“I’ve always liked to draw moments in my head,” Nell said, breathless now. “You know, images that appeal or that I want to remember. It’s sort of like that. Wow, I’m dizzy.” She sat straight down on the ground. “I felt a tingling inside, not unpleasant. Almost like you do when you’re thinking—really thinking—about sex.”

“Magic is sexy.” Mia dropped down beside her. “Especially when you hold the power. Have you been doing a lot of thinking about sex?”

“I didn’t give it a thought for eight months.” Steadier now, Nell shook back her hair. “I wasn’t sure I’d ever want to be with a man again. Since the Fourth, I’ve been doing a lot of thinking about sex. The kind of thinking that makes you very itchy.”

“Well, I’ve been there. Why don’t you do something about it? Scratch the itch?”

“I thought, I’d assumed, that after the fireworks last week, Zack and I would end up in bed. But after we drove around and he finished his patrol, he took me home. Kissed me good night at the door, the kind of kiss that lifts the top of your head off and spins it around. Then he went home.”

“I don’t suppose it occurred to you to drag him inside, toss him on the floor, and rip his clothes off.”

The idea made Nell chuckle. “I can’t do things like that.”

“A minute ago you didn’t think you could conjure a breeze either. You have the power, little sister. Zachariah Todd is the kind of man who’s willing to put that power in your hands, to give you the choice of time and place. If there was a man like that I was attracted to, and who was attracted to me, I’d do something about that power.”

She felt the tingle again, the stir inside her this time. “I wouldn’t know how to begin.”

“Visualize, little sister,” Mia said wickedly. “Visualize.”

Zack couldn’t think of a better way to spend a Sunday morning than skinny-dipping with the girl he loved. The water was cool, the sun warm, and the inlet private enough to allow for such activities.

They discussed taking a sail later, and the adoration in her beautiful brown eyes told him she’d follow him anywhere. He stroked her, sent her into a wiggle of delight before they swam companionably through the crisp and quiet water.

When a man had a female so uncomplicatedly devoted, Zack figured, he had it all.

Then she gave a yip of excitement, splashed a stream of water in his face, and headed to shore. Zack watched his boon companion desert him for the woman standing on the rough bank.

Lucy bounded onto the bank and straight into Nell, knocking her back two full steps and drenching her with seawater and doggie kisses.