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I looked at Mason again and fell into his eyes and loved him from my toes. And then my sister made a sound like a stepped-on puppy. A yelp. A cry, and I shot my eyes to hers, but she wasn’t looking at me. She was looking past me, toward the reservoir, and then she rose, and pointed, and screamed in a way that made my ears bleed as I turned my head in slow motion.
I didn’t want to turn. I had to force my head to turn. It felt as if the pivots in my neck had locked up. I pushed and pushed, and my neck hurt, but I turned to see what was making my sister cry.
The other guests were on their feet, shouting and surging in slow motion toward the reservoir. I was aware of them, even though I wasn’t facing them. I was finally facing the water. There, beside our familiar dock, in the gravel-bottomed shallows, lay two girls, facedown. Misty’s long blond hair swam and moved with the motion of the water, floating this way and that with each little wave that came in. Christy’s was shorter and dark, plastered to her head but not hiding her face like Misty’s did. I could see her pale skin, her parted lips, her open, lifeless eyes.
It was too much. I opened my eyes and looked at Mason. He had pulled over onto the shoulder of the road and was staring at me in shock. “Our girls?” he asked, so I guessed I’d narrated the dream aloud.
I nodded.
“Misty and Christy?”
“Yeah.”
“Holy…” He pushed one hand from his forehead back, ruffling his hair. “No wonder you’ve been dragging your feet on wedding plans.”
“Yeah. But… it wasn’t like my usual stuff. It wasn’t anything like my usual stuff. It was more like a normal nightmare. I guess. I think.”
“Well, that’s good. Could it be like… nerves?”
“Why would I be nervous?” I reached across to slide my hand over his on the steering wheel. “We’re already married, Mason. All we’re doing with this wedding is celebrating it and making it legal.”
He met my eyes, nodded slow. “That’s how I look at it, too. That’s why if you don’t want to do that part?—”
“I do want to do that part,” I told him. “We just might have to do it while holding our girls between us to make sure they stay safe.”
“Yeah,” he said with a nervous laugh. Then, “But it wasn’t like your usual stuff, though. Maybe it was just a normal, garden-variety nightmare.”
“Maybe. Except Sandra’s nervous too.”
“Not to be discounted.”
“The mermaid was just like my normal stuff, though. I did a ride-along in her head, trapped in a fish tank. Banged my head so hard I still have a phantom ache.” I rubbed the spot when I said it.
“But… mermaids aren’t real.”
He said it like he was testing to make sure I still knew that. “No, mermaids are not real,” I said. “And yet, my worried sister brought me this today. Unprompted.” I pulled the chain on my neck, lifting the steel mermaid from my jacket to show him.
He looked at it, then looked again. “Is that a?—?”
“Mermaid. With a rape whistle and shit. She got the girls each one, too. I mean, come on, this is bizarre, right? That she’d choose a mermaid after I had that dream? It’s not just me.”
“It’s not just you.”
I sighed in relief. “I’m glad you came with me. You’re my other half, Mace. You always have my back.”
“Always will, too,” he said. “No matter what.” He pulled me in for a long, strong, powerful hug that filled me with everything I needed in that moment. Everything I need in any moment.
Then he pulled the car into motion, and we continued our journey.
Chapter 5
RACHEL
After handing our keys over to a valet, we walked through a dark-stained split rail fence into a garden paradise to the stained-glass sidelights bracketing double entry doors. I bet they would light right up when it wasn’t pitch dark behind them.
Right then it was so dim I couldn’t even make out their design. A stylized wooden sign with “Wedding Grounds” burned into its wood, pointed toward the back. I had to peer around the building to see more gardens, greenery and paths spilling from just beyond the back parking lot all the way to the lakeshore.
“It doesn’t look like a strip club,” I said with hope in my voice.
