“You don’t have to talk about it if you don’t want to,” she said, leaning her chin against his shoulder.
“It’s okay,” he said, touching her wrist, almost as if to reassureher. “You asked question.”
“You don’thaveto answer if it’ll make you sad or uncomfortable.
He spun so fast her arms didn’t even seem to move and now she found herself hugging him face to face, her arms still over his shoulders, his face just a foot below. Distracted as she was by the way the moon painted his face, it took her a few seconds to notice his hands were on either side of her waist.
“But if I don’t talk, how will you know me? Do you want to know me? I want to know you.” His eyes were so sincere it hurt.
“Of course I want to know you,” she said. “I want to know everything about you.
That made him smile and so, he started telling her about mermaids.
CHAPTER 22
“I don’t know if the men stay with one person until death or not,” he said. “But they don’t stay by shore with the mom. Or…” He frowned. “Well, I don’t know. They could. Mine didn’t. I’ve seen groups before and they had men. Big groups. Like ten or twenty.”
He glanced off to the sea for a moment as if the memories were locked in its depths. “My mom and I were alone. No other family. I don’t know why. She never said.” He sighed. “I may not be best to tell you about mermaids.”
She laughed. “Who better than an actual mermaid?”
His own smile was sad. “My mom said mermaids belong in the deep. That’s where the better food is, but she was always afraid. Or I thought so. At least,Iwas afraid.”
He looked down and away, but whether it was in thought or sadness was hard to tell. “A good mermaid, she said, is like the…hmm.” He frowned. “The big gray ones that jump and play. They need air like us and stay with their babies too.”
“Dolphins?”
He shrugged, unable to tell her if that was right or not. “Okay, dolphins. Mermaids should move like dolphins. She also said it’s too dangerous to stay by one shore too long. Your kind…” His voice died off and her heart hammered.
“Please stay by this shore for a long time,” she said. “No one else is out here and I’ll never hurt you.”
He smiled. “Is that an invitation?”
“It’s more. A request.”
He laughed. “Good. I don’t want to go.”
Such a simple sentence made her heart beat quicker, and almostas if he wanted to torture her, he came closer, between her legs now, bridging that empty space between them until there were only inches.
“I want to be like the humans for this,” he said.
“Oh?”
“I want to stay forever. Like happily ever after.”
CHAPTER 23
Like…happily ever after?
Her heart might have stopped—she wasn’t sure—but it came back with a fervor, pounding at her like someone furious was at the door about to barge their way in. Did he mean to not solely be friends as well? Did he evenknowwhat he was saying?
“They…they…you know, happily ever after…I mean…” she stammered, saying nothing really in the end.
“What? It’s not like this?” he asked.
She wanted to say no, but his face was inches from hers and somehow that stopped her. “Not quite. They…they get married. Have kids…”
He nodded understandingly.
