Two young women rise from their chairs. One eyes me anxiously, the other smiles, her eyes sparkling with excitement. She rushes at me. “Romy!”
I freeze. Yep, another hug.
She throws her arms around me and squeezes, then moves away. “Hi! Omigod, I can’t believe you’re here! This is amazing! And you’re so pretty!” Her eyes move over my face. “Your skin! Wow. We have to talk skincare products. Later.”
I can’t help but laugh.
“I’m Magan.” The other woman approaches me and gives me a more reserved hug. “Felise is a nutbar, ignore her.”
Felise’s red hair is long and wavy, multihued copper blond, where Magan’s darker red hair is styled in a sleek chin-length bob. Their faces are identical though, with creamy skin and big dark blue eyes. I tilt my head, seeing my own eyes. Wow.
They’re both about six inches shorter than me, tiny, and Felise leads me to a love seat and tugs me down. “You need a drink,” she says. “How about pink wine?”
I blink. “Um, sure.”
Joe hands me a glass of wine. “One glass of rosé,” he says dryly. “Don’t let these two overwhelm you.”
“Not these two,” Magan protests in an equally dry tone. “Her.” She points at her sister.
Felise shrugs happily. “Tell us all about yourself. What do you do for a living? Are you married?” Her gaze drops to my left hand. “No? Boyfriend? Girlfriend?”
I think my head is going to spin three hundred and sixty degrees. I take a gulp of wine. “Not married, no boyfriend, I’m straight and single.” I tell them about my job and Over the Moon.
“You could help us!” Felise says. “We have our own business too.” She gestures at Magan. “The Charming Chalice. Our website definitely needs help. Neither of us are good at that.”
“I’d love to help. What is the Charming Chalice?”
She tells me about the things they sell, and I nod, bemused by their unusual offerings but also imagining the designs I could do.
Cassandra and Joe have joined us and taken seats, sipping their own drinks as they listen to us three girls chatter.
“What about you?” I finally get to ask. “Boyfriends?”
“I have a boyfriend,” Magan says. “His name is Dallas.”
“I’m single too,” Felise says. “We can go out together to clubs.”
I grin. I was never much into the singles bar scene, but hey, I’m trying to expand my horizons. “Okay.”
At that moment, a man appears in the french doors to the sunroom.
“Oh, you’re here!” Cassie jumps up and hurries over to him.
I turn my head toward him.
My stomach swoops and my eyes pop open wide as I stare at Trace.
7
Trace
Like everyone else, I’m curious to meet this new family member.
I freeze.
I stare.
I shake my head.
Then my eyes meet Romy’s. Hers are wide and as stunned as mine probably are.
What the hell is she doing here?
My mind can’t make sense of this. Time stretches out as we stare at each other.
Magan calls out, “Trace! Hi! Come meet Romy.”
Is this for real? Is Romy Joe’s long-lost daughter? What the fuck?
Our eyes have stayed connected, and I take a few steps closer to her. “Romy.”
Her head moves from side to side, her eyes full of confusion. “Trace?”
Magan’s eyebrows pinch together. “You two know each other?”
Romy laughs awkwardly. “We actually just met the other night. At, um, the turtle races.”
Magan lowers her chin and gives me a skeptical look. “Turtle races?”
“My main man Donatello won,” I boast, covering up my own confusion.
“But… did you know who each other were?” Magan asks.
“Nope.” I frown at Romy. “I guess we do now.”
Romy rubs her forehead. “You’re… Oh. Ohhhhh. Oh my god.”
Magan’s watching us, eyes alight. “This is interesting.”
“What a coincidence!” Cassie exclaims.
I shoot her a glance. A fucking huge coincidence. “Crazy, huh?”
She beams. “Amazing!”
Was this why Romy’d been having a bad day that day? She’d just found out who her father is? And holy shit, it’s Joe. This is unbelievable.
Not for the first time, I wish we witches could read minds. Sadly, that’s not one of our powers.
I’ve been thinking about her since that night. There was something about her that drew me to her, not just a physical attraction (although kissing her was so fucking hot I’ve fantasized more than once about doing more to her) but a connection I felt in my chest. Is that my heart? Crap. I don’t believe in love at first sight. I don’t believe in love at all, at least for me. Like Lincoln said, it’s usually smash and dash for me.
I knew I’d see her again. Somehow. This was not what I expected.
Here she is. Sitting right in front of me. And she’s part of my family. Which means… back the fuck off. Way off.
“So you know Trace is like our big brother?” Magan asks.
“Yes.” Romy nods, her eyelashes fluttering up and down, betraying her nerves.
I’m still befuddled from finding out Romy is Joe’s daughter. Seeing her again. It’s a shock… and yet, in a weird way, it isn’t. It feels… inevitable.
But my head is all screwed up—excited to see her, disappointed that I can’t “see her,” and confused as hell.
“Dinner’s ready,” Cassie says. “Let’s move into the dining room.”
As everyone stands and heads toward the dining room, I move closer to Romy and speak in a low voice. “Hey.”
“Hi.” She blinks rapidly. “I had no idea… when we met the other night…”
“I know. Me either.” I shrug. “Wild, huh?”
“Yeah. Wild.” She shakes her head. “Like my whole life right now.”
“You mentioned that night you’d had a rough day.”
“That was the day I found out about the Candlers. Felise had reached out to me on Facebook because the DNA testing showed we were related, but we couldn’t figure out how.” She closes her eyes. “I can only imagine the scene when she asked her parents… I mean Joe and Cassandra… about it.”
“I wasn’t here for that.”
“Cassandra has been amazing. It can’t be easy to find out your husband has a child from a previous relationship.”
“No. But she is amazing. She’s been like a mother to me since I was sixteen.”
Romy swallows and nods, her chin quivering. “Right. You mentioned that. I can’t believe…”
“I know.”
“I feel pretty lucky. It could have been so different. The truth is… I’m a little overwhelmed, but I’ve always wanted this. A big family. Lots of people to love. I loved my mom, and she loved me, but I used to dream of Christmases with a house full of people and tons of gifts and…” Her voice trails off. “Well. You get the idea. I can’t believe this is happening.”