Free Castaway Cove by Joann Ross

constituted a “normal” family. “Grow up surrounded by free love?”
    Although she’d never admit it, there were times when she thought that if people’s lives had sound tracks, Sedona Sullivan’s would be a medley of “Aquarius/Let the Sunshine In” from the musical
Hair
.
    “No. I dislike conflict and drama, so I pretty much stayed on the boring straight and narrow. And my parents, while not the Cleavers, were, as far as I know, absolutely monogamous. They’re very different people, actually. My mother, who taught me to bake, is mellow and calm and goes with the flow, while my artist dad’s pretty intense.
    “But as I got older and started thinking about boys and men and relationships, I realized that each of their individual parts fit together perfectly to make a much stronger united entity. I’m certainly not holding my breath, since I enjoy my life exactly as it is. But if I ever met a guy I meshed with as well as my parents do, I’d latch on to him in a heartbeat.”
    “I take it the guy last Saturday wasn’t Mr. Right?” Annie often thought that it would be next to impossible for any man to live up to the required qualities Sedona had plugged into her unbelievably detailed Excel “dateable male” spreadsheet. The first time Kara Douchett had told her about the spreadsheet, Annie had been sure she must be kidding. But then she’d actually seen it for herself.
    Sedona might have grown up in a commune, but apparently, despite her change in careers, there was a CPA still lurking somewhere inside her.
    “Hardly. For any woman. Unless she was into vampires.”
    “You’re kidding, right?”
    “I wish I were.” Sedona sighed and leaned forward, about to share the story, when their server arrived at the table to take their dinner orders. Crab jambalaya for Annie, shrimp étouffée for Sedona.
    “He seemed normal enough when he kept coming in to buy a cupcake,” she said. “Granted, I don’t get many customers who come in
every day
, but I was admittedly flattered when even after I turned him down twice, he didn’t stop.”
    “Some might consider that close to stalking,” Annie suggested.
    “True, it’s a thin line. But I didn’t get any weird vibes from him. He dressed like a normal guy, no black cape or upside-down cross necklace, he didn’t have oversized incisors or ask for blood-flavored cupcakes. He was also walking around in the middle of the day, and from what I could tell didn’t sparkle.”
    “So when and how did you discover his vampire tendencies?”
    “After I finally caved in and agreed to lunch at the Sea Mist. When we first walked in and the hostess led us to a table by the windows overlooking the harbor, he said it was too bright.”
    “Which is unusual for here, but maybe his eyes are sensitive.”
    “Exactly what I thought.”
    “So, after we were seated, before we even got our menus, he informed me he was taking a trip to Transylvania. Since it’s not one of your usual tourist destinations, I asked him if he had family there, and he said, ‘Not exactly.’”
    “That’s odd.”
    “Agreed. But then he told me that he got into fifteenth-century history after reading Bram Stoker’s
Dracula
.”
    “Aha! A clue. But not an indictment.”
    “Again, we’re in full agreement.” Sedona shrugged and took another sip of wine. “I mean, it’s not as if all those millions of people who read vampire stories or visit Forks up in Washington because of
Twilight
believe they’re actually vampires.”
    “Lucky for the rest of us or we’d be overrun with people wanting to suck our blood.”
    “Extremely lucky. When the waitress came to take our drink orders, since I had to go back and make a bunch of pies, I stuck to tea. He ordered white wine.”
    “Nothing unusual there. Given that the Sea Mist is a seafood restaurant, I’ve ordered white wine a lot with my meals there.”
    “Ah. But I didn’t tell you his reason.”
    “Which would be?”
    “White wine ‘dilutes