Time flew. She’d brought a container of yogurt and some bottled iced tea with her, and so she hadn’t had to leave the studio to get any lunch. Part of her worried about what Loc might be up to, but she’d told him he was on his own when it came to the preparations, and she knew she had better stick to her word.
Six-thirty rolled around, and she set the heavy, bead-studded tapestry aside and got up, stretched, and let herself out. Since she left through the door that faced the house, she couldn’t really see what Loc had done with the patio, and that was fine. At this point, she’d rather be confronted with something she knew she couldn’t change, rather than sneak a peek now and worry about whether she’d have time to get things fixed up before any of her guests started to arrive.
Loc was nowhere to be seen. Cat went into her bedroom and closed the door, then wearily stripped off her T-shirt and jeans. Her back was aching a bit from spending so much time hunched over her worktable, but she figured a glass of sangria might help with that.
No high heels, though. Loc had said the party’s theme would be Spanish, and so she got out a skirt she’d bought in a boutique in Santa Fe, black and ankle-length, with an embroidered, fringed overlay reminiscent of a Spanish shawl. The evening promised to be warm — the A/C unit in her studio had been working overtime all day — and so she put on a black tank top and flat black sandals, then pulled her hair back into a loose braid. Some red lipstick to go with the embroidery on the skirt, big silver hoop earrings studded with garnets, and she figured she was good to go.
Loc was just coming down the hallway from his own room as she stepped out from the master suite and closed the door behind her. The briefest widening of his eyes told her he’d registered her dolled-up appearance, and she experienced a flicker of satisfaction. It wasn’t that she’d put on this outfit on purpose to entice him or anything, but she did like knowing that she’d gotten a reaction from her demon lord guest.
“I think everything is ready,” he said. “Shall we go out to the garden and take a look?”
“Love to.”
He smiled, then headed for the staircase. Cat followed, telling herself it was silly to have expected him to take her arm. He might have picked up a good deal about human behavior during his time here, but it wasn’t as if he had everything down pat yet.
And even if he did, it’s not like he had to take your arm. He’s not your date, after all.
Although she had a feeling plenty of the people attending the party would think that about the two of them, no matter what she said.
Oh, well.
When she stepped outside, Cat couldn’t quite keep herself from letting out an admiring gasp. It wasn’t yet sundown, and so the true beauty of what Loc had done wouldn’t be obvious for another hour or so, but still, she had to admire the luminarias that outlined the pathway leading from the front door to the patio area, and the white fairy lights that had been twined in the trees.
“It’s beautiful,” she said.
Loc glanced up at the trees. “You like it?”
“Oh, yes.”
“Good. Because there’s more.”
He set off down the path, walking at a brisk pace. Cat was glad that she’d opted for flat sandals, since the flagstones that made up the pathway weren’t completely even. Hopefully, there wouldn’t be too many party-goers who chose to wear three-inch heels, because that might be a problem after they’d had a couple of glasses of sangria.
The vines that arched over the path right before it opened onto the patio also had strings of white lights entwined with them, and the patio itself was lit up by criss-crossing strands of the large, clear bulbs that always made her think of Italian restaurants. Candles in little mercury glass votive holders offered their own illumination, making the spot look even more enchanted.
“I can’t believe you did all this just today,” she said.
Now Loc smiled, a sort of velvety smile that made her knees feel a little weak. However, he didn’t seem to notice the effect he had on her, because he replied sensibly, “You forget that I have a few more resources than most people.”
Well, that was true. Still, it was one thing to have the power to make a scene like this possible, and quite another to have the sort of vision and artistic flair to pull it off successfully. Had he seen something like this in real life, or possibly on a television show, and merely replicated what another designer had done?
In the long run, it probably didn’t matter. What mattered was that the patio looked exquisite. When Ashley saw this, her head was probably going to explode from trying to figure out how they’d managed to do all this in the space of a day.
