Page 74 of Enchanted to Meet You

“You don’t have to thank me. It’s my job.” The words were automatic, and came out sounding more gruff than he meant them to.

But that’s because he was filled with sudden emotion—emotion he couldn’t identify. All he could think was,Why is she thanking me? Doesn’t she know? Doesn’t she know how I feel about her?

But evidently she didn’t, since she began to pull her hand away, her voice going tart as the essence of bergamot.

“Oh, so you were only doing your job? Well, in that case—”

He tightened his grip on her fingers, keeping her anchored beside him.

“There might be mitigating circumstances in this case that may have caused me to go a little above and beyond my job,” he admitted.

The smile returned to her eyes—and her lips. “Mitigating circumstances? WouldIqualify as one of those?”

He couldn’t help smiling back. “It could be—”

“M&M’s!” Yasmin cried, startling everyone. Her gaze was totally focused on the screens overhead. “They’re the candy that melts in your mouth and not in your hand, right?”

“Honey.” Sal shook his head at his wife as she happily scrawled her response onto the answer sheet. “Read the room.”

It was good advice. Pay less attention to the attractive woman sitting beside him, radiating sexual energy—at least, to Derrick—and more to what was going on in the room around him. That’s how he happened to notice that Rosalie had left her table. A quick scan of the restaurant showed him that she was over by the entrance to the video arcade, talking to a boy who could only be her son. He was the spitting image of Billy, only much younger, shorter, and dressed in skinny jeans.

“Excuse me,” Derrick said, releasing Jessica’s hand and reaching for the empty beer pitcher and wine carafe. “I have the next round.”

“Oh.” Jessica hadn’t noticed Rosalie. “You don’t have to do that. We can ask the server—”

“It’s no trouble.” Derrick made his way through the throng gathered around the bar and set both containers down. “Two more for that table over there, please,” he said to the first server who acknowledged him, and pointed back toward the Get In, Losers table. When the bartender nodded, Derrick turned toward the entrance to the video arcade.

Rosalie’s back was to him. She had her wallet open and was handing a fifty-dollar bill to her son. Derrick was close enough that he could hear her, despite the thrum of the bar and music from the games inside the video arcade.

“Now, I want you to share this with your sister,” Rosalie was saying to the boy.

“Aw, Mom,” the kid said, looking annoyed. He had his father’s dark hair, only he’d slicked it down in the front with some kind of product to make his bangs resemble those of a member of a boy band Derrick had seen on the front of a magazine at the airport. “That’s not enough!”

“Use your allowance, then.” Rosalie’s voice was crisp. “That’s what it’s for.”

The boy made a face, then spun away from his mother in irritation. Derrick reflected that if he’d ever responded to either of his parents in such a manner, he’d never have seen an allowance again, but Rosalie seemed unfazed. She closed her wallet and turned around to head back to her table...

But instead she walked straight into Derrick, who was standing behind her, his arms folded across his chest.

“Hello,” he said with a smile. “I think it’s time we have a chat, don’t you?”

Rosalie paled visibly under the bright lights of the flat screens above their heads. But he didn’t miss the way her gaze dropped down to the amulet at his neck.

“Oh, I... uh...” She glanced toward her table, but neither her husband nor any of the Veuve Clique Ohs were looking in her direction. “I’m sorry, but I don’t know what you mean. I really should get back to—”

“Oh, you know exactly what I mean. That’s why you came over this morning with your magic muffins—and why you’re passing them out here, as well. Billy may have gone home yesterdayand told you Jessica got a new boyfriend, but when you met me this morning, you suspected there was something more going on, didn’t you?”

Her blue-eyed gaze was darting all over the place. She really wasn’t very good at this. “I don’t—I really don’t—”

“Oh, I think you do. In fact, after that stunt you just pulled, I think I deserve five minutes of your time.” Derrick motioned toward the exit. “Shall we go outside to discuss this? Or do you want to do it in front of your husband who, from what I gather, isn’t aware of your... extracurricular activities?”

Her gaze flew toward Billy, who was laughing with one of her friends. Then, before Derrick could say another word, Rosalie spun on one of her high heels and marched toward the nearest door, which happened to let out onto the pier. He followed, reflecting that everyone had their secrets... but the one Rosalie was keeping from her spouse had to be one of the biggest.

The burst of wind that hit him the moment he stepped outside was so strong, it snapped the door shut behind him. It was cold, too, but not as cold as the spray of salt water that crashed against the side of the decking where they were standing. It had been noisy inside—a rude onslaught of music and seemingly endless chatter from both the television screens and the patrons—but the moment the wind knocked the door shut, all of that ended.

Now there was a different kind of noise: the howl of the wind and the splashing of water surging around the pylons beneath them, the hard rhythmic slap of the waves hitting the seawall beyond. The moon was still busy playing hide-and-seek with the dark storm clouds overhead that were being sent skidding fast across the sky by the wind.

The foul weather wasn’t courtesy of Rosalie’s gift, however.He knew even the most powerful storm witch couldn’t whip up a gale this fast.