Excerpt of Enchanted Destiny by Rayka Mennen

Chapter One

Jake Taggert dragged his eyes away from her front door for at least the fifth time in as many minutes. With a muttered curse, he forced his attention back to the unrolled plans spread across the hood of his truck.

Three days. Three days since he’d begun this job, and three days he’d been drawn to that woman with the gorgeous curly hair. And legs that reached the sky. She must work nearby—she walked past him every day. Or maybe she took the bus or train? Had she already left before he arrived today?

Do not look at her house again.

With his coffee mug held away from the drawings, he squinted at the blue lines. One of the construction workers called out a greeting and he glanced up, raising his free hand in response. He noticed the trailer pulling onto the verge opposite him, piled high with sections of metal storm drains. Good. He’d called in a couple of favors and the company had come through with the delivery.

The crisp autumn breeze sent gold oak leaves scurrying along the sidewalk. It blew his hair over his eyes, reminding him he needed to get it cut. Shoving the too-long strands off his forehead, he kept his wavering focus on the intricacies of sewer pipe designs, trying to make sense of the land gradient and the lay of the new drains.

He scrunched his eyes. Lord, he was tired. If Cam would stop waking up at three in the morning, he’d be more functional. Of course, then the kid then fell asleep on the way to the sitter’s.

He stepped back from the truck and knocked into a body. A soft female body. By pure reflex, he half-turned and caught her around the waist before she fell.

"Oh, damn." Her husky tone brought forth instant images of silk sheets and king-sized beds. Some exotic, flowery scent wafted over him.

"I’m sorry, ma’am. I didn’t realize you were there."

He stared. It was her. The woman he’d watched for three days. The sun shone down on her just a little brighter, the grass on the verge behind her just a little greener.

"It was my fault." Her full lips curved into an apologetic smile. "I wasn’t paying attention."

Her hair was curlier than he realized from those short glimpses of her. She smiled again, flashing pearly white teeth at him.

When the hell did I started noticing women’s teeth?

She looked down at his arm still holding her waist.

"Er... sorry." He let go, wishing he could think of something witty to say. Something that would keep her there, talking. But that had about as much chance of happening as the Bears winning the Super Bowl this year. He wanted—no, needed—to hear that bedroom voice again.

Her eyes widened for an instant as she gazed at him. Beautiful, and grass-green. Thank God her lids swept down, hiding those eyes behind thick, curling lashes. He could have drowned in all that green.

Great, now I’m mooning over her eyes.

"Thanks for not letting me fall." She nodded at him and walked on, heading away from the construction. He couldn’t help following the line of those long, long legs under her red skirt. The same light wind blew again, and flirted with its edges, teasing him with half glimpses of the backs of her thighs.

Head bent, bag slung over her shoulder, she must have walked about fifty feet before she stopped. She swung around on one heel and ran back toward him and grabbed his bicep. "Quick! You have to move."

What the hell? "Excuse me?"

Even startled, Jake still registered the softness of her fingers on his arm and the tingle of awareness that shot through his skin.

"Please, just get away from the truck." Her voice rose, urgent, strange. Had she flipped her lid?

"Look... " he began.

She caught his arm with both hands and tugged, and he took an involuntary step in her direction.

Hell, when a gorgeous woman pulled him toward her, who was he to say no?

Still hanging on, she towed him away from the vehicle. He followed, more curious than alarmed. "Miss, what’s going on?"

"I... can’t explain. Please just... just get away from the damn thing."

"Hey, I don’t know what you want. What’s wrong with my truck?"

"Just a feeling."

A feeling? She’d super-glued her hand to his arm because of a feeling? They stood about a hundred feet from the truck now. Enough was enough. He dug in his heels and shook loose from her grasp. "Miss, you want to tell me what’s going on?"

"It’s just that... oh, how do I explain this?" She raked a hand through her hair, her bewildered tone touching a chord inside him.

"Explain what?" he asked, softening his tone. He glanced back at his vehicle. Maybe this was a scam and someone planned to carjack him.

The shout caught his attention. He looked in the direction of the noise, and stiffened in shock. The trailer, filled with sectional storm pipes, slid off the pavement, the tubes clanging as they knocked against each other. Tires spun as gravity took over.

"Oh. My. God." Jake breathed the words and watched in horror as the trailer slammed into his truck. The side where he had stood not a minute ago.

The resounding crunch of metal against metal echoed above the sounds of cars and machines. He flinched. People shouted, the words barely penetrating the haze over his mind. Unable to tear his eyes from his mangled truck, he stared, stunned.

Something sharp dug into his arm. He moved his head slowly, like swimming upstream in swamp water, and looked down at the hand still curled around his bicep. She had nice nails, painted a pale pink.

Jesus, she had saved his life. But how the hell had she known?

...

Kat Richetti shoved open the door to her salon.

"Hey. You’re late, but you don’t have to break the door down."

She glanced at her cousin, Gina, then stumbled into the reception area and sank into the nearest chair. Too early for customers, thank goodness.

