by Lena North
“He’s funny and interesting, but…” I trailed off, not sure if she’d understand. She squeezed my hand and waited. “He doesn’t feel like my father,” I whispered.
“Why would he?” she asked calmly.
A soft, warm feeling slid through me when she asked that, melting away the expectations everyone appeared to have.
“Thank you,” I said.
“It’ll take time. Bet Uncle Dupree is freaked out too.”
“Probably,” I said. “Everyone expected us to form this instant bond, and we just didn’t.”
“Everyone?”
“Not Dupree,” I said before thinking, but I knew it was true.
He was as cautious as I, or perhaps even more.
“Mom?”
“Yeah,” I sighed, and remembered what Pauline had shared. “It depends on which mom you mean, though.”
I’d met Pauline’s sister, and Jeanette was a woman who walked through life holding a seriously half empty glass. She held a degree in accounting, and we’d had a couple of interesting discussions about some of the recent changes to our tax laws. She wasn’t whiny as such, though. She was just very… not happy about anything. Although to be honest, the topic of taxation didn’t make me a fountain of mirth either.
“I should have told you, but I didn’t know how to explain without making my parents seem like idiots. I actually didn’t realize the whole set up was strange until I came to the mainland. To us, it simply isn’t. We lived here with Mom and Dad and spent time with Mom at her house. She’s better with homework and stuff and lives closer to the harbor so when we started going to the bar it was a good place to crash. Mom is a better cook, though, so we’d be here for most dinners.”
I blinked. She called both women mom? The confusion must have been massive while they grew up.
“I wouldn’t have understood,” I agreed but shrugged. “Now, it just fits in with how everyone is I guess.”
She was about to say something when a happy voice called out her name. Tina came walking, smiling happily and carrying three glasses.
“Carrie,” she said, leaned down to kiss her cousin’s cheek. “Are we talking about Joao?” she asked, stretched the glasses out toward us, and sat down once we’d taken our drinks.
“No,” I said and wished immediately I hadn’t spoken so quickly.
Or sounded so defensive.
“He’s with the others,” Tina said, ignoring my protest and waving her hand toward the house. “Probably staring out the window like a sad puppy, looking for his favorite toy.”
Carrie had taken a sip but started laughing instantly, and some wine sprayed out over her skirt.
“Shit. That visual, though,” she chuckled.
I didn’t say anything and took a deep gulp of my wine. I’d never in my life had any kind of girl talk about men, mostly because I hadn’t really had many friends but also because there hadn’t been that many men.
“It’s super cute,” Tina said. “He’s so afraid to mess things up, so he treats her like a piece of fragile china, which is perfectly ridiculous when he’s got the strongest girl he’s ever met on his hands.”
I’d been about to protest, but her words made me close my mouth with a snap, and to my horror, I felt how a burning tingle in my nose pushed tears into my eyes.
“Tina,” I mumbled.
“You are. Growing up in that place, getting away, pushing yourself through university and then dealing with the jackass… And here you are. Laughing and joking and embracing a situation which must be really danged difficult.”
A tear leaked out of my eye, and I wiped it away.
“I just deal with shit as it comes,” I explained.
“Strong,” Tina said and nodded. “Which is what Joao needs, and it frustrated the hell out of everyone he didn’t figure it out.”
I thought about Mimi and her attitude of helplessness. I was pretty sure it was a façade, hiding a core of steel, but I didn’t share that.
“Is that why you’re not sleeping together?” Carrie asked, and I choked on my wine.
“Probably,” Tina answered while I coughed.
They waited for me to clear my throat, which I took my time doing, all the while trying frantically to figure out what to say. Their eyes were curious but friendly, and I trusted them both, so I decided to lay it all out there.
“I don’t know exactly what to do,” I shared. “Joao doesn’t… you know. And maybe it’s because he doesn’t want to? Or if I’m supposed to do something, and he’s waiting for me to do it and I just don’t know what it is?”
My words didn’t exactly make sense, but they understood. Or, I thought they did because they both nodded.
Then Tina leaned forward and put a hand on my knee.
“Just grab his package, honey, and he’ll take it from there.”
What? Grab his… what?
Carrie started laughing, Tina was grinning, and I stared at them.
“Don’t listen to her,” Carrie said. “Joao takes care of people. It’s what he does because that’s who he is. Big brother. Police officer, and then chief. Protector of the Islands. And he’s taking care of you.”
I’d heard that term before. Protector of the Islands. I didn’t’ know what it meant and had assumed it had something to do with their mermaid abilities, but I’d been unsure if it was okay to ask, so I hadn’t. Carrie just kept going.
“He’s trying to go slow, which makes a lot of sense. A lot has happened in the past month for both of you. If you want to move faster, you’ll probably have to do something about it.”
She winked cheekily when she saw the look on my face, and a blush crept up my cheeks.
“I can’t just walk up to him and put my hand on his crotch, can I?”
“As a woman who never felt any kind of need to do that particular thing, I ask; Why not?”
“Uh,” I wheezed out and stared wide-eyed at Tina.
“Don’t listen to her,” Carrie repeated. “Brush up a little against his manly chest. Put your hands under his tee. It won’t take more than that.”
