Chapter Thirteen

 

Grandpa bustled about the kitchen. He’d gone all out for dinner and made homemade crab cakes. “I thought maybe you and I could go out after dinner for a beer. Catch up with Mel and Sandra, eh?”

As if Mel and Sandra were AJ’s contemporaries, too. Why was AJ so damn popular all of a sudden? When he least wanted attention, people flocked around him. “Sorry, I can’t tonight.”

His grandfather harrumphed. “Don’t tell me you’re seeing her again?”

“I hope so.” AJ set out silverware and two plates. “Why don’t you go by yourself? You and Mel could chat at the bar.”

Grandpa set the skillet atop a trivet on the table. “No, no. I am not the type to hang out in bars alone.”

“You wouldn’t be alone. Mel would be there. And probably more of your friends.” His grandfather’s hermitlike life worried AJ. He was too young to shut himself away from the world. Away from another chance at something good.

Grandpa sat with a sigh. “Never mind. It was only a thought.”

“Hey, we’ll do it soon, OK?” He speared the dubious-looking crab cake onto his fork and tasted it. “Mmm. Excellent.” He worked his jaw to keep the wince from showing.

His grandfather lifted a forkful. “Not as bad as I expected.” He set his sights on AJ. “Certainly not excellent.”

AJ shrugged. “Still within the range of excellence.”

Grandpa spat a laugh.

AJ gulped his milk, wishing for something stronger to kill the taste. “An excellent effort. It gives you something to aim for. You don’t want to achieve perfection right off the bat.”

His grandfather peered over his glasses. “And you should have been a politician.”

“Me? Never. I have too much soul.” He shoveled the last of his meal into his mouth.

Grandpa nodded. “Yes. You do at that.”

Though it was much too early, AJ couldn’t wait. “I have to go.” He carried his dishes to the sink.

Weariness infused his grandfather’s voice. “Leave those. I’ll take care of it.”

AJ took a long step and kissed the top of his grandfather’s head. “Thanks.”

From his room, he took his guitar, a pick and the playlist. He’d practice while he waited. She’d show. He had a good feeling. “Hey Grandpa, I’m going to take an old comforter, all right?”

A grumble from the kitchen was answer enough.

“See you.” He slung his guitar strap over his shoulder and the blanket over top. He couldn’t stop singing as he walked, and thinking of what songs she might like.

The beach was quiet. Only one couple walked in the distance with their dog. He liked it best when no one was around. Playing to a crowd felt great, but playing to an audience of one thrilled him more than he ever imagined. Watching her expression grow more intense in time with the music, seeing the admiration in her face.

He settled as close to the edge as he could without the spray reaching his guitar. The salt air probably corroded its finish already, but that couldn’t be helped. He smoothed an area large enough to comfortably fit her, and lay the comforter on it.

The songs flowed one into the other. Every so often, AJ paused to listen, but the only sounds were the gentle waves, the breeze. As he played on, the moon rose, its reflected rays stretching across the water. He stopped to check the time on his cell phone. Ten. Maybe she couldn’t get away. Maybe she wasn’t coming. He stared out over the bobbing waters. He’d stay awhile longer. Just in case.

A shadow flitted beneath the surface, and her head appeared.

His breath rushed from his lungs. “Cassiopeia. I knew you’d come.”

“I can’t stay long.” She pushed up out of the water. “What’s that.” Her gaze went to the blanket.

“It’s so you’d be more comfortable.” And close by.

She slid to the blanket and sat, her head down.

Afraid to even breathe, he didn’t move. “You have to stay awhile, at least. You have a lot of practicing to do.”

Her hair lifted in a breeze as she looked out to sea and sniffed.

“What’s wrong?” His fingers were at her shoulder before he could think.

A hardness set in her features as she gazed out over the sea. “I’m so sick of them. Telling me what I can and can’t do. What I should and shouldn’t do.”

He leaned closer. “Who, your parents?”

Her laugh held no humor. “My whole family. My sister’s going to the Mer Academy, so they expect me to follow. I’ve had enough studying. I want to do things, not read about them.” She glanced up at him. “Sorry. I had a bad day.”

