Free Hex on the Beach (The Magic & Mixology Mystery Series Book 1) by Gina LaManna

don’t we learn new things?” I tried my best not to be impatient, but if my job was as important and crucial as everyone thought, then I wanted to get straight to the interesting stuff. Plus, I was itching to stop memorizing names—I’d fall asleep before we reached page fifty in the book.
    Gus thought otherwise. Raising his cane, he smacked it a hairsbreadth away from my pinkie finger, shaking the table. “Let’s review it… twice .”
    I closed my eyes for a moment, taking a deep breath.
    “Do you have anything else to say?” A smirk twisted the corners of Gus’s lips, and I could tell he was just dying to smack the table and issue me a third review.
    I shook my head silently.
    “ Huh ,” he grunted. “Maybe you’re not as slow as I thought.”
    Hiding a small smile, I ducked my head and turned to page one. “ Alohis Morgasetti , a small, round seed with the hallucinatory properties…”

Chapter 8
     
    After a rigorous morning session, in which we reviewed the first lesson twice, and finished a second, third, and fourth lesson—all of them more grueling than the last—I was more than ready to climb back into my hammock, curl up in a ball, and let the wind lull me to sleep.
    I’d worked long hours and many late nights at Lions Marketing, Inc., but I had never been this exhausted—physically, mentally, emotionally. Even my hair sagged. Plus, the salt in the air twisted my locks into wild curls. While normally I would cinch the unruliness back into a bun, I was too tired to raise my arms.
    I left my hair down and crumpled up in the hammock to wait out my lunch break, the pale-yellow sundress riding high on my thighs. I was supposed to head on a tour of The Isle, but the chirping of the birds, the splash of the waves, the crispness in the air—all of it got to me, and I fell fast asleep.
    Sometime later, I took a deep breath and wondered if everything had been a dream. Maybe I’d wake up at Jesse’s bar with a hangover that’d knock me out for days before I’d have to show up at Lions Marketing and grovel for my job back.
    But when I sucked in a breath that tasted distinctly salty and felt my body rocking with the steady motion of a hammock, I knew I hadn’t made it up. Lying here, the sun warming my face, until…
    All at once, the sunlight disappeared and the rocking of the hammock stalled to nothing. My eyes flashed open, my heart pounding.
    A face stared down at me—a male face topped with disheveled hair black as a midnight ocean, with eyes to match. They stared at me, and I felt myself tipping, swirling into their depths. I screamed, and my hand came up, swinging a hardcore punch straight to his face. My adrenaline pumped and my palms turned sweaty as I struggled to get my bearings.
    Thankfully, the man was quick. Unlike me, he hadn’t just awoken from a deep dream, and his fighting moves were less groggy than mine. His hand caught my wrist just millimeters from his nose.
    “Who are you?” he asked, his voice a low, soft rumble. “And why the hell are you trying to punch me?”
    “Do you make a habit of sticking your nose in strangers’ faces as they sleep?” I attempted to wriggle my arm from his grasp, but he held on tight, his grip unforgiving. The best I could manage was to pull myself into a semi-sitting position, uncomfortably folded into a pretzel on the hammock. “What is with people here? Have none of you learned manners?”
    A lazy, slow smile overtook his face, turning his already-handsome, deeply tanned visage into a work of art. An imperfect work of art, but nonetheless beautiful. The small scar above his left eye only made him more stunning.
    “Manners?” he asked. “You call punching someone before asking their name manners ?”
    “What’s your name?” I asked, my sarcasm appearing out of nowhere. “I can punch you again afterward, if that makes it better.”
    The man’s eyes crinkled for a moment, confused, until he threw his head back and laughed. Leaning in, he