by Luna Joya
With one hand bracing her sister, Cami tugged her sunglasses into her tangle of curls and blew out a breath. Feeding Mina was top priority. No more sexy daydreams about a handsome guy.
The fleeting second she’d given in to the fluttering in her belly had been the best part of her week. Time to return to the reality of her witchy family.
Chapter Two
Sam Corraza’s morning had started off in the crapper. Not literally. Though with the industrial-size garbage disposal dripping underneath the massive kitchen sink, the stench was about the same. No plumbers had been available on short notice, so it’d been up to him to plug the leak. Such was the glamorous life of restaurant ownership, but Corraza’s meant everything to Sam.
He’d finished minutes before the breakfast rush, praying his patch job would hold until he could get a plumber out. The kitchen had swarmed with activity for hours by the time Sam shrugged a collared button-up over his undershirt. He pushed through the swinging door to the dining area and headed toward the host stand.
He needed to work out table arrangements for a big group arriving soon. After scratching quick notes, he lifted his head to double-check his counts. That’s when she walked through the sunlight streaming in the front door.
She had hourglass curves and a riot of chin-length curls in every possible shade of brunette. Her face tipped up toward his. All that wild hair framed strong cheekbones and a pouty bottom lip begging to be kissed.
When she slid her sunglasses into those curls, he stared even harder. Her eyes. They were enormous pools of molten gold. He’d never seen that color in a woman’s eyes. They couldn’t be real. She blinked, dark lashes fluttering before she glanced toward the tables and then back up at him. Sunlight shifted across her face. Those huge golden eyes were real.
She checked every face in the room, gripping her keys and gnawing her lower lip. Worry filled those beautiful, tired eyes. What could’ve happened to make her so cautious?
Seriously, he needed to get a grip. Thinking with the wrong head at the restaurant led to disaster. He glanced to the strikingly similar woman next to her with darker eyes and longer curls. She was pretty, but she didn’t draw him in like the first.
“Welcome to Corraza’s.” He recited the same welcome he’d given for years.
“A table for three?” Those golden eyes darted over the crowd. “Something with a little privacy, if you have it?”
Sam snagged three menus and led her to a booth tucked in the alcove at the end of the bar. Led them both, he corrected himself.
Golden Eyes waited for the other woman to slide into the same seat of the booth. She angled herself so she faced the front door. Her shorts hugged all the right places and revealed smooth olive skin. A faded graphic shirt stretched across her breasts, screen-printed with the cover of a children’s book.
“Here are your menus. I’ll be happy to answer any questions you have.” The practiced words rolled off his tongue even as his mind bounced between not staring at her chest and not asking her name.
A tall blonde slid into the booth opposite Golden Eyes. “Leave us,” the newcomer told him.
Golden Eyes whispered a harsh word across the table followed by exchanged hot glares with the blonde.
He took a step back at the nonverbal standoff between the three women. Sisters. Had to be. Only family could rile someone so quickly. What would it have been like to grow up with family so close they didn’t need words to communicate? He’d gotten to know his own siblings pretty well the past five years, but these women must have been tight their whole lives.
Returning to the rhythm of his job with some distance from Golden Eyes, he sorted out servers and mixed drinks for customers at the bar. He could’ve passed the women off to an employee, but he didn’t. He headed toward the booth with three waters.
Golden Eyes stood and pushed the other dark-haired woman to go clean up with quiet assurances she’d remember her order.
“I’ll go with her,” the blonde said. “Same for me.”
The two women walked around the corner, leaving Golden Eyes alone. Sam settled the glasses on the table with a soft clink.
“Hi, I’m Sam.”
“Nice to meet you, Sam.”
He could swear he’d seen a spark of interest there. “And you as well, um…?” He trailed off, hoping for a name before he slipped up and did something dumb like calling her by her eye color.
“Cami.”
“Cami.” He savored the name before tilting his head in the direction the other women had gone. “Sisters?”
