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“I wish I’d never said yes to high school.”
I chuckled. “It’s not like you had a choice. You’re fourteen. You can’t just wake up one day and say I’m done with education.”
“I wish I was still home-schooled.”
“You were the one who said that if you wanted to follow in your parents’ footsteps, you needed a school with labs and biology programs. The entry requirements for a bachelor in marine science is tough. You’ve told me so plenty of times.”
“I know.” She slouched. “Doesn’t mean I like staying on land while you guys spend all day at sea, though.”
“I’d trade you in a heartbeat if I could. The sea is my mortal enemy.”
“One of these days, I’m going to figure out a way to get you to jump willingly into the brine, and when I do, you’ll realise that this fear you have is ridiculous.”
“Not a fear.” I scowled. “A choice.”
“A choice that makes no sense living in this country.” She huffed, bored of a topic that always got us tetchy with each other. “Argh, my brain is fried in this sun.” She looked longingly at the sparkling turquoise surrounding us in every which way. “I wish I was below with Mum and Dad.”
“They’re not doing anything fun.” I stretched where I stood beside her, my t-shirt hem rising. Her gaze locked onto the exposed part of my belly before she swallowed hard and looked away.
Dropping my arms, my voice was a little rougher as I said, “Think they’re collecting sea cucumber slime. And before you ask, I have absolutely no idea why. I’m merely the guy who has to catalogue it when they come back.”
“Did you know the sea cucumbers’ proper name is ‘Holothuroidea?’”
“See, all that schoolwork is paying off. Good job.”
She groaned. “I like that part. The learning part. It’s this shit that I don’t like. The staying on land Monday to Friday, and when I do get to come on the boat, I have to do stupid homework instead of playing with Seaweed and Bubbles.”
“This shit?” I swallowed my chuckle. “Language, Nerida Taylor. And before you ask, I’m not teaching you that in Turkish.”
She stuck her tongue out at me and hunched over her workbook again.
Sitting in the spare chair beside her, I leaned close and read the textbook she was studying.
Maths.
My favourite subject.
“I can help you if you want.” I caught her stare, careful to control that annoying, frustrating little kick in my heart that never went away around her.
Two years.
Two long, suffering years I’d lived with her family and every day I forced myself to see her as another sister but...where Neri was concerned? The boxes I tried to put her in and the labels I tried to stick on her never quite stuck.
“Why are you such a nerd for numbers?” she asked, wrinkling her nose. “You’re always scribbling away in those silly sudoku books.”
“They’re not silly. They keep your brain sharp.”
“If yours was any sharper, you’d cut me with it.”
“A strange image but I’ll take it as a compliment.”
“Not sure it was one, to be honest.” She pouted, bridging the line between kid and the woman she’d grow into.
The past few months, puberty had kicked in, and I cursed the curve of her new breasts beneath her swimming costume. I felt uncomfortable each time she stripped from a wetsuit or jeans, revealing the lengthening of her legs and the rounding of her hips.
I’d caught Jack looking at her a few days ago with the same stare I did.
The one that said...fuck.
She was growing up, despite both our wishes.
Another few years, and the things she’d be getting frustrated at would be boys and kisses, not math homework and school.
Even though she now dabbled with hormones and all the other mess that came with getting older, she’d somehow retained all the annoying, fascinating, lovable parts of her that I’d fallen for the night in the hospital when she’d given me as much water as I could drink.
She’d been so kind then.
So sweet.
She still was.
But she could be sour too.
And a little haughty and moody.
Would Melike have gone through the same stages if she’d survived?
I killed that question as suddenly as it had appeared.
“What’s the word for seahorse?” she suddenly asked, running her fingers over the embossed stitching of the one on her lilac cap.
“Seahorse.” I grinned.
“In Turkish, you ass.”
“Again with the language.”
“Yes, I want to learn a language. Your language. Mum has been learning with her apps. I know you help her practice sometimes. Help me. Teach me and then I won’t have to call you an ass because you won’t be one.”
I tried to keep a stern face but failed. Pinching the bridge of my nose, I shook my head with a low chuckle.
“I’m glad I amuse you.” She winked. “Now...teach me more words. Otherwise, I’m going to jump overboard and go see Mum with her hands full of sea cucumbers.”
