"No. "
He took her hand. "Want an ice cream cone?"
She shook her head. "I have to go to the bank, make a night deposit. Which, I'll point out, isn't being stuffy but responsible. "
"Uh-huh. I'll walk with you. "
"What are you doing in the village?" she asked as they started toward the bank. "Working late?"
"Not particularly. I went home about an hour ago. I was restless. " He shrugged his shoulders. "Came back. " And, he thought, had timed it exactly as he'd planned. Just as she'd be closing. He glanced over, studied a small group of people on the opposite side of the street. They were decked in flowing robes and weighed down with silver chains and crystal pendants.
"Amateurs," he commented.
"They're harmless. "
"We could call up a storm, turn the street into a meadow. Give them a real thrill. "
"Stop it. " She drew out her key for the deposit slot.
"See - stuffy. " He heaved a sigh. "It's painful to see such a bright hope turn into a rule book. "
"Really. " Efficiently, she made her deposit, tucked her copy of the transaction into her cash bag. "I don't recall you ever so much as looking at a rule book. "
"When they look like you, I study them in depth. "
His moods, she thought, were many and varied. Tonight's seemed to be foolish. She could do with some foolishness.
And as the group of would-be witches approached a window box filled with struggling dahlias, she gave a graceful turn of her hand. The flowers sprang up like jewels, full and bright.
"And the crowd goes wild. " Sam acknowledged the reaction across the street, the shouts, the gasps.
"Nice touch. "
"Stuffy, my butt. I'll take that ice cream now. "
He bought her a frothy swirl of orange and cream and talked her into enjoying it during a walk on the beach. The moon was nearly full. It would be fat and round by the weekend, and the solstice. And a full moon on the solstice meant bounty, and promise. And the rites of fertility that lead to harvest.
"Last year I went to Ireland for the solstice," he told her. "There's a small stone dance there, in County Cork. It's more intimate than Stonehenge. The sky stays light until nearly ten, and when it begins to fade, toward the end of the longest day, the stones sing. "
She said nothing, but paused to look out to sea. Over it, she thought, thousands of miles away, was another island. And the stone circle where he had been a year ago.
She had been here, where she always was. A solitary witch. A solitary celebration.
"You've never gone," he said. "Never gone over to Ireland. "
"No. "
"There's magic there, Mia. Deep in the soil, bright in the air. "
She continued to walk. "There's magic everywhere. "
"I found a cove, on the rocky western coast. And a cave, nearly hidden by the tumble of the rocks. And I knew it was where he'd gone when he left her here. "
He waited until Mia stopped again, turned to him. "Three thousand miles across the Atlantic. He'd been pulled back by his own blood. I knew how it felt, to be pulled that way. "
"Is that why you go to Ireland? You're drawn by your blood?"
"It's why I go there, and why I came back here. When you've done what you need to do, I'd like to take you. To show you. "
She licked delicately at her ice cream. "I don't need to be taken anywhere. "
"I'd like to go with you. "
"You learn fast, don't you?" Mia said. "I may go one day. " She shrugged and wandered closer to the surf. "We'll see if I want company. I will say, though, you were right about one thing. It's a hell of a night. "
She threw back her head, drank in the stars and sea air.
"Take off your dress. "
She kept her head back. "Excuse me?"
"Let's go swimming. "
She nipped into the cone. "I realize it may seem fussy to a sophisticated urbanite like yourself, but there are laws against nude swimming on the public beach in our little world. "
"Laws - that would be the same as rules, right?" He scanned the beach. They weren't alone, but there was hardly a crowd. "Don't tell me you're shy. "
"Circumspect," she corrected.
"Okay, we'll preserve your dignity. " He spread his hands and conjured a bubble around them. "We see out, but nobody sees in. It's just you and me in here. "
Stepping to her, he reached around, slowly lowered the zipper in the back of her dress. He could see her thinking, considering, as she finished off the cone. "A moonlight swim's a nice way to cap off the evening. Haven't forgotten how to swim, have you?"
"Hardly. " She slipped out of her shoes, then let the dress slither down. She wore nothing but amber beads and a glitter of rings. Turning, she strolled into the surf, then dived into the dark sea. She swam strong, cutting cleanly through the breakers and reveling in the sensation of streaking through the water as unencumbered as a mermaid. Until her spirit began to hum - with pure joy - she hadn't realized how much she'd needed this.
Freedom, fun, and foolishness.
She circled a buoy, listening to its hollow clang, then rolled over to float lazily on her back under a bejeweled sky. The water lapped gently over her breasts as he swam to her.
"You ever beat Ripley in a swim race?"
"No. Much to my regret. " Mia trailed her fingers through the water. "Putting her in water's like putting a bullet in the air. "
"I used to watch the two of you in the inlet over at the Todds'. I'd be hanging out with Zack and pretending not to notice you. "
"Really? I never noticed you. "
It didn't surprise her to find her head underwater. She'd expected it. And because she had, she turned like an eel in the water and jerked him under by the ankles.
She surfaced, slicked back her hair. "You always were a sucker for that move. "
"It got your hands on me, so who's the sucker?" He treaded water in circles around her, his hair black and glossy as a seal. "I remember the first time I maneuvered you into wrestling with me wet. You had on this blue number, cut so high up on the hips that I speculated your legs went clean up to your ears. That sexy pentagram birthmark like gold on your thigh, driving me nuts. You were fifteen. "
"I remember the suit. I don't recall being maneuvered. "
"You were cooling off with Rip in the water. Zack was fooling around with his boat at the dock. He'd just gotten that boat. Fast little fourteen-footer. "
She remembered that well enough. Remembered perfectly how her heart had slammed into her ribs when Sam, long and tanned a summer gold, had sauntered out onto the dock wearing nothing but cutoffs and a teenage smirk.
"There were a number of times I swam with Ripley in the inlet while Zack tinkered with his boat. And you came along. "
"This particular day," Sam continued, "I bided my time, fiddling on the boat with Zack, plotting out my moves. I got him to take a break, and in we went. That meant a lot of splashing, which meant you and Ripley had to bitch about being splashed. And doing so, you fell right into my clever hands. "
Like Sam, Mia began to tread and circle. She'd always enjoyed him in these
playful moods. They'd been rare in his youth. She imagined they were rare still.
"I believe you have delusions of grandeur in your faulty memory. "
"Memory's clear as a bell on this one. I egged Zack into challenging Rip to a race, which left the two of us bobbing around. Which meant, naturally, I could challenge you to a race. "
"Oh, yes. I do seem to recall something of that sort. "
Perfectly. She remembered perfectly, the nervy thrill of floating in the water with him, of having him focus on her with those sea-toned eyes. And the longing that had swept through her like a summer storm.