“I promise not to drown her,” I grumbled over the salty crispiness of my French fry. I couldn’t believe Trace was bringing his new girlfriend on our dive. That wasourtime together. For years, Trace had been taking me out on his dive boat in the very early mornings, before he had customers on board for the day. I used the time to work on my underwater photography, and he used the time to just chill out underwater without having to be responsible for anyone else’s safety. It was a win-win for us both, and I was more than a bit annoyed that Sienna would be joining us tomorrow.
“I don’t know what your problem is anyway, Thea. You’ve got a scrumptious man, if I recall correctly?” Beau lectured me.
I shrugged one shoulder non-committedly, and he raised an eyebrow.
“I mean, I do. Yes. I think I do. We talk a lot.”
“See, that’s huge right there. Everyone knows guysdon’t like to talk on the phone,” Beau nodded at me as he slid a fresh mojito across the bar to me.
“Why can’t you have them both? That’s what I would do,” Miss Elva said. I gaped at her.
“You can’t haveboth,” I argued.
“Says you. You can if you’re Miss Elva,” Miss Elva chortled, and I almost spit out my food laughing at the horrified look on Rafe’s face.
“What are you looking at?” Beau asked, following my gaze. I realized I’d grown used to Rafe hanging around.
“My ghost boyfriend,” Miss Elva said. “He’s a little pissed that I’m talking about taking more than one lover at a time.” She turned to lecture the ghost. “Now, Rafe, you’re going to have to realize – you can’t have me all to yourself until I’m in the spirit world with you.”
Beau’s mouth dropped open. Then he shook his head. “Of course, whywouldn’tshe be talking to her ghost boyfriend?” he asked.
“I kind of have a ghost boyfriend too,” I muttered, and Luna shoved me a little in my chair.
“Whining is not very becoming. You’re gonna feel bad about that when Cash comes back down here and rocks your world,” Luna scolded gently.
“Probably. But for now, the only world that’s getting rocked is Sienna’s tomorrow,” I promised.
“You leave that poor girl alone. We’ve got enough problems on our plate without you trying to take down some stick of a girl,” Miss Elva lectured.
“What other problems?” Beau asked, reaching across the bar to pick up Miss Elva’s empty glass. He held it up in question, and she waved her hand in a ‘go ahead’ gesture.
“Well, we’ve got a murder to solve, for one,” Miss Elva began.
“Please tell me you aren’t trying to solve that murder out on the beach,” Beau gasped.
Luna and I looked at each other, guilt evident on our faces.
“What did you two do?” Beau demanded.
“Shhh,” Luna hissed, and we leaned forward so that only Beau could hear us.
“We were on the beach the night of the murder. I was teaching Althea how to cast a circle. The dead body ended up smack dab on our circle,” Luna whispered and Beau gasped, clutching his hand to his heart.
“Y’all are going to give me a heart attack. I can’t even with you two. This is not good,” Beau shook his head gravely.
“Thanks, Mr. Obvious,” I said, glaring at him.
“Althea left her shoes there too. And whatever else she may have dropped when we ran.”
“Why’d you run?” Miss Elva asked curiously. “Did my sweet Rafe scare you?”
Rafe puffed out his chest at her words, and I rolled my eyes.
“I just felt like there was an evil presence on the beach and my gut said to run,” I said, shoving another French fry in my mouth. I was stress eating. Who cares?
“And now Thea thinks there’s going to be another murder,” Luna said quietly, causing Beau’s eyes to go wide in his handsome face.
“No,” he said.