“I feel like an idiot,” I admitted. “I’ve slept with men, but only a few and I’ve never seduced anyone in my life.”
“You could ask him if he’ll shift for you and then rub his tail. I heard that’s a huge thing with them,” Tina said.
I didn’t share how we’d already done that. It felt private, and I didn’t want them to make raunchy jokes about it, but I remembered the way Joao had sounded when we got out of the water.
“Maybe I should,” I said. “I’ll have to tell all dolphins to stay very far away, though.”
“You talk to the dolphins?” Carrie gasped.
“Well, yeah.”
“But –” She cut herself off, stared at me for a while, and went on, “We don’t ever talk about any of the abilities over the phone, so I didn’t know. You talk to them?”
“Yes,” I said. “I don’t understand why you’re surprised when my father can –”
“Women don’t.”
I blinked. Then I turned to Tina.
“You don’t?” She shook her head. “None of the girls?” She shook her head again. “But I do?”
“Shocked the shit out of everyone.”
“Why didn’t anyone tell me?”
“They did.”
“But I thought that was only the shifting thing?”
“Nope.”
I swallowed and tried to process what I’d just heard.
“That’s kind of unfair to the women,” I said weakly.
“I know,” Tina agreed. “No one knows why, but the abilities run in the families, and only with the men. Until you.”
I’d been different from the people around me for most of my life, and didn’t like to be singled out once again, but there wasn’t much I could do about it, so I nodded stupidly.
“With me being gay and all, you’d think they’d consider me o
ne of the men, but they don’t,” Tina said, faking annoyance rather badly, so Carrie and I started laughing.
“Uncle Nico says the shellfish will be dry if you don’t come down to the grill immediately,” Joao said behind me.
I turned slowly and felt how I blushed when our eyes met. He’d tied back his dreads, which was how I liked them the best, and his blue eyes were warm and happy. The tight gray tee showed off his broad shoulders, and the tattoo all cousins had on their shoulder and upper arm peeked out under the sleeve. He looked amazingly hot. And Tina had told me to grab –
“Okidoki,” I chirped as I jumped up on my feet, but it came out as an unfortunate squeal.
The girls promptly started laughing, and I couldn’t hold back a small giggle. His brows went up, a lazy grin spread on his face, and his arm was suddenly around my back, pressing me to his side.
“What have you been talking about?” he murmured into my ear.
The laughter increased, and I heard Carrie giggle something about a puppy as they disappeared toward the house.
“Girl talk,” I said. “Not telling you.”
My voice was a little bit husky and a lot breathy. I tilted my head back to look at him, and his eyes darkened. His hand came up to cup my chin, and then he kissed me. It wasn’t like any of the other kisses he’d given me. It was deeper and harder, and I felt myself melting into him.
“Jesus, Sunshine,” he rumbled when he finally raised his head. “Now I really want to know what they said to you.”
Before I could respond to that, Pauline shouted at us to come. Joao sighed, took my hand and we walked into the courtyard to have dinner.
***
When I got back to my room that night, I was still smiling. Nicholas had displayed some awesome skills at the grill, so dinner had been fantastic, and everyone had gone down to the bar afterward. There had been a band playing, and a couple of tables had been moved to make space, so we’d danced and laughed, and the place was so busy Thea stayed to help out behind the bar even after Dupree had joined them. When we walked back up the hill, it was late. The others just waved goodnight and disappeared into the house, leaving Joao and me to say our own private goodnights outside.
“Do you want to see me on Monday?” he murmured.
“Monday?”
“When Carrie has gone back to the mainland.”
Oh. In my newly kissed and hence befuddled state, I’d forgotten about Carrie and would have said yes to dinner the next night. Then I would have had to back out of it, which wouldn’t have been a big deal since he did it to me every now and then. I would have felt stupid, though, and I didn’t do stupid very well. But he’d known I would want time with her and had given me that without making a fuss about it. Everything inside me warmed, and I leaned into him.
“Yes,” I told him. “Monday.”
I thought I’d managed to hide all the emotions swirling around inside me, or I hoped so, at least. We hadn’t been seeing each other for more than a few weeks, so it was way too soon to feel all I was feeling at that moment. He raised his head to look thoughtfully at me as if he was making his mind up about something.
“I’ll get some shit done over the weekend. Should be able to be mostly off for a while early next week. We could get one of the bigger boats and go away for a couple of days?”
A soft shiver passed through me, and our eyes met. His were calm but there was something in them I hadn’t seen before. Desire, mixed with sweet, soft warmth. I knew what he was asking, and I wanted it, so I slid my hands in under his tee and let them rest on the lower part of his back.
“Okay,” I said. “Can you really arrange your schedule around me like that?”
His hands moved along my sides and settled on my hips.
“Sunshine, you do it for me all the time. Unless someone kills someone, of course I can. I’m the chief of police and pro...” He made a small pause and ended what he was about to say with, “Protecting the people here.”
“Protector if the Islands,” I whispered. “I’ve heard the cousins say that. What does it mean?”
His arm came up and around me, pulling me closer. His heart beat a steady rhythm under my ear and the night was chilly, but I wasn’t cold.
