“Mercer! Bedtime book time!” Zack calls, and in seconds, a huge, teal form is squeezing into Zack’s room. Without prompting, Mercer scoops him up in one tentacle and makes a hammock for him, rocking and swaying.
“He’s going to be out before the first book is over if you do that,” I mutter out the side of my mouth.
“Then you can get some more work done. Or... Or we could have some coffee? Or tea?”
Zack yawns. “Coffee in the morning. Tea later.”
“Good information. Thank you, Zack.”
“Do we swim tomorrow?”
“We can swim tomorrow,” Mercer says, looking at me.
I nod. “Sure. Early in the morning.”
“Will we cook dinner again tomorrow?” Zack whispers, his voice getting softer and more drowsy before I’ve even read the first page.
Mercer looks at me.
I freeze.
“I could use the practice. I don’t have a kitchen,” he says. “I know you have steaks from the other night. Perhaps I could learn how to do something else with potatoes besides boil them.”
“French fries,” Zack says dreamily, and then rolls over.
Mercer moves fast and gets him into his bed just as he would have been kissing air.
His tentacles move in harmony, one pulling up the cover, the other smoothing tenderly down Zack’s curls and back.
My throat cannot take this. A lump is in it.
Yes, come back tomorrow, I want to scream. Come back every day, so Zack can have someone as good, kind, and helpful as you in his life.
For the summer?
What happens when the weather gets cold? What do the lake lifeguards do? Where does a kraken live when the water freezes over?
“I think he’s out already,” Mercer whispers, voice awed. “He’s so little when he sleeps. So like an angel.”
“I know. He’s a beautiful boy.” I turn off the overhead light, and Zack’s bulldozer-shaped nightlight immediately responds and illuminates the room with a soft yellow glow.
And his dad didn’t thinkIwas beautiful enough to stay. To even try. To get to the point of seeing how abso-fucking-lutely brilliant this kid is, how sweet, how helpful...
We leave the room after I kiss Zack’s sleeping forehead. When the door is closed behind us, Mercer clears his throat.
“I am sorry if I was presumptuous about dinner and swimming. I find it very hard to say no to Zack—unless it’s something that would hurt him, that is.”
“Won’t this hurt him?” I blurt, sitting down on my couch when we get to the living room.
“Hm? What?”
“You. Being here all summer, like a really wonderful friend—almost like a dad. Teaching him, playing with him, being around so much... And then in the winter, won’t you leave? Probably by October?”
“What? Leave? Why?” Mercer sits on the floor across from me, eyes worried.
“Will they need year-round lifeguards at a lake that will probably freeze over in a New York winter?” I ask, arms crossing. I know I sound fierce, possibly angry.
“No, they don’t, but I wouldn’t leave town. I’d get a job at the community pool. If not there, then stocking shelves in a store, or waiting tables in a restaurant. I wouldn’t leave my home or my family.”
