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The other two laughed, and Christy said, “How much is this bonus that you put up with their shit?”
“I got a grand from each of them last year,” Toby volunteered.
Echo and Jasmine found other focuses for their eyes, and Christy knew immediately that they were getting more. Significantly more.
Apparently, the billionaire bad boys were more into mermaids than mermen.
She changed and hoped to God the assholes weren’t going to camp out in their private viewing room and watch them practice.
“That’s pretty,” Toby said, nodding at her chest. She knew he meant the big metal mermaid suspended from a chain there.
“That’s a Crisis Companion,” she told him. “A gift from my mother. Has a rape whistle, seatbelt cutter, and I don’t even know what all. I’m pretty sure in a pinch it’ll even dole out good advice.”
He laughed and his eyes sparkled. She liked Toby, she decided. She liked them all. They were a good team. Then he got more serious. “Do you know where Misty is? I mean, you don’t have to tell me,” he added so fast it was all one word. “I just… it’s weird she’d try to fool us.”
“As far as I know, she’s fine.” She wasn’t going to say anything beyond that.
“Good. That’s good.” He leaned in closer. “I think Barron White has a thing for your sister. She’s been able to dance around it, but he seems a little more intense this visit.”
“Well, if he gets out of line while I’m Misty, he’ll get to meet my ball-kicking shoes.” Toby grinned, but Christy didn’t. She said, “Do you think he has? Been out of line with my sister?”
“He skirts the line… with all the girls,” he said. “But I don’t think he’s crossed it. Yet.”
When Aunt Rachel heard about this, there was going to be a problem. Christy almost smiled just thinking about it.
* * *
RACHEL
“I got the files on Eva Quaid,” Mason said proudly when we met back at our home away from home. Jeremy had come back with him, but he was outside, walking Myrtle around the place so she could take in all the smells. He assumed he could stay with us for the duration, and we hadn’t said otherwise. It would be hard to feel very romantic with so much going on, anyway.
Mason and I were in the living room, and he was tapping his phone. “I just forwarded everything to your laptop for the bigger screen,” he said.
It was mid-afternoon. Christy’s early performance was already done, and she’d texted to say it had gone much better. The guys and I had agreed to meet here, regroup, make a plan and head right back out again.
I reached for my computer and handed it to Mason, then said, “I got something today, too.”
“Oh?” he asked, opening the laptop. Then he looked up over it at me, his attention caught. “Oh? The dress?”
I nodded. “Yep. The same one I saw in the catalogue, the very one I came out here for. As soon as I put it on, it was like…” I sighed, gave my head a shake. “I can’t believe I’m this sappy about a dress. But it’s the one. That’s all. Sandra said I’d know when it was the one, and she was right. I told her she was full of shit, but she was right.”
He set the laptop aside. I saw the smile he tried to contain as he rolled easily off the sofa and wrapped me in his arms. “I can’t wait to see you in it.”
“I can’t wait for you to see me in it,” I told him. “My sister was kind of pissed. I think she had her heart set on spending hours.”
He frowned at me, and I sighed. “We had a nice lunch together to make up for it. She’s decided she shouldn’t be snooping into her adult daughters’ lives, and she’s taking Christy’s word that all is well with Misty. So I…” I lowered my eyes.
“You didn’t tell her.”
“I didn’t tell her. I let her go home without knowing that Misty is missing or that she dumped Jere?—”
“It’s just a break.”
“Or that she’s a professional mermaid, or that Christy’s taking her place in the tank. She thinks she was overreacting and doesn’t want piss off the girls more than she already has.”
He nodded slowly. “She’d be terrified if you’d told her. And we still have no reason to think Misty won’t be back tomorrow, as promised. No reason to think she’s in any kind of danger at all.”
“Except for my dream thing,” I reminded him. But I sank onto the sofa, opened the laptop to pick up where he’d left off, read a few lines, and said, “And now this.”
