Camden moved his taco toward his mouth in slow-motion just to make Tina and Elena giggle. He wanted to ask about Tina’s nickname, Pepita, the Spanish word for little pumpkin seed. It was cute and he’d never heard anyone else use it before. Maybe when they got to the beach—after the trick, of course. He remembered his own dad showing him the trick when he was even younger than Tina, and his amazement when he thought, just for a second before his father explained the trick, that his dad could move the universe.
The pain in his heart caught up to him the next moment. He remembered the second time he’d seen the trick—at sunset riding up the glass elevator of Burj Khalifa, the tallest building in the world, in Dubai while on a short leave from his post in Afghanistan. Watching it then sparked his memory of the first time. He’d wanted to show the trick to his own little girl when she was old enough and never got the chance. He pushed down the guilt. That was years ago. A different life. He needed to live in the present, with an eye toward the future. One he wasn’t sure he deserved, but desperately wanted anyway.
Elena touched his hand, sending electric tingles up his arm that definitely grounded him in the here-and-now. “Are you okay?” Concern filled her warm brown eyes.
“Fine, fine. Just thinking about my job.” Not a lie—it was a man’s job to spoil the sweet little girl and the beautiful woman who held his heart. He devoured the rest of his vampiro in two huge bites. “Let’s get down to the beach. It’s magic time.”
* * *
After their walk down the hill, with Tina imploring them to hurry the entire way, the three of them stood on the beach and faced the Pacific. When they got there, Tina surprised them both by pulling her dress off over her head and revealing the swimsuit underneath.
“Did you wear that to school?” Elena asked, looking totally flabbergasted.
“I wear iteverywhere, Mama. Just in case.”
Elena looked at Camden and shook her head. “My daughter, the mermaid. Thing is, I can’t actually argue with her logic right now,” she waved her hand toward the ocean, “because this.”
She held her hand out to Tina. “At least give me your pump so that it doesn’t get all sandy or wet.” The little girl expertly undid her insulin pump and turned it over to Elena.
“Will she be okay without it?” Camden asked, hating the pit he felt in his stomach. He upbraided himself for not educating himself more on diabetes.
“Sure, for a while. I always have extra glucose and some fast-acting insulin on hand, just in case. But I see we’re gonna have to upgrade her pump to a waterproof one.” She smiled up at Camden. “It’s sweet of you to be concerned.”
The sun was a red sliver slipping down into the water.Perfect timing, Camden thought. “Now, don’t stare straight into the sun,” he warned. “But lay down flat on the sand and tell me theexact secondwhen the sun totally disappears, and be ready.”
Tina immediately went belly-flat, but Elena shook her head. “No way, not in this dress.”
Camden winked. “That’s okay. This magic only works for one person at a time.”As opposed to the magic I want to show you, which always works for two, he silently added. But his thoughts must have shown in his eyes, because Elena quickly looked away, back at the horizon.
He crouched down, waiting for Tina.
When she said “Gone,” he quickly grabbed and lifted her as high as he could.
“It’s back!” she shouted. “Now it’s gone again. You made the sun set twice.” She beamed down at him, her eyes twice as bright as the actual sun.
“Nope. That’s the magic of science. The earth curves, so when you’re down flat and then up high suddenly, your eyes ‘catch up’ with the sun. It’s even cooler when you’re in a tall building. I saw it once at Burj Khalifa, in Dubai.”
Camden set Tina on the sand. “You should do that to Mom next time.”
Elena laughed. “I don’t think he can lift me like he can you, Pepita. Not with these.” She gave her luscious, rounded hip a slap, sending Camden’s brain straight to his dick.Lord, give me strength if she does that again, he pleaded silently,or I will pick her up and do things that will make her beg me to never put her back down.
Oh, hell with it.
Camden drove at Elena like a linebacker and swooped her into his arms. He ran down the beach behind other sunset-watchers, carrying Elena while she shrieked and laughed. Tina ran alongside, mingling her laughter with her mom’s. He set Elena back down gently, resisting the urge to plant a kiss on her forehead before traveling to her lips. He loved seeing the mirth in her eyes, proud that he put it there.We are going to kiss tonight, Elena Martinez, fucking count on it.
“You weigh nothing,” he told her. “I wish I could have carried you instead of Old Misery during BUD/S.”
Elena blinked rapidly. “I think I know all the words you just said, but strung together that way they make no sense. So, um, thanks, I think?”
Camden laughed. “BUD/S is SEAL school. Old Misery is the telephone pole-sized log we had to carry over our heads during beach training.”
Tina gazed up at Camden. “You went to school with seals on the beach? I wanna do that, Mama.”
Camden cracked up. “Not real seals, you little mermaid. SEALS are elite teams with the Navy.”
“Oh.” Tina immediately lost interest and went chasing after a plover running in and out of the surf.
“Well. Glad I could impress her.” Camden thumped his chest and Elena held her stomach laughing. “I can tell you’re just as impressed. My job here is done.”
