Page 15 of A Touch Enchanted

Thora and Audrey glanced at each other, and Thora cleared her throat. “Speaking of the third phase of the curse, have you decided if you’re going to talk to your parents about possibly shutting down for the summer?”

I stared down at my beer. “I haven’t.”

It wasn’t that I disagreed with the idea of it in theory, but in practice, I didn’t see how it would work. Not all the families on the island struggled like mine did, but they weren’t Lathams either. Most everyone I knew wholly depended on the summer season to make ends meet in the winter. Even if the Lathams got them all jobs and housing on the mainland, and I had no doubt they’d honor their promises, it wasn’t easy to just uproot your entire life on a whim. That was something I felt like they’d failed to take into account when they came up with this plan.

“I don’t know what else to do,” Audrey said quietly. “I can’t let my grandma and Ella stay here when I know it’s going to get so much worse.”

I understood that, too. The other night I’d woken up in a cold sweat after having a vivid nightmare about my parents and friends all being dragged into the sea by that same black seaweed that had wrapped around Donovan—but I couldn’t save them. There were too many of them and just one of me and they were all drowning. When I went out on my balcony to get some fresh air and calm myself with the sound of the waves, I could’ve sworn a dense black fog hovered over the roof of my apartment. But then I blinked and it was gone.

“I’ll try,” I said. It was all I could promise right then.

Conversation turned to Cole and what Brooke was going to do about him. Audrey thought she should walk up to him and touch him at the next town hall meeting. Thora thought that was a bad idea, given Cole’s volatile personality. Who knew what kind of powers would burst out of him? I couldn’t deny that she had a good point.

As it got later, the bar began to fill with a mix of tourists and locals. Since there wasn’t a band scheduled for tonight, Kenna had music pumping through the old speakers her dad used back when the bar had been his. Before he and his husband moved into a sailboat to spend their time in warmer waters. Leo’s used to be a dive, but Kenna was the one who had turned it into a destination.

People began to move onto the dance floor and I spotted Lucas across the bar. He was generically attractive, like an Abercrombie & Fitch ad, but there was something slightly slimy about him underneath the surface. He was definitely the type to drop the L-word just to get into someone’s pants, but when he headed toward me and asked me to dance, I figured why the hell not. I was single. And I didn’t have to go home with the guy. There was nothing wrong with a little harmless dancing.

“You’re looking good as always, Violet.” His hot breath in my ear made me cringe and his awkward boner pressed into my thigh had me taking a step back.

“Sorry. I thought I could do this, but I’m just not in the mood.” I turned around to exit the dance floor when I caught sight of Donovan glaring at Lucas from the bar. He held his beer so tight, I was surprised he didn’t shatter the glass. That shouldn’t have made my heart race and my nipples tighten, but attraction had no sense of reason.

And because I had a few drinks in me and was feeling bold, I squeezed in next to him, close enough to make both of our palms flare with light. “Come here often?”

“Cute.” He smirked down at me. “I’d ask you your sign, but I already know it.”

“Did it hurt?” I trailed a finger down his bicep.

His warm, earthy eyes darkened. “Did what hurt?”

“When you fell from Heaven?”

“Good one.” He cupped my face and tilted it upward. “Want to get a pizza and fuck?”

I sucked in a sharp breath and clenched my thighs together.

“What’s the matter?” His thumbs skimmed my jaw. “Don’t like pizza?”

“Is that a mirror in your pocket?” I ran my hands over his chest. “Because I can see myself in your pants.”

He dropped his head. The tips of our noses touched as his lips hovered over mine. So close. “Aren’t you tired from running through my mind all day?”

“I swear to God, if you two fuck in my bar, I’m making you both pay for the hazmat clean up.” Kenna clunked two beers down behind us, pulling Donovan and me out of the temporary bubble where only the two of us existed. Her gaze kept bouncing between my face and the gills that had popped out on my neck, but she didn’t acknowledge them.

I put a foot of space between me and Donovan. Clearly, we couldn’t be trusted to keep our hands to ourselves in public. “What are you doing here? I thought it was Boys’ Night?”

“It’s impossible to have Boys’ Night when those are my boys.” He gestured to where Wes and Finn were all over their fiancées. “Can’t keep those horny bastards away from their women for a single night. It’s like herding cats.”

I let out a laugh and grabbed our drinks so we could rescue poor Brooke from being the unfortunate fifth wheel. As soon as we took a seat, I handed her a shot. Which she threw back with gusto and flagged down a waitress for another.

“This was supposed to be Girls’ Night,” she grumbled.

“I think they’re adorable. Don’t you remember what it’s like to be young and in love?” I kept my gaze carefully averted from Donovan, the only person I’d been in love with when I was young.

“No.” Brooke leaned back in her chair, her sunshine smile bright. “Fortunately, I’ve never been plagued with that specific affliction. Although I had the flu once. I’ve been told that the symptoms are similar.”

I shook my head. “Let’s leave the lovebirds to their nest.”

I pulled Brooke out to the dance floor. She moved like fish through water, elegant and shimmering with something light and beautiful, as if she had a secret you’d give anything to discover. I wasn’t the only one who noticed, either. It was only a matter of time before several guys made their move, spinning her away in a flurry of peach-colored silk and clinking silver as they tried to capture her attention.

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