Saina’s first stint as lifeguard went smoothly. Bastian’s uniform didn’t come close to fitting her, but Scarlet provided a staff polo shirt in her size and a pair of nondescript shorts. With the orange high visibility first aid kit strapped at her waist, Saina looked the part, and the swimmers accepted her authority without question.

She found the work easy and enjoyable, bantering with older women on the pool deck who reminded her achingly of her Voice and showing a pair of younger men the basics of the paddle boards at the beach. She reminded pale-skinned people to reapply sunscreen at appropriate intervals, and handed out cold bottles of water and sunhats to guests who weren’t used to the intensity of the heat in the tropics.

When the sun began to set and people abandoned both pool and beach, she wasn’t sure what to do with herself. After she put all the beach chairs back at the beach bar structure and straightened the now-abandoned pool deck, she wandered up to the bar.

Jenny was sitting at the bar, holding hands with a bartender in a cowboy hat, which puzzled Saina until she realized it wasn’t Jenny, just a woman who looked exactly like her.

“I’m Laura,” she said, offering a hand as Saina approached the bar. “You met my identical twin sister, Jenny.”

“Saina,” she answered, accepting the hand for a polite shake.

“You’re looking considerably better than the last time I saw you here,” Laura teased gently.

Saina realized that Laura must have been present when Bastian brought her to the resort. “Well,” she said dryly, “I imagine it’s not too hard a bar to beat, given that I was bleeding all over the place at the time.”

Laura laughed.

“What can I get you?” the bartender asked, after introducing himself aptly as Tex.

“Is staff supposed to drink here?” Saina asked cautiously.

“As long as you don’t make a habit of getting falling down drunk on the expensive stuff or get in the way of serving the guests, Scarlet gives us free rein and encourages us to eat and drink well,” Tex said. “The profit shares have been pretty non-existent, so she wants the room and board to be a fair trade for our work.”

“Seems like a sweet deal,” Saina said wistfully. It was getting harder and harder to think about turning her back on the resort. “Can I have something light and fruity, just a little alcoholic?”

“Yes, ma’am,” Tex said, putting his fingers to the brim of his hat.

As he bent to mix her drink, Laura gave her a sidelong look and a grin. “So. Bastian.”

Saina was glad her golden-brown skin didn’t show a blush easily, and she had to use all of her willpower not to squirm in her seat. How could she explain that she wasn’t Bastian’s mate, that she’d just enspelled and deluded the poor man and then had the poor grace to fall in love with him? Whether he loved her without magic or not, they were not mates.

She didn’t want to talk about Bastian.

“Is that a karaoke machine?” she asked desperately, hoping to deflect the topic.

“It is,” Tex said, setting the umbrella-topped drink in front of her. “Care to fire it up? Usually it doesn’t see a lot of use until the evening drinking crowd really settles in.”

Most of the guests were on the deck above, eating Chef’s fine food at the gourmet restaurant, but a few were nursing before-dinner drinks here in the bar, scattered between the tables in the open air bar and out on the uncovered deck, where stars were just beginning to appear in the purple sky.

Saina took a sip of her drink, eyeing the little stage hesitantly.

“I’m dying to hear you sing,” Laura admitted. “Jenny says you have the most gorgeous voice.”

Saina gave her a hard look, trying to determine if she’d heard about the things Saina could do with her voice, or if it was an innocent request.

The mischievous look on her face suggested it was not innocent.

Saina’s eyes narrowed. She wondered if Laura would prove as impossible to enchant as Jenny had.

“Of course, I could quiz you about Bastian, instead,” Laura suggested breezily.

“Hush, love,” Tex chided her. “It’s not always easy at first, and we should know. Give her space and let her enjoy her drink.”

Laura pouted good-naturedly.

Saina was puzzled. This wasn’t the mean-spirited kind of teasing she was used to in the siren pod. They were smiling, not only at each other, but inclusively at her. They would give her space if she asked for it, and she thought that they would be willing and understanding ears if she wanted to talk about Bastian. She wondered what they could tell her about him, and then remembered that she was planning to leave before he came home. She didn’t need to know more about him, as badly as she wanted to.

Suddenly singing seemed like the much simpler choice.