“No, tell me. What’s the Mer Academy? Is it like college?” He stroked her hair lightly. She probably didn’t know what college was, but she seemed to pick up ideas quickly. He wished he knew half of what she knew, or what her world was like.

She knit her brows. “It’s so hypocritical. Human Studies—as if a mer can teach that. It’s only to reinforce the notion mers are superior to humans.” If she noticed his hand at her back, she didn’t acknowledge it. Instead, she touched a large rock, her fingers ran across its edges.

“I won’t argue. People are stupid.” Himself most of all. He’d wasted so much time, directionless. Cassie was smart enough to do whatever she wanted with her life.

In a motion quicker than he thought possible, she tossed the rock far out to sea. “The Mer Academy is nothing more than a mating ritual. My parents expect me to find a suitable merman and settle down.”

He tensed, and a hardness filled the pit of his stomach. “You’re not going to, are you?”

She whirled to face him. “No. All the mermen in our clan are idiots.” She softened her voice. “And mers mate for life. I don’t—”

“For life.” He wanted to add, So do humans–as if he could compete with a merman—but statistics proved otherwise. Except for his grandfather, he didn’t know many others who fell in love with one person for a lifetime.

Her eyes held a question he couldn’t decipher.

“What?” he asked.

She sighed. “You’re lucky. You’re not confined by where you live, or what you are.”

“Are you kidding? I’m confined by the same things you are–life, family expectations. Although I can’t say my mom expects much from me. My Grandpa sets me up with a job just to bring in a paycheck.” To complain about his grandfather felt like treason; he wasn’t ungrateful. More like dissatisfied, and more with himself than with Grandpa.

She searched his face. “You can’t use your job, or your mom’s low expectations, as an excuse not to do what you want to do.”

The truth of her words was like a slap to his ego. “What?” He sat straight, and withdrew his hand from her back.

“Your music. Isn’t that what you really want to do?”

He leaned away. “Yeah, but–”

“Then you shouldn’t give up on it.” Her insistence irritated him. She hardly knew him. Yet she knew the most important thing.

His tone sounded sharper than he intended. “I’m not. I took a break, that’s all. My band broke up.” He couldn’t tell her it had nothing to do with the music and everything to do with his own inability to control himself.

The flimsiness of his argument was obvious to himself. The skeptical look on her face told him he hadn’t fooled her.

A year ago, if any girl had said what she said, he’d have walked away without a thought, and never looked back. He struggled against the urge to stand, put space between them. More space wasn’t what he wanted. He wanted less.

He softened his voice, but it was laden with sarcasm. “I’m playing, aren’t I? And writing new songs.”

She glanced away.

Great. Now he’d hurt her, too. He had to break this funk.

“Anyway, I don’t want to talk about music. I want to create it.” Lifting his guitar, he held it toward her. “Can we?”

She swiped her cheek. “It sounds nothing like music when I try to create it.” She adjusted her tail in front of her, and sat regal as a princess. “I’d rather hear you play anyway.”

He’d rather have her hold the guitar, so he could sit behind her, but if playing would keep her here, he’d play all night. “OK. I put together a list of songs I think you’ll like.”

She tilted her head. “Any Neil Young?”

He ran his hand through his hair. “Wow, didn’t see that one coming. I could maybe fake one of his songs.”

Her face alight, she said, “Harvest Moon.”

At a loss for words, AJ stammered. “How do you…”

She explained, “A man and a woman sail their yacht to a certain spot all summer. She asks him to play that song, and they dance on the deck. Always during a full moon. The moon tonight reminded me of it. I haven’t heard it in awhile.”

He closed his eyes, hoping the song would come to him, but it eluded him. He knew he’d heard it, but…

“It starts with a guitar, very sweet chords.” She hummed the intro.

“Yeah, okay. I remember now.” He adjusted the guitar across his legs. “I’ll do my best.” He plucked the tune.