“Were we obvious?” She dipped her chin and lowered her lashes.
The inference hadn’t been tough with the familiarity, affection, and even the annoyance
the women showed each other. Sam wiped a spot on the table that wasn’t the least bit dirty. “I haven’t seen you here before.”
She shook her head, and the curls flew. How could she be so adorable and seductive all at once? His body reacted to her like it did to the ocean when he paddled out on his surfboard, excited to discover what came next with the uncertainty if it’d be a smooth ride or an unexpected thrill.
“I saw the sign from the road and took a chance.” She waved a hand toward the busy tables. “Looks like I made a good choice.”
Sam grinned at the double meaning. Sure, he wouldn’t mind if she’d only been talking about him, but Corraza’s was his life’s work. The fact she liked it was all the better.
He gestured toward her shirt. “The book where the kid got sent to bed without supper for being bad. He becomes king of the monsters, right?”
She glanced down. “Something like that.”
“I loved that book as a kid.” He didn’t add how he’d read it every night and wished for the comforting parental love the character found at the end of the book. Sam had grown up without the same and moved on.
He steered away from the loneliness he’d shared with the characters in the story to focus on the fun part. “Nothing like an ocean escape to wild adventures in your own bedroom.” He hadn’t filtered the thought before saying it out loud. Great. Now she’d think he was a creep.
She tilted her head, studying him with a half-smile on her pretty pink lips. “How very true.”
He cleared his throat. “I hope you and your sisters came hungry.”
She huffed a tiny chuckle. What would her real laugh sound like? Would it be loud or annoying? Maybe quiet or cute?
“We are always hungry.”
“I can’t have that.” He crouched down with the pretense he needed the table as a writing surface, but really he wanted to be closer to her. “What will it be?”
She scooted toward him with the menu. When she ordered enough food to feed six starving lumberjacks who’d been lost in the wilderness for weeks, a piece of his heart melted. He loved when a woman wasn’t bashful about eating. Especially when it came to his food.
He focused on her order and not the glint of a delicate gold chain sliding at the curve of her neck. “Want a drink? Orange creamsicle mimosa with ice cream is my specialty.”
“Creamsicle anything sounds divine.” The side of her mouth curved wistfully. Was that a dimple? He’d have to get a real smile from her to know for sure.
“Divine, huh?” He should stop stalling and get back to the kitchen. “What can I get for your sisters?”
“Coffee, please. One black. The other with cream, sugar, and cinnamon if you have it.” She paused. “Heavy on the cinnamon.”
Sam recognized the recipe from surfing trips to Baja. “Brown sugar?”
She blinked. “How did you know?”
“Lucky guess.” He caught movement out of the corner of his eye. Her sisters. “A creamsicle mimosa, a black coffee, and a café de olla coming right up.”
He straightened as her sisters walked toward them. The younger had a playful bounce, the older a regal stroll. Neither moved like Cami’s serious stride.
Sam put the order in and headed into the kitchen. He grab
bed ice cream from the freezer to whip up her specialty mimosa. At least three more orders would come the minute customers watched him bring the drink out. He needed to concentrate on maximizing sales and quality at Corraza’s to keep the business on top. He didn’t have time for a woman in his life. But he’d sure like to make some time for Cami.
Chapter Three
Cami leaned to get a better view of Sam walking away. Broad shoulders tapered to a slim waist, and the edge of a tattoo peeked from his rolled shirt sleeves. She’d fit right in the cut of muscle at his shoulder. His chocolate eyes shone several shades darker than her own. The way the skin around his eyes crinkled when he smiled mesmerized her. The man even smelled good, like the ocean mixed with rum and bay leaves. She licked her lips.
“What a cute butt,” Mina chirped.
Cami jerked, worried she’d been caught gawking. Mina obviously didn’t have any such anxieties. She slid into the seat and beamed.
Her sisters looked amazing. Cami sniffed her own shirt, wondering if it smelled like sweat or animal stench from the night before. “Did you two invoke one of Ama’s glamor charms in the bathroom?” she teased after checking for people within earshot.