“And over here,” Loc said, “is the food.”
Again, Cat couldn’t quite keep herself from gasping. Off to one side of the patio, a long table had been set up, one that was now covered with basically every tapas dish she’d sampled in local Santa Fe restaurants, and a bunch more that Loc must have dug up from a Spanish cookbook. Or maybe he’d eaten food like this in Spain and had re-created everything from his memories. Next to the tapas table was a smaller one that held two large glass beverage dispensers. One contained white sangria, the other red.
Despite the warmth of the evening air and the fact that flies always descended like the plagues of Egypt during monsoon season, the patio was noticeably free of bugs. More of Loc’s unique powers at work, she supposed. He could make a killing marketing that particular talent to any of Santa Fe’s restaurants that offered patio dining.
“It looks like you’ve thought of everything,” she said.
“I hope so,” he replied, and went to fetch a couple of pressed-glass cups for the two of them. “White, or red?”
“Red, please,” she said, watching as he filled both of the cups with red sangria. He came to her and offered her one, and she took it from him and drank. The sangria was the perfect blend of sweet and tangy, lively with the flavors of the lemon, lime, and orange slices that had been soaking in it all day.
“Is it all right?” Loc asked, watching her somewhat anxiously.
“It’s perfect.” How he’d managed to achieve the perfect sangria in just one afternoon, she wasn’t sure. Concocting sangria and arguing over the relative merits of one version versus another was a long-running summertime activity in the Castillo clan.
“Good.” He looked away from her then, head tilted slightly, as if listening to a sound only he could hear.
In the next moment, Cat was able to hear it as well — the crunch of tires on gravel. “Sounds like our first guest is here.”
“Probably Ashley,” Loc observed. “I got the impression that she would want to arrive ahead of the others, just to make sure everything was all right.”
Yes, that did seem like something Ashley would do. Well, since even the most exacting party planner really couldn’t find fault with how Loc had set things up, Cat was sure her friend would approve of everything as well.
Which turned out to be the case, because just a few minutes later, Cat heard Ashley’s trademark “oh, my God!” just as she came down the path into the patio area. She paused for a moment, as if to take in everything, then came over to where Loc and Cat stood.
“How did you two manage to do all this in one day?”
“Loc works very fast,” Cat said.
Ashley’s head tilted to one side at that comment, as if trying to decide whether there had been an underlying meaning to Cat’s remark. Then she shrugged, apparently dismissing the statement so she could attend to more important things. “Well, it all looks fabulous! Which is perfect, because as of six o’clock today, I had 136 people say they were coming tonight. There will probably be a few more — you know there are always the ones who’re too lazy to even click a button to let you know they’re going to attend.”
One hundred and thirty-six people. Cat could feel her stomach tighten and gulped down some of the sangria she held. No, it wasn’t as though she had to worry about running out of food or drinks — she was sure Loc would
quietly ensure that wasn’t a problem — but still, that was a lot of people to cram into this patio space. She thought they would probably fit, but….
“That sounds like a very good turnout,” Loc said. “While we’re waiting for them to arrive, can I get you a glass of sangria?”
“Oh, that would be great. White, please.” Ashley watched him go over to the beverage dispenser and get a cup for her, an expression of something close to envy on her features. Leaning close to Cat, she whispered, “You are so lucky. I don’t think there’s a single guy here in Santa Fe who even comes close to him.”
“I’m not lucky,” Cat replied at once. “I mean, I guess I am in a lot of ways, but I’m not with Loc. He’s just a friend.”
“Well, you may think that, but I’m not sure he does. I could see the way he was looking at you.”
Despite herself, Cat felt a little shiver of pleasure go over her. She tried to tell herself that she didn’t want Loc looking at her in any kind of way, except as a friend, but those inner protests fell pretty flat. Even as angry as she’d been with him the night before, she’d found it impossible to ignore the way her heart seemed to beat a little faster whenever his gaze met hers. Maybe her mind knew that acknowledging such an attraction was dangerous and possibly downright crazy, but her body didn’t seem to have gotten the memo.
