Page 48 of Bewicched

Nice. “And you gave me these perfect cutouts for my tentacles.” I shook my head. “Brilliant. Can I still nail them to these planks?”

“You can,” he said, “but I don’t recommend it. The deck’ll be fine, but your tentacles will start to rust and rot with the holes made by nails. I’d recommend a boating epoxy. Something specifically made to adhere in saltwater. And then once they’ve been placed, you can decide if you want a railing to go around them or if we should keep the railing breaks.”

Nodding, I waved him in. “Good call. Let’s see where we are after the tentacles are attached.” Hopefully, I’d finally be able to finish sealing the current tentacle and start a new one today.

“Something smells great in here,” he said, nose tilted up.

“This is what happens when I can’t sleep.” I grabbed two muffins. “In celebration of you not being dead, I offer you the classic lemon blueberry or what I like to call a Neapolitan. It has a chocolate bottom, a vanilla bean top, with a strawberry compote filling.”

Hands on his hips, he studied his choices. “I’m going to surprise absolutely no one by saying I’ll have both, please.”

“That was, of course, the correct answer.” I placed two muffins on a plate with a napkin. “Would you like coffee, tea, milk? What’ll you have?”

“A tall glass of cold milk sounds great.” He scratched his beard and scanned the artwork I had out.

“You got it.” I poured the milk and then handed him both the plate and the glass.

He motioned to the couch with eyebrows raised in question.

“Let’s eat alfresco. I’ll be right there.” I grabbed a lemon blueberry muffin, a napkin, and filled my teacup.

When I stepped out, I found him leaning against the rail, a glass balanced on one side of him, the plate on another. He took a big bite, eating half the muffin in one go.

“Mmmm, delicious,” he said once he’d swallowed.

I put my napkin-wrapped muffin down on the deck with my teacup beside it, and then sat down, my legs dangling off the edge. The rail that ran halfway between the deck and the top rail was exactly the right height for my breakfast. Perfect.

I leaned over the rail and looked down. “Good morning, Cecil! Charlie, Herbert, it’s lovely to see you again.” Cecil’s tentacle splashed at the water’s surface. It was high tide, so I was only able to see the tops of Charlie and Herbert’s stars, but I was sure they heard me. The waves splashing off the posts were leaving droplets on my shoes. Luckily, I was in too good of a mood to care. New deck and not dead new friend. It was a good day.

“Oh my God,” Declan moaned.

When I looked up, he had his eyes closed and was chewing. His enjoyment tickled fizzy bubbles in me.

“You’re a baking artist too. Those were amazing,” he said before downing his milk.

“Oh, all right. You can have more.” I gestured to the door. “They’re cooling inside. And there’s more milk in the fridge.”

He’d moved back into the studio at the offer of muffins, but I knew he’d heard the rest. When he returned with two more muffins and a full glass, he sat beside me on the deck.

“How much are you going to charge for these things?” He took a normal sized bite of the lemon blueberry and closed his eyes again.

“I haven’t worked out a pricing schedule yet. I’m thinking five, though. They’re oversized muffins with big tops. Of course, you just demolished one in two bites, so maybe I’m wrong.”

“Five’s fair and I’m not your average customer.”

“You got that right.” I broke off a piece of muffin and popped it in my mouth. Mmm, good. Just the right amount of bright tartness to complement the blueberry. I took a sip and then balanced my cup on the rail.

“I love the soft weathered gray you chose for the decking.”

“Good,” he said, starting on the second—well, fourth—muffin. “When they didn’t have exactly what you asked for at the lumberyard, I started looking around. I know I should have checked with you first, but you were pissed off at me at the time, so I went for it. I knew what you’d planned to do with the tentacles, so I wanted the deck to blend in, to almost disappear, so your tentacles would stand out.”

I thought about that for a moment. “You built this gorgeous deck, but purposely designed it to fade into the background so my art would shine.” I turned, throat tight. “Thank you for that.”

“Sure. And I’m glad I guessed your height right. I wanted the middle rail to hit you just right, so you could sit like this and talk with your friends.”

I took another bite of muffin and turned to watch him finish off the second glass of milk. He was lighter now. Some of the darkness he’d carried with him from the pack grounds had slid off him. When he grinned, I couldn’t stop myself from grinning back.

“Are you charming me?” I asked. “Is that what this is? Charm?”

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