"Kat? What’s wrong?"

She opened her mouth to speak, but no sound came out. A steamroller had taken residence on her chest. Swallowing, she tried again.

"Accident," she squeaked, her voice far from normal.

"Who’s had an accident? You? Damn it, Kat, talk to me." Gina’s worried words pierced the fog that hung over her. She clutched Kat’s hand in hers. Hard.

"Not me. A man. Out there."

"Where?"

Breathe in, breathe out.

She took another deep breath, the ritual associated with her meditation calming her somewhat. "By the construction site. Mon... Monroe Street, you know where they’re repairing the road?"

"By your townhouse, yeah."

"There was an accident." The trembling in her legs had stopped. Or maybe she couldn’t feel it because she was sitting down. "One of the guys doing work on the street. And I saw it."

Gina sank onto the arm of the overstuffed chair, her hand smoothing Kat’s hair. "You saw him get hit by a car or something? Did he die?"

"No, Gina." Her voice rose in exasperation and she caught herself. No point snapping at her cousin. Gina wouldn’t understand until she told her.

"This guy. I don’t know who he is but I’ve seen him there before. He’s with the work crew. A supervisor or something. A big trailer came loose and smashed into his truck."

Gina’s hand flew to her chest. "With him in it?"

She rubbed her cold hands together. "No, he was off to the side."

"So he didn’t get hurt?"

Kat shook her head.

"Then why are you so upset?"

"Gina! I saw it."

"Yeah. You just told me that. The guy wasn’t hurt, so what’s the big deal?"

"I mean I saw it before it happened."

Understanding dawned in her cousin’s eyes. "You mean... "

"Yes."

"Holy cow! Tell me the whole thing."

At least her heart had stopped racing like a Chicago cabbie beating a red light. "He brushed against me on the street. I started to feel funny, kinda hazy. I walked a few steps away when I saw the whole thing flash in front of my eyes."

"Oh, my God." Gina bounced off the chair. "What’d you do?"

"I ran back to him and tried to get him to move away from the truck. Sure enough, he wouldn’t. Kept asking me why. So I grabbed his arm and pulled him away, right before the trailer hit his truck."

Her cousin whistled. "What happened then?"

"People started shouting, running up to us. I slipped away and practically jogged here."

"Do you think anyone knew?"

"No. I mean, how could they?" No one else had been around her at the time she had the premonition. "Except him."

Gina knelt before her. "Him! You know what this means, don’t you?"

Of course she knew. It had been a tradition every firstborn woman in their family hoped would happen to them. Except for Kat. When the vision didn’t show up, she’d thought it was skipping a generation. Or maybe just her. She pulled at the lone curl falling over her left shoulder, and her heartbeat picked up the pace again.

It had really happened.

She buried her face in her hands and groaned.

"What?" Gina asked, rising and standing before her, hands on her hips.

"If it is the vision—"

"Don’t start second-guessing yourself."

The timing was just so bad because they had applied for a loan to expand the salon.

"It’s not about second-guessing. We have plans for the salon." She glanced up at Gina. "You haven’t forgotten our loan application?"

"I’m not forgetting anything. So, yeah, we’ve asked for a bank loan to expand the business. We can’t exactly ask fate to stop, can we?"

"But—" She clutched her head.

"But nothing. Stop with the head holding, your hair’s starting to look like a rat’s nest. We’ll manage."

"But now more than ever, we need to put all our focus into the business."

Sometimes she worried that Gina didn’t realize how serious this venture was, or how they could lose all the money she had put into the business if it didn’t succeed.

"I know that. But there’s two of us to do it now. Trust me, I’ll pull my weight."

"I know you will." She hastened to reassure her cousin. Gina had plenty of insecurities piled on her by their family without Kat adding to them. "I’m not doubting you. But it’s going to take the two of us putting in everything we have to make this work. I don’t have time for a man in my life. If I hadn’t given up on the vision I would never have agreed to us applying for that expansion loan."

Too restless to sit, Kat stood. She patted Gina’s shoulder in reassurance.

"You know," she said, and chewed on her lower lip. "It doesn’t have to be the vision. I’m almost twenty-five. No way would it show up this close to the deadline. Not with this much at stake."

Gina snorted with derision. "Okay, so now I know you weren’t listening when Nonna was lecturing us." Gina shook her head in exaggerated disapproval. In perfect imitation of their grandmother’s storytelling voice, she continued. "The tradition will find you. The vision will happen. But you must accept your destiny by your twenty- fifth birthday. Or you will lose it all."

She stepped closer and placed her hands on Kat’s shoulders. "Your birthday is in five weeks. Seriously, Kat. How many friggin’ visions do you think you’ll have where you save a guy’s life before then?"

Damn, damn, damn. Had she really thought she could escape the family tradition?

Damn.

She should have paid more attention to his looks. She couldn’t even remember the color of his eyes. And now the man was destined to be her soul mate.