Page 33 of Enemies in Earnest

“We may need to conserve those,” I told Acacia but loud enough for the group to hear. “It’s not even seven o’clock. We have a lot of hours in the dark before the storm passes and these lamps have seen better days.”

“What if we just use one at a time?” Felicity asked, her voice trembling with emotion. “I don’t know if I want to be completely in the dark.”

Asher and Bear turned two of the three lamps off, reducing the ring around us.

“We still have our cell phones, too.” Klaus held his up, engaging his flashlight. “Not for continuous use,” he clarified. “But in a pinch—if we need to go use the restroom or there’s a reason to go back into the main dining area—just a reminder you have the use of your phone too.”

Something else heavy crashed into the side of the building.

“It can’t possibly be the eyewall?” I asked, though I realized quickly I was the most experienced among the group. We’d sent all of Acacia’s staff home before the storm started.

“What’s an eye wall?” Felicity asked Klaus, as if he’d know. Rather than answer he pointed toward me.

“It’s the back half of a hurricane. Typically, it's more powerful than the front half because of the centrifugal force of the wind whipping around in a circular pattern. That tends to be when things really get damaged. But the storm just made landfall, so I can’t imagine that it is the eye wall already.”

“We’re going to die,” Felicity cried. “If we haven’t even hit the eye wall yet, and already the outside is threatening to bring down this building, we have no hope.”

I tried to tell her, once again, that we hadn’t even reached hurricane levels yet, and we weren’t in any real danger, but Felicity wanted none of what I told her.

“When you are with your mom,” Acacia wrapped her arm through mine resting her head on my bicep. “You always repeat whatever someone says, loud enough that she can catch it with her good ear. But you do it in such a way that it looks like you’re talking to whomever just spoke while also giving your mom the dignity of not having to ask to repeat what was said.”

Her words were barely a whisper. No one else would be able to hear her, especially not over Felicity’s melodramatic wailing about all the things she wouldn’t get to do in her life.

“You hire Manny to take care of small repairs, even though I’ve seen you do the same kinds of things with your eyes closed.”

He was a good friend. And sometimes business was slow. Especially during the off season.

“When you think no one is looking, you throw pieces of fish at Six-Toed Joe. The good pieces, too. The stuff that the fishing boats leave for others to use as bait the next time they take fishermen out on tour.”

Where the two of us sat nearest the door was too far from the main circle of our friends for the weak lamplight to reach us. We were as close to bathed in darkness as the room would reach. Acacia took that opportunity to throw her leg over my thigh and settle herself in my lap, so we were nose to nose.

“If this hurricane is going to kill us,” she chuckled.

“Tropical storm,” I corrected.

“If today is my last night on earth, I have a confession to make.”

My heart raced as if I’d just run a marathon. The feel of her hands against my cheeks bathed me in tenderness that had my hands twitching to gather her in my arms and kiss the sense back into her.

“What?” I asked.

Her fingers scratched up along my five o’clock shadow, her cheek rested against mine, the gentle whisper of her breath tickled against my ear lobe.

“I’m the one who volunteered you for the Manuary auction, not your mom.”

There wasn’t even a word to describe the emotions that rushed through me. She had executed the world’s most perfect checkmate, and I never even knew it was her. That little brat.

“What?” I laughed, the shock making the statement come out louder than I thought it would. “Why on earth would you do that?”

“Why on earth would you do what?” Klaus asked.

“There is this auction,” I explained, tempering my voice to within a normal range so no one looked too closely at our position.

I loved having Acacia in my lap. The last thing I wanted was her to spook and leave. My arms tightened around her back, hoping she understood how badly I wanted her to stay there.

“We have an auction here every January. It raises money for conservation. This year it was to save the spotted deer. Ms. Ashley, over here, just admitted that it wasn’t mymother who secretly put my name on the auction sheet. It washer.”

I tugged at her hair, finding her neck with my lips in the dark, and taking a long, suckling bite from that tendon knowing it would drive her wild.

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