“A little faster.” She rocked her head to the beat, and he strummed faster to keep time. “There.” Her eyes widened with pleasure.

He stumbled on the opening, closing his eyes as he struggled to remember the words.

When she sang the opening, it seemed like an invitation to heaven. To come closer.

“Oh, right.” The song became more familiar. His voice mixed with hers into the first stanza. He followed her lips as they sang, laughing when she had to prompt him on the lyrics. When they’d reached the final verse, where the singer revealed his love, she harmonized the last line …on this harvest moon.

She rested her fingers near the strings as the vibrations faded.

AJ held himself still, though he wanted nothing more than to run his fingers through her dark hair. “You have a great voice. Do you sing… down there?”

Her lips pressed together in a half-smile, half-smirk. “Yes. We do all sorts of things ‘down there’.”

Of course they did. He sounded like an idiot. Or a bigot. “Sorry, I don’t know much about your people.”

“Mer people. Music is very important to us, the same as it is to ‘your people’.” She looked up at him, a sparkle in her eyes.

He relaxed, knowing she had been teasing. “What now?”

“Surprise me.” She rested her hands behind her and leaned back. Some of her hair fell behind her shoulders, but not enough to reveal her breasts. “Still looking for the clam shells?” she teased.

He looked away, warmth creeping up his neck. “No, I, uh…”

“Play, AJ.”

His hands moved automatically, gratefully. He finished the song, his hand poised in the air, the move he’d used onstage to add flair to the end.

Shifting her tail upward, she rested her elbows against the bend where her knees would have been. “That was nice. But don’t you know anything with a heavier beat? Something that rocks.”

She was full of surprises.

“You like rock music?”

“Nirvana, Foo Fighters. Anything with a strong guitar. Springsteen’s great, too.”

“Springsteen. OK.” He launched into Hungry Heart, his heart lightening when her head bounced to the beat. He followed with Foo Fighters, another U2, then thought he’d throw her a curve with Stevie Ray Vaughn.

“Oh, I love the blues.” She shifted her shoulders with the guitar slides, letting the rhythm carry her.

“You’d be a awesome dancer. If you know, you had… legs.” He swallowed hard, hoping he hadn’t offended her.

“I dance, in my own way.”

“Yeah?” He could imagine her underwater, twirling and spinning like the Weeki Wachee mermaids, only much more graceful.

“Yeah.” Her tail twitched as she looked him over. “Come with me. I’ll show you.”

Fear held him in place. What if Grandpa had been right? What if she took him to where she lived, and never brought him back?

She laughed. “You should see your face. Like I’m going to eat you or something.”

“No, I was only trying to picture it, that’s all.” He adjusted the tuning of a string.

“Come with me, and you can see for yourself.” The moonlight made her face radiant. Her expression mixed challenge and skepticism.

He’d be underwater, with her arms around him. “All right.” If he drowned, he’d be with her, at least.

“Take your shoes off. They slowed me down the other day.” In seconds, she disappeared into the waves.

Leaning his guitar securely against the rock, he removed his shoes, stood and went to the edge. The waves washed over the rocks. He dipped his hand in. “Whoa. Kind of chilly.”

Her hand gripped his upper arm and pulled him underwater to her open arms, which wrapped around him. The cold bothered him less than the pressure as they shot through the sea to beyond where the waves broke.

As they surfaced, he sputtered, gasping for air. “Give me a little warning next time so I can catch my breath.”

She released him and glided behind him. “Sorry. You didn’t like it?”

“Yes, I did.” He liked the feel of her holding him, and wished she’d do it again. “So show me.”

Her tail curled around his legs as she floated around his side and came face to face with him, her breath sweet on his face. “You won’t sink from exhaustion if I leave you here, will you?”

Moonlight lit the surface of the sea, let him see her clearly.

“Leave? Why?” The lights along the shore looked to be maybe a mile away. He could probably swim that far, if he had to.

“Only for a minute. How else can I show you?”

“Yeah, I…”

She slipped beneath the water.

