The salt-laden sea breeze in her face, Claire could almost forget the events of the last twenty-four hours. Almost. Her nerves still jittered as if she were waiting for the next blow to fall. She leaned on the railing at the bow of Luke’s boat and lifted her face to the blue sky overhead. “Thanks for bringing me out. I couldn’t take one more thing today, and I needed the ocean.”
Luke cut the engine. “I think you’re a mermaid.”
The sudden stillness let her hear the call of the terns swooping out along the edge of a small island with their distinctive kip and kee’ar sounds. The boat bobbed in the waves as its forward momentum slowed. She watched a particularly aggressive tern scoop up a wriggling fish and carry it back to its nest. The rhythm of life on the sea. Eat or be eaten. Right now she felt like that fish, squirming and flailing to escape a certain fate. In this case, she feared her fate was to never know who she was.
Could it all be a mistake? She clung to that hope, but uncertainty bobbed like flotsam in her gut.
Luke tossed the anchor overboard, then joined her at the bow. “You’re very pensive. It’s a lot to take in.”
She closed her eyes and inhaled the scent of the sea. “I want to forget all about it for now. That’s why I asked you to bring me out on the water. Out here, I’m myself. Whoever that is.” When she opened her eyes, she found him staring at her with a tender expression that made her look away.
“God has given you everything you need to weather this storm.”
She managed a nod. “My head knows you’re right, but my heart still trembles like a baby bird fallen from the nest.” The birds still swooped and cawed. “So I keep thinking about how God says not a sparrow falls that he does not know about. This didn’t come as a surprise to him. What’s that psalm? ‘He knit me together in my mother’s womb.’ Whoever that mother may turn out to be.”
The pain of even considering she might have another mother took her breath away. How would she cope with that if it happened? She shook her head, then looked out over the waves churning foam as they spent themselves on the rocky shoreline of the little island. “Do you think we can find any orca pods out here?”
“I’ve seen one or two hanging around this island.” He reached down to grab an odd-looking contraption and tossed it over the side, then tied the other end of the rope to the railing.
“What’s that?”
“A hydrophone. I can listen to the sounds under water, and we might pick up some matriline dialect if they’re down there. Our little orca is about ready to rejoin his family.”
“I wish it were that easy for me.” The cold metal railing bit into her palms, and she forced herself to ease her grip. “If I could find out who had me for that year, it might answer all our questions. It might even tell me who I am.”
“You don’t doubt the results of the dental ID anymore? I think you should be at least a little skeptical until we get the DNA back. You and Kate resemble one another so I think it’s likely you’re Claire Dellamare. I don’t know whose bones we discovered, but I don’t think you should jump to any assumptions.”
“Blue eyes and dimples are hardly unique. She just saw what she wanted to see. I did some research online and found out that dental records have been used for two hundred years. It’s pretty foolproof.” The warmth from his body seeped against her side, and she wished she had the courage to turn and throw herself into his arms. If he kissed her, maybe she could forget all she was dealing with. She held herself erect and in control. A Dellamare never lost control.
She stopped her thoughts before they could go any further. She probably wasn’t a Dellamare anyway. And maybe loss of control wasn’t such a bad thing. It might help her learn something about herself.
She inhaled and turned to face him. She searched his gaze. Those dark, dark eyes held her transfixed. Why did he have to be so handsome? He looked like a male model on the cover of a pirate romance novel, all rippling muscles and strong jaw. It wasn’t just his startling good looks that drew her, but something much deeper. When she looked into his eyes, she felt like a piece of herself was looking back. It unnerved her.
Her fingers were buried in the soft cotton of his shirt, and she’d moved closer. He didn’t smile, and a muscle in his jaw jumped as he reached for her with a groan and pulled her close enough to bury his face in her hair. The fragrance of his spicy cologne enticed her to bury her face in his shirt, to press her lips against the skin at the warm base of his throat. His pulse jumped in that soft spot, and she let her lips linger there.
She should say something and pull back, but she couldn’t do it. He was silent, too, and she was lost in a place where time didn’t exist, where all that mattered was the touch of his hand at her waist and the sound of his ragged breathing in her ear.
His fingers touched her chin and tipped up her head. His gaze seemed to ask permission, and she gave it with a tremulous smile. He bent his head, and his lips brushed hers. She inhaled the sweet scent of his breath and reached up to lay her hand across the rough stubble of his cheek. She should close her eyes, but she wanted to savor the taste of him as she looked into the seascape she loved so much. He was as much a part of the ocean as she was.
He deepened the kiss, and she wrapped her arms around his neck. His firm lips coaxed a response from her, and she let down her guard, kissing him back with everything in her. All the pent-up loneliness, all the betrayal and hurt. His kiss soothed it all.
He pulled away and cupped her face in his hands. “I’ve known you only a week, but it feels like forever.” He must have seen the fear in her eyes because he rubbed his thumb across her cheek. “I will never hurt you, honey. Never.”
