Free Hexed and Vexed by Rebecca Royce Page A

seemed much more appropriate for beach weather than the cold of winter in Manhattan. Olive’s sister, Cindy, had picked the damn thing on purpose, to make her even more unhappy than she already was at having to attend the occasion. Cindy didn’t even like pink. She’d selected the shade to be spiteful, nothing more.
    Olive breathed in the ocean air. This kind of weather is better for the soul .
    Everything would be downright perfect if her beach companion didn’t look like he wanted to toss her into the ocean. He’d been unconscious when they’d arrived, having not handled the time-space shift all that well. Now, however, Campbell stared at her, clearly wide awake.
    “Tell me again how we ended up here. And speak slowly so I can understand every word you say.” A muscle clenched in his jaw.
    “Well.” She might have preferred Campbell not bringing up her tendency to rush through speech when she felt nervous. “I think I may have, completely unintentionally of course, zapped us here.”
    “You. Zapped. Us. Here.” He nodded in between each word like he needed to make sense of all of them individually before he could move on. He ran a hand through his dark hair. Strands she herself had once caressed on a nightly basis before he’d gone and decided to marry her sister, thus destroying her life.
    “Exactly.” She hitched up her pink monstrosity of a dress and walked toward the inviting waves. The sea air tingled against her skin.
    Campbell grabbed her arm. “Olive White, you’ve never successfully performed one spell. Not even one .”
    “Yes, you would know that since you were with me every single time I bumbled one. The worst witch in witching school.” She hated that phrase and obviously, she’d made a spell work. Even if she hadn’t meant to. Maybe she could finally lose the nickname.
    “Yes.” He smiled at her, letting her arm go. For a second, she saw his brown eyes sparkle like they had when he used to look at her, in the days before the whole world had shifted sideways. But then as fast as the adoration had appeared, it vanished. “Well, since you can suddenly make the gift of the ancestors work, zap us back.”
    Campbell tapped his foot on the sand like she should hurry up and get the job done. She stifled a laugh, covering her mouth with her hand, at the image he portrayed.
    He still wore his tuxedo. In the sand.
    Dark hair, dark eyes, and dressed in a designer tuxedo, complete with a black bowtie that had to have been Cindy’s idea, he stood on the beach looking like a fish that had suddenly found itself in a bird’s nest. He really didn’t belong in his current habitat. At least, not dressed like that.
    Olive covered her mouth to hide her smile. Campbell always fit in wherever he went, and even though it seemed mean to laugh, especially because it was her fault that he’d landed on the beach, she couldn’t help but find amusement in how uncomfortable he appeared. After her months of pain, he deserved the hours ahead of him.
    He stood waiting for her to answer his declaration. Her sister’s fiancé wanted her to take them back immediately, if not sooner.
    “I can’t undo the spell, Campbell. And I’m not sorry about it. Not even a little bit.” She closed her eyes and let the sun beat down on her cheeks. Her olive skin would very quickly start to take in the rays touching it. By the end of the day, she’d be a whole shade darker. Heck, she might even look better in her puke pink dress with a little bit of a tan.
    “What do you mean you aren’t sorry? The love of my life is probably terrified, wondering what happened to me.”
    Olive highly doubted it. She tried not to let the love-of-my-life comment make her nauseous. It did have that effect, but she wasn’t going to acknowledge that in front of him. Nope, a little self-denial would work fine . Besides, her sister didn’t deserve his anxiety. Cindy never really cared about other people’s welfare as long as she could find a