“…guess.” He treaded water as she raced around him in a circle, faster than any dolphin. He wished he could see better, watch her every move, rather than the blur spinning around him. In a huge splash, she whooshed high out of the sea until her tail glided past the moon. Twisting in a somersault, she dove down, fingertips first. The water barely moved with her entry. If she were human, she could be an Olympian. Like a torpedo, she spun just below the surface away from him, then toward him.

“Wooo!” He laughed as she glided to a stop in front of him. “That was so cool.”

“It’s more fun at home. More room to do what I like.”

“Oh.” He hoped she didn’t plan to take him there now. He was having second thoughts about dying in her arms.

Her voice became wistful. “Too bad you can’t see it. It’s so beautiful down there.”

He glanced toward shore. “Are we drifting further out?”

“Do you want to go back now?”

“Well…”

She floated closer and put her hands on his waist. “Say when.”

He no longer needed to tread in her powerful grip. Like an insistent drumbeat, his heart pounded in his chest, yet the moment seemed frozen in time. A storm might be raging in his head, but she remained the center of calm.

He let his hands drift to her shoulders, into her hair. “How can this be real? I feel like I’m dreaming.”

Her tail brushed his legs, her breasts pressed against his chest. “I’m real.” Her hands slipped around his waist, the slow swooshes of her tail kept them afloat.

As he’d imagined, he cupped her face with his hands, brought his lips to hers. Not the sloppy, almost harsh kisses he gave other girls. Her lips were tender, wonderful. Her mouth moving against his felt better than sex. Almost. He could drown in her kiss and never come up for air.

Slowly, he lifted his lips from hers and gazed into her eyes.

She looked toward shore. “I should bring you back.”

“No.” It burst from him too abruptly. He softened his voice.” I don’t want to leave you.”

“I have to go soon. I’ll get in trouble.” Her eyes searched his. “Then I won’t be allowed to come back.”

“Promise me you will.” His desperation came through in his tone.

With mock solemnity, she said, “I will, Andrew James.”

He caressed her cheek, her neck. “When? Tomorrow night?” It felt strange, not being the strong one, depending on her for his well being. Somehow he liked being under her control. He’d do anything she asked. Let her do anything she wanted.

She swirled them like a whirlpool, leaning her head back and laughing. “Yes,” she said, slowing. “Tomorrow.” Releasing her hold, she turned away from him. “Hold on.”

He grabbed her waist as she propelled them toward shore, slowly this time. Her tail undulated against his legs. He splayed one hand along her rib cage and held her hip with the other, imagining her beneath him in his bed.

But that wasn’t possible. She couldn’t live on land. And he couldn’t live under the ocean.

The beach drew near too quickly. Maybe he should ask her to take him home with her. He’d grab his guitar… but how could he play it underwater?

She twisted to face him, and set him on the shore. “Good night.”

He grabbed her waist and pulled her to him. “Wait.” He lifted his lips to hers, his hands ran down her spine to where skin became fin, and down the soft curve.

With a moan, she shuddered against him and pressed her lips hard against his. His heart raced and his blood rushed as fast as when she’d whooshed him through the water.

She leaned away. “I have to go.”

“Are you sure?” His lips reached for hers.

With a quick kiss, she pushed against his shoulders. “I’ll be back.”

He held tight. “I’ll be waiting.”

She slid down against his chest, her slow smile burning into his heart.

He waited until her form blurred to nothingness beneath the water, then sat watching the moonlight ripple across the surface. In the distance, she leapt from the sea in a twist, making his heart leap, too, then plunged and disappeared.

He stood. “Cassiopeia.”

Only the breeze through his wet clothes moved him, singing her name in different variations as he stepped along the rocks. He stopped at the rock where he’d set his guitar. He felt sure he’d leaned it against the opposite side. He sat and reached for his shoes, but found only one. He put it on and stood. The other lay a foot away. Definitely not where he’d left it.

Someone had been here. “At least they left my guitar. My luck must be improving.”

He hummed as he made his way back to his grandfather’s house.

Tomorrow, he’d tell Chaz the deal was off. He couldn’t take any chances.