Mina snickered. “Not all of us have crazy bed head.”
Cami reached up. The wind this morning had frizzed an already unruly riot of curls sticking out in all the wrong ways. Why had she slept on it damp yesterday? Because she’d been at the clinic all night with no plan to flirt with a handsome man afterward. She’d worn the crumpled Where the Wild Things Are shirt that should’ve been tossed a few dozen washes ago under her scrubs. It bordered on transparent now. She winced at her fashion disaster.
“Mina, do I need to remind you we both came from work to fix your screw up?” Delia lowered her voice to a whisper for the last words. “She had to use her element to find you.”
“Good.” Mina crossed her arms. “It was time you were done with your ridiculous vow of magic celibacy or whatever you call it. We’ve already got Delia with her no-powers-unless-absolutely-necessary policy.”
Cami couldn’t even respond before Delia gave their sister a glacial glare. “Discretion is how we protect the family. Don’t be a brat. Try a little gratitude.”
“Sorry.” Mina fidgeted with the straw in her water. “It’s not like the rest of us can compare with your rocking the ancient fertility goddess lineage anyway. Wish I’d inherited that from Ama.”
Ama had passed the Nahualli legacy on to Cami and Mina, like she had their dark hair and severe lack in the height department. Their older half-sisters Ruby and Delia looked like their mother, a tall, blonde from an old witch family but with no viable powers. The dad the siblings shared came from generations of magical Donovan women.
Delia lifted a shoulder. “Can’t say I’m not a tiny bit jealous to have missed out on that DNA jackpot.”
Despite what her sisters said, Cami wondered if having the magical mother lode was a curse some days. “Completely your imagination.” She didn’t want to talk about whatever price of her powers she might be emanating subconsciously.
Mina huffed. “Please, every guy in here can’t stop staring at you.”
“Shut up.” Delia stretched a hand toward Cami’s. The psychometric flexed her fingers briefly before making contact. Delia could read secrets and memories from connecting with skin or unfamiliar objects. She didn’t touch anyone outside of family if she could avoid it because she never knew what awful surprises she might see. “Can’t you see Cami’s worn out? She needs refueling, but she put you first.”
Mina’s face crumpled, and she leaned into Cami. The loving connection from both sisters seeped into her, taking the edge off her magic. Her price for magic was more complicated than Mina’s hunger or Delia’s exhaustion. She needed affection, freely given. Sometimes, sleep had to suffice.
A server brought platters loaded with food and two coffees to the table. Delia snatched her hand back to the safety of her lap, but Mina stayed close by.
Maybe they could have a quiet breakfast. Not likely with Mina.
“Our ripped waiter? He’s your type.” Mina drowned her pancakes with syrup and dug in. “Hot, interested, available. Did I mention hot?”
“I don’t have a type,” Cami said, taking the syrup before Mina used it all. She poured for Delia. One less thing for her sister to touch. “Even if I did, I’m too busy for distractions right now.”
“All part of your life plan?” Mina mocked.
“Yes.” The life plan had pulled Cami together after she’d escaped her abusive ex-boyfriend Neil. She might carry the invisible scars of that mistake forever, but she had a successful career and bright future as long as she stuck to the plan.
“I like the life plan.” Delia wiped her mug and silverware with a spelled cloth from her purse before neatly cutting her pancakes into squares.
“Her plan is dumb.” Mina shoveled in another mouthful.
“My plan gets me through.” It kept her away from magical interferences like this. A little while longer and she could crash at her studio apartment for a few hours before work tonight.
Mina shook her head. “Neil,” she bit out and swore.
Cami started like a scared rabbit. “Where?” She’d checked the restaurant when they walked in and had steadily scanned the crowd before she’d become preoccupied with Sam. How had she missed the one person she constantly feared running into?
“He’s not here. I’d have already told him off if he was.” Mina’s jaw clenched.
