Page 89 of Bewicched

His groan of pleasure made me grin and caused bubbles to fizz in my stomach. When my alarm went off again, I was sliding the first tray of assembled tartlets into the refrigerator.

“Are Daniel and Kenji still out front?” How many people was I feeding now? Detectives Hernández and Osso wanted some of these too.

“Nah. I told them to go back to their real jobs. I didn’t need them.” He returned with the empty plate, rinsing it off in the sink and then placing it in the dishwasher.

I checked the time again. “I need to go get cleaned up. Don’t touch anything. Nothing cooling on the stove top and nothing chilling in the refrigerator. Nada. If you’re hungry, I have chips in that cabinet,” I said pointing to the one beside where I kept my baking stuff. “I mean it.”

“Got it,” he replied, pushing me toward the stairs. “The ocean and I still have some things to work out.” And so saying, he went to the back door, opened it, and sat back down.

I returned almost an hour later. My hair takes a ridiculous amount of time to deal with. I wore black trousers with a V-neck black sweater, and high-heeled black ankle boots. In general, I don’t wear jewelry. Too many emotions and memories can be attached to jewelry—even after a thorough cleaning—but I wore the pearl earrings Aunt Sylvia had given me at my high school graduation.

A beautifully lustrous white pearl sat in the center, with fiery light-blue-green opals surrounding it, almost like petals. Serena had seemed upset that her mother had given me a gift far more precious than what she had received. Calliope had said they looked perfect on me, but I’d seen resentment in her gaze. When I’d asked my mother, she’d looked shocked I had them and seemed to disapprove, so I’d kept them in the box, never taking them out.

The sound of my heels on the stairs echoed in the studio. Declan, sitting on the couch, turned and watched me descend.

“I, uh.” He cleared his throat. “As I was sitting here, it occurred to me that I could just go home. I see now I was waiting for this. To see you again before I left. And to say I’m sorry about your aunt.”

I nodded, the grief hitting in unexpected waves. “Could you stand up?”

He did. No hands. Just stood from a couch only using his leg muscles. Show off. I stood before him, closer to his height with the heels, but let’s face it, not really. “Can I hug you?” I held up a hand. “Don’t touch me. I may be going to a wake with a sorcerer, so I’d like my magic to work, but I could really use a hug.”

He opened his arms and waited. I walked into them, rested my head on his chest and slid my arms around his waist. Just this. Even just this was so much. I’d spent my life avoiding touch, missing this warmth and comfort. He crushed me to him and I tensed.

“I’m only touching your sweater,” he said, the deep rumble making me want to cry.

Why? What was wrong with me? I was grieving my aunt but his voice made me tear up. Burrowing in, I never wanted to let go. But I had to. Now. In a couple of minutes. Probably.

“Do you want to come with me?” I asked out of nowhere.

“I can, if you’d like, but I’m not dressed appropriately.”

Leaning back, I took in his worn jeans, work boots, dark brown t-shirt, and brown plaid flannel shirt. “You look okay.” That was a lie. He was gorgeous and his grin said he knew it.

“If I can swing by my place, I can grab a decent shirt to wear.”

I let go of him and went to deal with the tartlets. “Thank you.” I added the marshmallow and candied zest to the second batch and then swapped out the ones that had been chilling in the fridge. “My cousins can be dicks, so apologies in advance.” While the second batch chilled, I used the bigger carrier to load up the tartlets to take to Gran’s house.

I made short work of it and then we were in his truck on our way. It turned out Declan’s apartment wasn’t too far away. While he ran in to get changed, I texted my mom, letting her know I was bringing him.

Her response was immediate: Why?

Luckily, he was back in under five minutes, saving me the trouble of responding. He was coming because I wanted him there.

He started up the engine. “Your grandmother’s, right?”

I nodded and he took off. Damn, he cleaned up nice. He wore black trousers, a white button-down, and black dress shoes.

“You look nice.”

He nodded his thanks. “I was aiming for better than okay. We can’t have your date looking like he wandered in from a construction site looking for a bathroom.”

“Date? Who said anything about a date?”

He reached over and held my gloved hand. “I did.”

“So,” I said, uncomfortable with the sweet talk, “what did you and the ocean decide?”

“We decided I was too old to still be making decisions based on the family Iusedto have.” He turned onto a narrow road. “I think, in the back of my mind, I assumed I’d someday return to the Santa Cruz Mountains where my father was Alpha and take over.”

---