and gave Becki a belated hug on her way to the door.
“Hot,” Clarissa whispered giving Becki the thumbs-up sign as she headed out the door.
“Let’s get this party staaarrrted,” they heard Leann say. As she closed the door behind her, Becki and Royce were left alone inside the house.
Royce looked at Becki in surprise, and suddenly they both began to laugh.
“All I can say is ‘the apple doesn’t fall far from the tree’ with that one,” Becki managed. Judging from stories she had heard of Kurt’s youthful escapades, he was in for a wild ride over the next few years.
Royce silently stretched his hand toward Becki.
“You don’t play fair,” she accused, as she placed her hand in his.
“Nope,” he admitted, pulling close enough to drop a butterfly kiss on the top of her head.
Breathing a sigh of relief, he led Becki outside to the party. As they joined the group, he caught Natie’s eye. “Thanks,” he mouthed with a wink.
Natie smiled, raised her glass, and winked right back.
Sean and Landon appeared to be deep in conversation about tides, ocean currents, maps, and legends. Kurt and Jonah had just dumped a large pot of potatoes, corn-on-the-cob, sausage, and shrimp on a picnic table covered in newspaper. Becki’s young cousins and Natie raced to the table each bragging that they would be the one to find the largest shrimp. Mandy had been the lucky winner last time. Since the rules stated that she had to wait until the other girls had chosen one shrimp each, she danced along the sidelines urging them to ‘Hurry up already!’
“A girl could starve here!” Mandy complained, anxious to join in the fun.
Family, laughter, music and food-- Royce suddenly missed home.
The wind did not seem to be blowing as hard as it had been earlier, but the tropical storm was expected to make landfall tonight.
Royce and Becki sat on the porch swing holding hands and watching the girls hunt for shrimp-treasure.
“It doesn’t get any better than this, does it?”
“I love spending time with my family,” Becki said resting her head on Royce’s shoulder.
“I know you do, and they love you.”
“I’m one lucky girl,” she agreed, “and, I’ve got the hottest date tonight, Clarissa said so.”
Royce chuckled, “Kurt is going to have his hands full with those girls in few years.”
#
As darkness fell and stomachs filled, a deep sense of contentment settled over Royce. He found himself wondering what it would feel like to be part of something like this on a permanent basis. It was evident that Landon’s secret was known only by Kurt, and also evident that he was as protective of this family, as he would be of his pack.
Landon was clearly an alpha. Royce couldn’t help but wonder where the rest of his pack was. No doubt they were within shouting-- or rather howling-- distance.
Landon and Sean had spent the evening working on tides, currents, calculations and projections. Since the Witches had dumped Royce into the ocean, it stood to reason they might have hidden the coin in the water as well.
Ironically, Witches could not touch the coin directly, but they could have used magic to move the coin. However, there were limitations imposed by Merlin there as well; if they had used magic to move the coin, it could only have been moved to a destination within their direct line of sight. This safeguard prevented a Witch from simply grabbing the coin and using her magic to disappear taking the coin with her.
Hopefully, when Joanna arrived, she would be able to channel enough energy to lift the cloaking spell long enough to let Sean lock in on the coordinates of the coin’s current location. At that point, it would be as easy as taking candy from a baby.
The winds were picking up again and rain would most likely begin to fall within the next thirty minutes, if not sooner.
“I had better head toward home,” Becki said standing up to stretch. “Bee doesn’t do so well in strong winds,” Becki said, referring to her little yellow car. “She kind of gets tossed around like a grain of sand.”
“I need to get back to the hotel and finish packing. I wish we didn’t have to go back home tomorrow,” Natie said, as she pulled a cell phone out of her pocket.
“I wish you didn’t have to go back at all,” Becki said. “I’ll run you back to the hotel.”
“I’m not going across the bridge in that toy car,” Natie said. “You’re crazy.”
“I wouldn’t either. That