The Seaview Motor Lodgewas a horseshoe of rooms around a parking lot, lit by one buzzing sign with the S burned out.
EAVIEW.
That was more accurate. It might once have had a sea view, but now a high-rise condo sat between it and the ocean.
I pulled my hoodie up over my head, despite it still being a balmy eighty-five degrees outside, and knocked on the door of 14 like I was trying to make some illicit drug deal.
This felt worse.
He opened the door barefoot, in gray joggers and nothing else, a towel around his neck, his hair wet, and the worst part—the genuinely unforgivable part—was that he didn’t even pose.
He just leaned on the doorframe and looked at me like I was right on schedule.
“Torres.”
“This is a transaction,” I said, and I wasn’t sure if it was more for me or him.
“You mentioned that.”
He stepped back to let me in.
The room was cleaner than I expected. Board bag in the corner, a stack of RipTide promo boxes he was clearly using as amakeshift table, one antique motel lamp holding on for dear life.
“You want a drink? I have water and a sponsored beverage I’m contractually obligated to offer you.”
No. Don’t smile. That wasn’t cute.
“I’d rather drink the parking lot runoff.”
“That’s the spirit.”
He sat on the edge of the bed, leaning back on his hands, and watched me.
I didn’t move closer.
“Soooo, down to business.”
I’d rehearsed this on the drive over. This was business, but I at least owed it to him to be honest. “You remember what happened in the van.”
“Vividly.”
“The magic. The—” I gestured at the air, which did not help. “Surge. It turns out that when I’m…around you, in a specific capacity, I get charged up.”
“Yeah, Tanner told me about that.” He said it mildly, like he boosted witches through their vaginas every day. “Dolphins gossip. It’s their whole culture.”
I lost my place in my prepared speech.
“You knew?”
“I suspected. Then I was assaulted by a flock of seagulls an hour after you were sitting on my face, soooooo.” He shrugged, and the motion traveled through a lot of muscle groups that I certainly wasn’t watching. “I figured.”
“And you’re fine with that? Being used.”
Something flickered through his expression, there and gone. Then the grin came down over it, smooth as a tide over footprints in the sand.
“Depends. What’s it for?”
“What?”
