Page 46 of A Touch Charmed

As we approached, my nerves began to take over. I didn’t know how Kenna would take the news. We didn’t get along in school. My father—stepfather—tried to get Leo’s shut down when we were in middle school. It was all for publicity, he ran his campaign on keeping Zodiac Cove family-friendly, but Kenna took it out on the only person she had access to. Me.

We spent the next few years taking shots at each other. She started a rumor that I learned how to kiss by practicing on the dogs at the park, I fired back with a rumor that she had three boobs and a tail. Childish stuff that used to feel serious. When we got to high school, our rivalry had been reduced to the occasional dirty look in the halls or an eye roll here and there. My stepfather found a new target for his next campaign and time moved on.

“Kenna.” I stopped her at the door, searching her face for any resemblance, hungry for any connection I could establish to a real family. “Do you have a minute to talk?”

“I guess.” Her sea-green eyes narrowed in suspicion. “But if you’re here checking up on things for the mayor, you can clearly see I’m removing drinks right now.”

The hostility knocked me back a step. We didn’t get along in school, but that had been a long time ago. “I know you’ve heard I got fired and moved in with Finn, so I’m going to assume you’re just saying that to put me in my place.”

“Can’t deny that it feels good to do so.”

“Kenna.” Finn’s tone held a note of warning.

She glanced at him. “Stay out of this.”

He opened his mouth to respond, but I held up a hand between the two of them.

“I’m not here to start drama.” I was used to people feeling one way or another about me because of my relation to the mayor. I knew it wasn’t personal. Still, this one stung a little more, all things considered. “I just want to talk.”

She flipped her hair over her shoulder. “I’ve got to close up, but you’re free to join me inside. Just don’t expect me to serve you anything.”

I blew out a breath as I followed her into the bar. That hadn’t gone so bad. I got an invite inside. Good to know she considered me at least one step up from a vampire.

I took a seat on one of the red leather stools. Even though whatever band had played here tonight had gone home, the energy from their performance vibrated in the air. The scent of coconut oil and bodies moving together lingered.

Leo’s had gone from being the island watering hole under Sol’s management to a genuine destination, with a budding reputation for being the best place to discover new music, under Kenna. As someone who had fought hard to carve out a different path than the one that had been expected of me, I respected that. Even when she was being a total bitch.

Finn sat beside me and squeezed my knee, pushing some of his magic into me. Having him here gave me an extra boost of strength and confidence that I desperately needed. I didn’t know how to go about having this conversation.

Kenna headed to the cash register on the opposite side of the bar. She licked her fingers before she started counting. “I can multitask.” She wrote down an amount and tucked the bills into a zipper bag. “Don’t let me counting down the till stop you from saying whatever was important enough to bring you down here at midnight.”

It was now or never. “Earlier today, I found out that Dante Everett was my birth father.”

Kenna stopped counting, but kept her back to me. “No shit?”

“Yeah.” I knotted my fingers together. “Which makes us cousins.”

“Damn. Okay.” She turned and gathered her hair in her fists behind her head as her gaze roamed over my face like I’d done to her earlier. Was it possible she was just as hungry for a family connection? She had tons of known family on the island, though. She couldn’t have cared that much about the addition of one more. “Not sure what I’m supposed to say here. Congrats? Welcome to the family? I’m thrilled that asshole Warren Chase isn’t your father?”

I let out a half-laugh, half-sob. “Any of those things are fine.”

Her eyes turned a light shade of green. “Sorry I was an asshole earlier. Guess I’m still salty about how things were between us in school, but that wasn’t really about you. Thankfully, the residents of Zodiac Cove like their liquor more than they like their politicians.”

I waved it off. “I’m used to people treating me like an extension of the mayor.”

“Still doesn’t make it okay. I’m not usually like that.” She nodded to Finn. “Glad to see the rumors are true. Though I’m sure a good portion of my patrons will be bummed.”

Finn gave her a half-smile. “I’ll send Galen down to take my place. He needs to get out more. Though I’m not sure what he’d do if a woman did give him some attention.”

“Probably hook her up to a machine so he could study her orgasm,” Kenna said.

Finn let out a laugh. “No doubt.”

Kenna finished counting down her drawer and began stacking glasses she’d pulled from a mini-dishwasher under the bar. She was matched with Galen and had no idea. Or maybe she had some idea. She must’ve felt the first earthquake. The bar closed at midnight, right about the time I stepped off the ferry. She would’ve been here alone, but awake and aware.

So why was she still keeping it a secret? After Wes and Audrey’s showdown in the forest, everyone knew magic had returned to the island. Not everyone knew the details, or who the twelve were, but they knew the legend. They knew what was coming.

“I have something else to ask you.” This one I needed to approach more delicately. I couldn’t let on that I thought she was hiding something. Especially when her trust in me was tentative at best. “When’s your birthday?”

---