“What’s up with that guy?” I asked, pointing to where a skinny man, his blonde hair thick with dreadlocks, vehemently gestured with a stack of papers in his hand. The couple he was directing his tirade at moved nervously closer to the line, trying to discourage his ranting.
“Hey,” I called out to the man, not wanting Beau’s restaurant to get a bad reputation. “What’s going on here?”
The man turned, and I looked into sea-green eyes – so light they almost disappeared into the whites surrounding them. I paused for a moment, reaching out with my mind to test the man’s thoughts.
“Turtles?” I asked, raising an eyebrow at him, not bothering to explain that I’d just rifled through his brain.
“Yes! The turtles, man. They’ll build over everything. Every last natural space. And the turtles will die,” he hissed, his blond dreads shaking as he waved the papers in my face.
“What are these papers?” I asked gently, moving away from the line, drawing the sketchy environmentalist away from the nice people who just wanted some seafood for dinner.
“A petition! I’m trying to get enough signatures to stop the development of the condos over on the east side of Tequila Key,” he said, shoving the papers at me with a pen in hand. His eyes were alight with the zealousness only found in true activists and myself when I spy a donut right around that time of the month.
“Aren’t they starting work on that development this week?” Luna asked, tilting her head to meet Dreadlock’s eyes.
“They are. That’s why they must be stopped. No matter what,” the blonde man seethed, hopping from one foot to the other in his worn leather sandals.
“I’ll tell you what,” I said, an idea forming in my head as I reached for the papers. “I’ll sign your petition and tell you just who you have to talk to get this thing stopped. They’re on the board of everything,” I said, sliding a glance at Luna to see her biting back a smile.
“Really? Thank you,” Dreadlocks breathed and I smiled brightly at him. Flipping the papers over, I held the pen in the air before I wrote down an address.
“Yes, of course, we all want to save the turtles. Okay,their names are Prudie and Theodore Whittier. They pretty much control the town. Trust me, you’ll know them when you see them. Think sweater sets and golf shirts,” I said, smiling warmly at the crazy man. He nodded back at me, reaching out to put his hand on my shoulder.
Ice washed through me at his touch and my eyes shot to his face.
“You’re one of the good ones. Thank you, Ms. Rose,” he said softly, before rolling the papers and tucking them under his arm, strolling off to harass someone else on the street.
“That was odd,” I said to Luna, reaching up to brush at my skin where the man had touched me. What was that weird wash of coldness I had felt from him? And how did he know my name? Making a note to bring it up to Luna, I followed her down the path to her car, my thoughts already jumping to the naked night ahead of me and moving past the odd encounter with Dreadlocks.
He certainly wasn’t the weirdest person I’d met in Tequila Key.
Chapter Eight
“Why can’twejust do this in my backyard?” I grumbled as Luna’s headlights flashed through the dark, illuminating a gravel road in front of us.
“Do you want your neighbors to look over the fence and see two naked women chanting around a pentagram?” Luna asked, her eyes on the road.
“It probably wouldn’t be the worst thing they’ve seen,” I pointed out.
Luna sighed and shook her head, slowing her car as we approached a bumpier part of the road.
“Hank would be a distraction. Distractions are not a good thing when casting a spell,” Luna said, like she was explaining something to a third grader.
“Point taken,” I said, then flinched when Luna switched off her headlights but continued to drive.
“Why did you cut the lights?” I stage whispered across the car. I could barely make out Luna’s face as my eyes struggled to adjust to the dark.
“Because we aren’t supposed to be on this beach and Idon’t want anyone seeing my lights approaching?” Luna asked, again sounding as if she were talking to a third grader.
“Well excuse me if I don’t go on naked night-time spell casting missions on the regular,” I shot back, crossing my arms over my chest. As my eyes adjusted, I realized the light from the moon was more than enough to guide our way down the overgrown lane. As we drew closer to the beach, Luna swung her car to the side and began to execute a three-point turn.
“We leaving already?” I joked, my voice sounding entirely too hopeful.
“No, but I always like to leave my car facing out. You know, just in case,” Luna shrugged and my eyes widened.
“Just in case ofwhat?” My voice may have squeaked a little – I’ll never admit to it, though.
“In case we need to get away quickly. When trespassing on a private space, you need to be prepared for anything,” Luna said, quietly easing her door open and motioning for me to do the same.