“You and me both.” Delia pulled out her phone.
Mina sipped her coffee. “I meant Neil is the reason for your life plan. You used to be flexible and fun. You rolled with the punches.”
Cami flinched. Rolled with the punches, indeed. Her family didn’t know the violence Neil had resorted to when she couldn’t be controlled through words alone. “Things didn’t go so well the last time I got off plan.”
“Not your fault,” Delia said, scrolling through text messages.
Cami wondered some days. She should’ve seen the signs. Maybe she could’ve avoided Neil altogether. “Still, life’s safer this way.” She was sure of it. She’d stick to the plan. A tattooed, tanned, devilishly handsome guy wasn’t in it.
Time to change the subject to something else Mina would care about. “The woman in your slip? The one you risked danger to follow? What was she like?”
Mina picked through the fruit on the side of her plate to eat the blueberries first. “Sunny? Feisty actress in her twenties. She had platinum hair in ringlets, this pouty little Cupid’s bow, and a magnetic smile. Exquisite golden goddess perfection.”
Cami nodded and tried to focus on Mina. Not on Sam, who’d returned from the kitchen with her mimosa or the way his black hair was shorn short on the sides with longer curls on top. She couldn’t stop staring even as he stood in front of her. The corners of his mouth tipped up. Busted.
“Can I get you anything else?” His tone implied he was offering more than a drink. She sipped through the straw and knew she should look away from him, but he simply waited there, close enough to touch. His gaze narrowed on her lips before flicking back to her eyes.
“That looks tasty,” Mina said. She nudged Cami with a knee under the table. Hard.
Cami ignored the hint, savoring the drink in a luscious mouthful of yum. She hummed in satisfaction. “It’s delicious. Thanks, Sam.”
“No problem. Everyone doing okay this morning?”
Cami paused. Rescuing her witchy family and struggling to suppress her own powers? Not exactly an okay kind of morning. Delia’s brow arched, but she had her phone to her ear, listening to messages.
“Oh, you know, Sam.” Mina drew out his name like she’d learned a secret between them. “Sister fun. Cami loves the ocean.”
What was her sister doing? Really? Now? When they had just talked about the frizzy mess that was her hair?
Sam angled toward her. “The beach is the best place to start a morning. Am I right?
”
“I try to go every day.” Blocking her powers, she could be surrounded by the source. Seeking its solace in the weeks and months after she’d gone too far. Let it know she’d made it out even if she couldn’t fully come home to the ocean. “Only a half hour or so after work or before studying. Ow.” Cami stopped and flinched from the swift kick to her foot.
“She paddleboards in her free time.” Mina sounded like a bad dating ad.
She wanted to crawl under the table. Sisters. Thank goodness Delia didn’t join in.
“Cool, I surf most mornings. And I work a lot.” He glanced at Cami. “We have that in common.”
What else could they find in common? His focus on her didn’t waver, and his steady attention brought a thrill of anticipation.
“Cami can surf. You any good with a board, Sam?” Mina asked in the long silence.
“Some days.” He looked back to Cami. “When the waves are right.”
She almost fanned herself. All the waves between them felt right.
Delia hung up. “Mina, we gotta go in ten minutes. What’s the deal with Sunny Sol?”
Cami opened her mouth to say something to her sister about getting so lost in her work she didn’t notice anyone else. But Sam cut in. “Sunny Sol? The actress?”
Mina’s eyes widened. “You know who she is?”
“Of course. Her café was about a mile up the road from my restaurant, and the garage where her body was found is now a morbid tourist attraction.”
Delia tapped a finger against her mug. “Your restaurant?”
Sam nodded.
“Sunny Sol had a café?” Cami asked before Delia could interrogate him about his security system or finances.
“Sure.” He snagged a coffee pitcher from a passing tray and topped off Delia’s mug. “Sunny owned an upscale restaurant too. The building for both is only about a mile away. Arches and a hexagon center. You can’t miss it.”
