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“Can’t have you living with us and be ignorant of your culture, can I?” My mum blew him a kiss. “Your language is now our language because you are one of us.”
Aslan stiffened. He blushed. “You have no idea what that means to me.”
God, I did.
For so long, Aslan had held back his love as if he was being disloyal to his true family. But over the years, he’d fallen for my parents as much as he’d fallen for me, and as I stood there, with my father and mother and love of my life, I fought tears at how perfect it all was.
My parents adored him.
He was already practically their son.
Why couldn’t I tell them? Right now? Tell them that Aslan would be mine for the rest of my life. That we were fooling around directly beneath their noses, not because we were horny and stupid, but because we were happy and finally found.
My feet moved of my own accord, and I wrapped my arms around Aslan from behind.
He froze in the chair, shooting a wide-eyed look at my parents.
“Seni seviyorum,” I whispered into his ear, giving up one of the few phrases I knew in Turkish. I love you. I love you. I love you.
Standing quickly, Aslan laughed as if I’d said something unimportant and headed toward the cabinet where litmus test strips and beakers lived. “Ay. That’s the word for—”
“Moon,” my mum jumped in. “Luna in Latin, yuèliàng in Chinese, bulan in Indonesian, and...damn, I forgot what it is in German.” She didn’t look at us oddly. She didn’t narrow her eyes at me hugging Aslan because it wasn’t anything out of the ordinary. Even Dad hadn’t raised an eyebrow because it was familiar, acceptable, right.
Frowning at Aslan, I put my hands on my hips. The strings from my black bikini tickled my fingers. “I didn’t ask what moon was in Turkish.”
“Yes, you did.” He shot me daggers with his stare. “That was what you whispered just now, remember? You said without the moon and the sea, we would never have met.”
My heart hiccupped.
Just like I’d had a slightly out-of-body experience when I’d first met Honey and she’d mentioned her brother, the gay architect, and how he wanted to create a community safe from all disasters, and I’d said he’d have to live beneath the sea for that, I had another one.
He’s right.
Without the moon guiding the people-smuggler to shore and the storm that knocked them off course and the sea that carried Aslan to me...we would never have met.
My knees almost buckled at the thought.
To think he might’ve stayed in Turkey, and I would have grown up in Australia, and we would’ve existed our entire lives without ever knowing who we belonged to.
“Thank goodness for the ay and the deniz then,” I murmured.
“For the luna and the mare,” he whispered, his eyes locking onto mine and making the world drop away. “I’m not grateful it took away my past, but I am grateful it gave me you.” He cleared his throat, looking worriedly at my parents. “All of you. I’m grateful for all of you. Not just Neri.”
“Ah, Aslan.” My dad strode over to him and scooped him up in the biggest bear hug. “You’re gonna make me cry, mate.”
Aslan tolerated the hug before forcing a smile as Dad let him go. “You all set?”
“All set. We’re just going to investigate the report of illegal spearfishing. Apparently, some punks have been shooting starfish all over this reef and leaving them to rot.”
“Assholes.” Aslan crossed his arms.
“I would’ve used a stronger word, but that one works too, I guess.” Striding toward the cage where scuba tanks and gear remained safe on voyages out to sea, I watched in silence as Dad shrugged into his tank, tightened his weight belt, and then carried Mum’s to her and strapped her in.
Once they were ready, Dad gave me a stern look. “Do we need to go over the rules again, little fish? No freediving with that monofin. Not on the reef. No trying to cut up loose nets and save any doomed turtles until we return. And no giving Aslan a heart attack by holding your breath for days. If you must swim, stay on the surface where he can keep an eye on you.”
I rolled my eyes. “I’m not twelve anymore, Dad.”
“No, you’re much worse because you’re seventeen and think you’re invincible.” Mum laughed under her breath. “Anyway, be good. We shouldn’t be too long.”
Not looking at Aslan, I smiled as innocently as I could. “I’m not planning on swimming today, anyway. Might sunbathe for a bit. I’ve lost my tan with all this ‘being trapped in a classroom’ nonsense.”
“Put cream on then. Byeeee.” Mum secured her mask and her regulator, then fell backward off the side of the boat. Dad followed her, their bubbles dispersing as they sank below the crystal water and became black blobs on the sea floor.
