“Carter?”

I shot up and threw her panties across the room. “Coming! I mean…be right there. Just need to take a quick bath.”

After that, I washed up as fast as I could.

Kendall was sitting up on the bed when I reentered the bedroom. I felt a little guilty for what I’d done but still would’ve done it all over again.

I held my towel around my waist to prevent it from falling. “You ready to explore the beach? We’d better get going before the sun goes down.” I couldn’t help noticing the way she was checking me out.

Fuck yeah. There may be hope after all.

“Yeah. I’d love to head down there.”

Kendall slipped into the bathroom to change into her bathing suit. When she came out, she was wearing a casual cotton sundress over her bikini.

I’d changed into my swim trunks and put on a plain white T-shirt.

When we emerged from the room, we had to pass through Maria Rosa’s main living area to get to the front door.

When Pedro leapt toward me, Kendall instinctively ducked. The monkey hopped up onto my shoulder and began to nip at my hair before practically flying away again.

Kendall was caught off guard when Maria suddenly led her by the hand to a table in the corner of the room.

Oh shit.

We’re never getting out of here now.

“What’s going on? What is she saying?” Kendall asked.

Not wanting her to get even more freaked out when we’d first arrived here, I’d chosen not to immediately tell Kendall that Maria was actually a psychic and clairvoyant. The majority of her business came from people who walked in off of the street for readings. I translated what Maria was trying to convey to her.

“Maria’s a psychic. She said she’s sensing some negative energy surrounding you.”

Kendall swallowed. The fear in her eyes was palpable. We both watched as Maria took both of Kendall’s hands in hers. The old woman’s eyes were closed as she concentrated. I continued to decipher what she was saying as best I could.

“Maria says she’s seeing a baby…and it has two heads.”

Kendall’s head whipped toward me. “What?”

I struggled to understand Maria’s ramblings, which were a bit fragmented.

“There’s a curse that’s been put on you, one that you may not be able to rid yourself of without her help. She says there is something going on involving a baby and that the baby or you could be in dire danger if the curse isn’t removed. I don’t understand what she’s talking about with the two heads.”

I had to say, as much as I loved Maria, this shit she pulled always creeped me the fuck out. One night as I was getting ready to leave for the airport, she cornered me and told me that there was a dead girl on the other side who was coming through and wanted to speak with me. I freaked out so badly thinking it was Lucy that I almost never came back here again. Thankfully, Maria never brought it up after that day.

I decided to play around a bit to deter Kendall from getting too weirded out. “She said in order to remove the curse, you have to kiss me.”

“Are you serious?”

My expression gave me away, and she rolled her eyes.

I listened more closely to Maria. “Okay…I think I’ve been translating wrong. She doesn’t see a baby with two heads. She sees a baby, but the head of the baby is actually a coin with two sides, heads and tails. Does that make sense to you?”

Kendall turned pale. Either Maria was freaking her out, or something about this crazy shit was actually resonating with her.

I continued translating. “This represents a decision having to do with money that may also involve a child in the future.”

Kendall placed her head in her hands. This was upsetting her. I needed to get her the fuck out of here.

I turned to Maria. “Vamos à praia. Podemos terminar mais tarde?”

“Come on. It’s getting dark. I just told her we’re heading to the beach.”

She’d been quiet most of the short walk down the steep hill that led to the water. I needed to get her to open up to me a little or at least get her to relax.

Playfully pulling on her ponytail, I asked, “Are you alright?”

She forced a smile. “Yeah. I’m fine.”

“That shit Maria was saying…did it make any sense to you?”

To my surprise, she nodded yes. “Somewhat.”

“You want to talk about it?”

“No. I really don’t. I just want to try to have some fun while we’re here.”

“Fair enough.”

The sun was starting to set. It was getting too late to really enjoy the beach. When we’d arrived close to the shore, the people around us started clapping.

“What’s going on?”

“They’re not clapping for us.” I chuckled. “There’s a tradition here, that when the sun slips below the horizon, everyone stops, stands and claps.

“That’s pretty cool.”

“It would be nice if people appreciated life and nature more often like this, wouldn’t it?”

“Yes.” She grinned. “Definitely.” She looked around in amazement, and I truly loved watching her face as she took everything in for the first time.

A familiar site at the opposite corner of the beach caught my eye. “Come on. I know exactly what we’re gonna do.”

A small sign on a stick buried in the sand read, Samba na Agua.

“What is this?”

“They do samba lessons on the beach at sunset here. They take tips, but it’s free. I happened to be walking by one night and got roped into a dance by some old lady once. You wanna try it?”

Kendall’s smile lit up her face. “Sure.” What little sun was left seemed to shine into her aquamarine eyes. Seeing her smile like that made me realize just how naturally beautiful she really was and how damn good it felt bringing her joy. I couldn’t quite figure out why making her happy was so important to me, considering I barely knew her. But there was a gnawing voice inside of me that seemed to whisper, “Pay attention. This girl is important.” I couldn’t explain it and sure as hell wasn’t going to ask Maria to investigate.

The samba lessons didn’t turn out exactly as I’d hoped. I was thinking I’d get to use it as an excuse to make physical contact with Kendall, but they’d assigned her to dance with an old man instructor. That gave me no choice but to dance with his female counterpart. Probably made sense, since neither Kendall nor I knew what we were doing. Still, I enjoyed watching her trip over her feet as she laughed and looked over at me doing the same