His lips came down on hers again, and she closed her eyes this time, tasting him fully, wanting him like she’d never wanted anything before in her life.
How she could come to care like this so quickly, she didn’t know. But she never wanted him to let go of her.
Luke sat with his arm settled around Claire as they leaned against the back of the bench seat on the starboard side of his boat. They’d gone back to Folly Shoals to get the little orca, and they’d brought him back to join his family.
A pod of orcas played about ten feet away, and from their vocabulary, he was certain this was his little orca’s pod. “There they are.” Reaching over the side of the boat, he cut the net around the little one. The calf lay motionless for a moment. Luke dropped the hydrophone over the side, and whistles and clicks began to sputter through the speakers. “They’re calling him!”
Dorsal fins swam nearer, and the calf flipped his fluke. He leaped in the water, then his small fin joined three others about twenty feet off the starboard side of the boat.
Claire leaned over the railing. “They’re reunited!”
He draped his arm around her. “They didn’t forget him. I knew they wouldn’t. I can only imagine how his mother feels about now.”
The turquoise of the sea reflected the blue bowl overhead, and kelp floated just offshore the island. He couldn’t remember the last time he felt this content. The mainland was out of sight, and so were their problems for now.
Claire leaned over the side of the boat and slapped the water. The little orca swam to her but quickly went back to its pod. She smiled. “It’s the way it should be. He’ll soon forget all about us and the way we called him.”
He smiled down at Claire, and his pulse did a little flip in his chest. “Let’s stay out here awhile and forget everything back on land. You’re a mermaid today.”
She looked like a mermaid today too. Her light-brown hair, whipped by the wind, hung in a shiny tangle down her shoulders. In white shorts and a blue top that emphasized her gorgeous eyes, she looked tanned and beautiful. He’d smelled coconut oil when he kissed her, and he could have buried his face in her neck all day.
Her teasing smile came. “And you’re Poseidon. We just have to find you a trident.”
“Would you believe I have one at home? My sister got it for me when I joined the Coast Guard. It’s hanging on the wall back home in Portland.”
She straightened a bit. “Are you going back? You weren’t sure the last time we talked about it.”
“I don’t think I have a choice. It’s almost time for me to reenlist or get out. I’m not sure I’ll be happy with a world as narrow as Folly Shoals. I love the difference I can make in the Coast Guard.” He shrugged. “Though I haven’t e-mailed my boss yet. I guess I keep hoping for a miracle.”
She passed her hand over her forehead. “At least you have options. I’m not sure what’s going to happen to me.” Her blue eyes were filled with anguish. “If I’m not Claire Dellamare, who am I, Luke?” Her fingers trembled in his. Her eyes were luminous with tears.
Her hand was soft and trusting in his, and he squeezed it.
The pathos in her voice tore at his heart. “Claire Dellamare is just a name, honey. You’re still you. You love the sea, and you will fight for the downtrodden, even if it’s just a little lost orca. You’re smart and beautiful and kind. You don’t let anything deter you when you’re on a quest, and you’re gentle with your parents even when they drive you crazy. Because they are still your parents, Claire. That relationship is the same even if you don’t have their blood.”
“I’m not so sure. My mom threw things at my dad. I’ll be surprised if their marriage survives this.”
He couldn’t argue with that. With his thumb Luke caught the tear rolling down her cheek and rubbed it away. “A mermaid’s tears are precious. Sea glass is said to be made of mermaid tears.”
She fingered a sea glass pendant at her neck. “I collect sea glass, so maybe you’re right.”
He pressed his lips against her sweet-smelling hair. “Have you always had an affinity for the sea?”
She nodded under his lips. “Ever since I can remember. My parents have always rolled their eyes at how often I begged to go to the beach when I was little. Mom can’t swim and Dad hates to get in the water. I’m like a fish. I bob to the top even when I try to kick my way to the bottom. I’m not sure I could drown even if I tried.”
The passion in her voice made his own love of the sea seem tame. Maybe she really was a mermaid.
She sat up, away from the circle of his arm. “We should get back. I’d like to talk to Priscilla Loughenberry who works in the hotel. She was there when it all happened. Maybe she can tell me who else to talk to.” Leaning her back against the railing, she turned to face him. The wind tossed her thick hair over her head. “I’ll run up to my suite and change, then meet you in the lobby.”
He rose and put his hands in the pockets of his shorts. “I don’t think we have much time. We’ve got to resolve this. Someone thinks you can identify him or he wouldn’t have broken into your suite and tried to smother you.”
His gut clenched as the likely scene played out in his head. She’d been alone, defenseless. A monster walked the streets of Folly Shoals. Could it be someone he knew?
She nodded. “He’ll be back, Luke. I know it. I’m going to try to recreate the picture I painted of his face.”
“I still have my copy. I can get posters printed, and we can put them up all over the coast, even over to Summer Harbor and Bar Harbor. Someone will recognize him.”
His confidence felt hollow, though, and he could feel the grains of sand falling through the hourglass.