“That’s just how he is,” she made herself say calmly. “He’s kind of a flirt. Spanish, you know.”
“Uh-huh. I sure didn’t see him looking at me like that.”
Then they had to fall silent, because Loc was approaching with Ashley’s cup of sangria, which he handed to her with a smile, saying he hoped she would like it.
“It’s awesome,” she said after taking a sip. “The food looks amazing. And how were you able to keep all the flies and mosquitoes away?”
“An old family trick,” Loc replied.
Ashley drank some more sangria. “Then whatever it is, you need to bottle it, because you’d make millions.”
Unfortunately, Loc’s magical nature wasn’t something you could exactly bottle. He settled for giving a noncommittal shrug and then said, “I hear some cars coming. It sounds as though our guests are starting to arrive. Good thing there’s plenty of parking.”
Cat wasn’t sure “plenty” was the word to use when you were expecting more than a hundred guests. Back when the winery was operating, it could handle about fifty cars if you got creative, and she hadn’t done much to change the gravel area that used to function as a parking lot. Eventually, she thought she’d plow it under and maybe have some drought-tolerant grass put in.
Ashley must have seen the worry on Cat’s face, because she quickly added, “I told people they needed to carpool if possible, so it should be all right.”
If not, they’d probably end up spilling out onto the highway itself. At least here she didn’t have to worry about impinging on her neighbors, since the property was so big that it had a large stretch of roadside right in front of the vineyard.
Cat nodded, and after that, she didn’t have time to worry about the parking situation, since people kept arriving and greeting her before heading straight for the food and the drinks. Had she really been friends with this many people in high school? She honestly didn’t think so, but she guessed most of these people had come to the party out of simple curiosity or a chance to get a free dinner and some booze. Not that it really mattered, since she just smiled and said hi to everyone as they came by, and hoped she might get a chance at some point to snag some of those tasty tapas for herself.
Her cousin Tony was among the party-goers. Cat supposed she would have been surprised by this, since he had been a year ahead of her in school and therefore probably not on Ashley’s guest list…except that Tony could sniff out a good party the way a shark smelled blood in the water. She gave him a resigned wave as he appeared — solo, of course, since she knew he wasn’t dating anyone — and approached her. Luckily, Loc was off somewhere else, so at least she didn’t have to explain him right off the bat.
“Finally decided to throw a party, huh?” Tony said. Somehow he’d managed to go by the drinks table and get a sangria for himself before he came up to talk to her, but again, that was Tony for you. “I have to say, I’m kind of surprised you did something for the high school gang and not us Castillos.”
“It was Ashley’s idea,” Cat said darkly.
He grinned. “Got it. Next to me, she’s probably the best person in the world to make a party happen out of nowhere.”
“I’m surprised you never dated, considering you’re so alike.”
That remark earned Cat a shudder. “No, thanks,” Tony said emphatically. “The last thing I want is to marry someone too like me. Besides, my mother would have freaked out if I’d tried dating a civilian. She’s almost as bad as Genoveva was about that sort of thing.”
As soon as the words left his lips, he looked immediately contrite, though, as if he’d realized that making such a remark about Cat’s mother when she hadn’t been dead for even a year wasn’t in the best of taste. However, Cat had reached the point where she could hear references to her mother without either getting angry at the way she’d died, or guilty for maybe not being everything Genoveva had expected from her daughter.
Most of the time, anyway.
She gave a lift of her shoulders, then said, “It’s all right, Tony. Because she was completely rigid on that subject — you know, it might be all right for some of the more distant cousins, but never in the world would she let her own children hook up with civilians.”
Which was exactly why Cat had done precisely that very thing. When she’d come home after her losing her virginity to Channing Ellis, she’d been terrified, sure that her mother would be able to detect at once what she’d done. But apparently Genoveva’s prima powers hadn’t extended that far, and Cat had never been found out.
