Page 21 of Bewitched By the Siren
She waves off my condolences, saying, “It’s fine. Mom is in good spirits and faces each day like a champ.”
I nod, watching the ground at my feet as we walk. How am I supposed to––in clear conscience––try to convince Hali to leave her sick mother and move to L.A. to become the next pop superstar? And on the other hand, how can I not? If I don’t deliver on this one, Julius might fire me. Then where will I be?
Just thinking it fills me with shame. Could I be more selfish and self-serving? But what other choice do I have?
“Mom said thanks for the burrito this morning, by the way,” she says with grin, breaking me out of the shame spiral I was drowning in. “She devoured it.”
“That’s good,” I say, smiling back at her, then I cock my head. “Hey, I’d love to cook dinner for you both sometime this week.”
She looks a bit startled, then seems to think it over as we walk the last stretch of our journey. She stops in front of my rental, and turns to face me with a small nod.
“Okay. That sounds fun. But it can’t be tonight. I have…plans.”
“Tomorrow, then?” I ask, biting my tongue against the urge to ask what her plans are.
Does she have a date? And why does that possibility make my stomach hurt?
“Tomorrow is good,” she says, then turns toward her house.
“Thanks for the tour,” I call out to her retreating back. “I had a lot of fun this morning.”
She glances over her shoulder at me and says, “So did I.”
Then she looks forward and rushes up the steps to her house. I watch as she disappears inside, my lips curving upward. She had fun. With me.
It feels like a giant leap forward, and I can’t wait to take the next one. Tomorrow night. I’m cooking for Hali and her mom, so the meal needs to be perfect.
I head up to my front door and hurry inside to start planning. Tomorrow, I can go to the grocery store to pick up everything I need.
Tonight, I’ll have to find a way to keep myself busy so I don’t obsess over Hali and these “plans” of hers.
I can just put it out of my head.
I’ll be fine.
Completely and totally chill.
Yeah. Right.
CHAPTER FOURTEEN
Hali
“Here you go, Mom,”I say as I roll her overbed table in front of her and set a plate of spaghetti on top.
“Thanks, sweetie,” she says with a smile as I place a glass of sweet tea next to the plate. “Are you heading out?”
I nod. It’s been dark for almost an hour and a half, so I’m fairly certain there’s no one left on the beach. I usually like to wait until the middle of the night, but the strain in my legs is so bad now after my walk to town with Brendan this morning, I can’t put it off any longer.
Kissing Mom’s forehead and promising to be careful, I head into my bedroom to change into a bikini. Once I’m done, I grab a towel from the bathroom and wrap it around my torso. Leaving my feet bare, I step out onto the back porch and close the door behind me.
My eyes move immediately to Brendan’s deck, and I release a pent up breath when I see it’s empty. It seems like he spends most of his time there, and I’d be hard-pressed to explain why I’m going swimming after dark when I laughed off the mere idea and told him the water was too cold just this morning.
Hurrying down the steps on light feet, I run for the beach. My thighs ache as I trudge through the soft sand, and I breathe a sigh of relief when the ground hardens as I pass the high-tide line. Stopping, I take a moment to peer in every direction. There’s no sign of movement on the beach or in the yards of nearby houses. Turning my gaze to the sea, I’m relieved to see nothing but darkness. There are no tell-tale lights announcing the presence of boats out for a nighttime cruise.
Spinning in a circle, I take one last look around before dropping the towel to my feet. As quickly as I can, I shove my bikini bottoms down to my knees where gravity takes over and they drop to the sand. Stepping out of them, I wrap them up in my towel and toss the bundle onto the softer sand just out of the water’s reach with practiced speed before dashing toward the water.
The cold, salty liquid splashes around me as I stomp through the waves, and as soon as I hit thigh-deep water, I dive under the surf and swim as fast as my appendages will take me. Within seconds, my legs tense, and I stop swimming. My body arches and bends as the change takes over, my legs fusing together as whatever magic I hold inside me does its thing, releasing my tail.
