curiosity was obnoxious and unbecoming.”

“Have you asked her those questions since then?”

“No,” Mika said, thinking back. “I gave up years ago and usually stick to small talk when we meet, but this time, I don’t know. I asked. Maybe it was because I’ve spent so much time with the kids, so it feels like there’s more at stake now that it’s not just me. I want to be able to give them more of our history. More than I had growing up, anyway. But I really didn’t expect her to tell me as much as she did.”

“Maybe she did it because you’re an adult now,” Jamie said. “There’s a lot we’ll say to other adults that we won’t tell a child.”