Tony nodded and swallowed some sangria. He didn’t get a chance to respond, however, because Loc approached them, a smile on his lips but a question in his eyes — and, although Cat wanted to tell herself she was imagining things, just possibly a hint of jealousy in his expression.
“Loc,” she said hastily, “this is my cousin Tony. Tony, this is Loc de la Cruz. He’s a fiber artist visiting from Spain. He’s staying through the show next Friday.”
“Nice to meet you,” Tony said, transferring his sangria to his left hand so he could reach out with his right.
It seemed Loc was familiar enough with that human convention, because he shook Tony’s hand and said, “It’s nice to meet someone from Cat’s family.”
“What, she hasn’t taken you to meet Rafe and Miranda and the rest of the gang?” The question was a simple one, but Cat could tell from the way Tony’s eyes were dancing that he enjoyed putting her on the spot…and possibly had a few choice questions he wanted to ask her once she was alone again.
“We’ve been busy,” Cat said in quelling tones. “But yeah, I’m sure we’ll try to do something next week…as long as Ashley doesn’t throw any more impromptu parties for me.”
“I assume she wouldn’t do that, since it would be when people had to work,” Loc pointed out in his precise way, and Tony grinned.
“Exactly. Well, I think I’m going to mingle now. Nice to meet you, Loc.” Tony’s gaze slid toward Cat, and the smile he gave her came dangerously close to being an outright smirk. “Talk to you later, Cat.”
“Okay,” she said, not sure she trusted herself to respond with anything more than that. It wasn’t that she expected Tony to go to Rafe and blab about Loc to him — for a party animal, Tony could be remarkably circumspect — but more that she had a feeling he had already made all sorts of assumptions about her and Loc, none of which could be remotely true.
Yet.
Loc stood next to her, watching as Tony paused to chat up a group of women in skimpy sundresses. “Your cousin seems to get along with everyone.”
“Tony? Oh, yeah, he’s always the life of the party.”
Her remark earned her an inquisitive glance. “You don’t care for that quality in him?”
“No, it’s not that. It’s just…he makes everything look so easy.”
“And it isn’t?”
She lifted an eyebrow at the demon lord. “What do you think, Loc?”
He drank from his cup of sangria, then said, “Well, in contrast to many others I’ve observed during the course of my travels, the Castillos appear to lead fairly comfortable lives.”
How was she supposed to respond to that comment? On the surface, what he’d said was true enough. It wasn’t as though anyone in her clan suffered for want of material comforts. However, spending a good chunk of your life pretending you were something you were not tended to get a little draining after a while. And Loc should know that better than anyone else.
His voice sounded in her mind. I did not mean to upset you.
It was the first time he’d reached out in such a way since they’d met in the vineyard the day before last, and Cat startled, even though she realized communicating like this was a lot safer in a big group if the discussion veered into topics you’d rather not have overheard. I’m not upset. It’s just that you of all people should know a little bit about having to hide your true identity. Doesn’t it get exhausting?
Exhausting? A pause, as if he was considering her question carefully. I hadn’t thought of it that way, but I can see your point. I suppose that is why I like spending time with you…you already know what I am.
Cat almost replied that he had a funny way of showing it, since he’d pushed her to go out to dinner the night before, and then conspired with Ashley to throw this damn party. Although at least the party seemed as if it was chugging along just fine without her.
I’m glad you feel that way, she told him, and then paused, dismay coursing through her.
What is it?
She really hadn’t thought he would come. In her mind, she’d visualized him getting Ashley’s text invite, then shaking his head and promptly deleting it. Clearly, though, that wasn’t what had happened at all, because there he was, looking a bit too dressed up in a black polo shirt and khakis, pausing here and there to stop and say hello to people he knew, but always moving inexorably toward her.
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