“Long story,” he murmured. “If you want me to tell you now, I will, but then we should go inside and sit down. If you can wait, we’ll talk after the weekend.”
“I can wait,” I said immediately.
I’d heard the phrase a few times, and I was curious, but it was late, we’d both had beer and drinks, and he’d said he would work over the weekend, so he needed to go home and sleep.
“Good. We can use Roark’s boat or Toby’s. Roark’s is more fun, but it only has one cabin. Toby’s is more comfortable.”
Wow. He really was treating me like I was precious china. I hadn’t realized, and it was sweet but also kind of silly. I wasn’t fragile.
“Roark’s,” I said.
“It only has one cabin,” he repeated. “With one bed.”
“I got that,” I said.
“Okay.”
His voice had deepened, and his hands tightened slightly. I grinned up at him, thinking that the need for me to attempt any kind of nervous seduction seemed unlikely.
“Sunshine,” he murmured and kissed me again. Then he turned me toward the door. “I’ll call you tomorrow.”
“Okay,” I said. “Goodnight, Joao.”
“Night.”
I smiled at him over my shoulder and walked inside in a mini-daze.
When I sorted through my clothes to find my nightie, my belly suddenly clenched. Something was odd. It was as if my things weren’t folded the way they used to be. I opened a couple of drawers to check, and my things were there, but it felt as if everything had shifted around a little.
Had someone gone through my room while we were gone?
Thoughts of Sebastian made me shiver, and I locked my door for the first time in weeks. I also made sure my phone was under the pillow and a small but heavy wooden sculpture on my nightstand. It wasn’t a great weapon, but it was the only thing I had, and I figured it’d do enough damage to give the others time to come to my help if I needed it.
I hadn’t thought about Seb much since I got to the Islands, and I cursed as I lay in the dark room. I’d been sucked into a bubble of happiness and had allowed myself to forget, but I couldn’t. I’d have to start planning for what to do when he came, and what to do if he already had. Then I fell asleep.
Chapter Eleven
Sailing
Charlie
Carrie hugged me before leaving, but it wasn’t the emotional first hug we’d shared a couple of days earlier. It felt natural, and easy, as if we’d done it a million times before and would do it again just as many times.
“I lost one sister to illness, and another to a wanderlust which probably won’t fade away in the next hundred years, but now I have you. Life throws curveballs at us all the time, Charlie, and sometimes they bop you in the head so hard you can’t breathe.” She put a hand on my cheek, and I leaned into it. “But sometimes you get a clean hit, and when you do…”
“Homerun,” I whispered and swallowed happy tears.
“Yeah,” she said.
“You have to leave now,” Nicholas said.
He sounded angry, and I turned in surprise.
“Too late,” Pauline said and wiped her cheeks. “Already crying.”
“Shit.”
“What?” I asked.
“Dad isn’t good with tears,” Carrie explained with a grin.
“Okay.”
A doctor who couldn’t handle tears? Or perhaps he simply couldn’t handle his wife’s tears?
Carrie stepped in and gave me another hard hug.
“Speaking about homeruns,” she whispered. “Have fun passing third base.”
“I heard that,” Nicholas muttered, and I heard how Pauline’s sniffles turned into a choked giggl
e.
I’d told them about my plans to go away for a couple of days, and they’d nodded, smiled, and told me it sounded nice. Later, I’d told Carrie about the boat we’d be on and shared that I hoped we wouldn’t spend much time improving our tans. She’d promptly told me we could work on removing our tan-lines instead, and it took me a while to get that she meant we’d lie around buck naked. We were highly inebriated when she said this, which meant I giggled so hard I almost fell off the dock behind Dupree’s bar.
I hadn’t ever been that drunk before and hadn’t realized I was until Dupree shuffled me through the kitchen, past Bananas who boomed out laughter when he saw me, and out on the dock. Carrie had been steadier, so she’d been ordered to sit with me and make sure I didn’t drown. Dupree walked away but came back after a short while with a pizza and two huge mugs full of black, very strong coffee.
“The pizza is laughing,” I told him.
I told him this because it was indeed smiling at me. Bananas had put two cherry tomatoes as eyes, a banana sliced lengthwise as mouth, and a small piece of bacon formed a tongue.
Dupree’s eyes went to the plate, and he snorted, “Crazy fucker.”
“That is the f-bomb,” I informed him, which made him grin at me. “I have a father who uses the f-bomb,” I told Carrie. “I didn’t think fathers were allowed to do that. I always thought they wore suits and worked in boring offices. And drove sensible cars.”
“Papi says fuck too,” she told me. “Although not very often. Mostly when he stubs his toe or something like that.”
For some reason I found the thought of Nicholas d’Izia, MD, stubbing his toe hilarious, and laughed so hard I had to put my coffee away and lie down on my back.
“I don’t even own a suit,” Dupree shared quietly.
“Thank fuck,” I said with emphasis, realized what I’d said and twisted my head around to look at him, and added, “Oopsie. Now I used it too.”
A slow smile spread on his face, and it penetrated my hazy mind that he’d thought I wanted him to drive a boring car and shuffle papers for a living. Or something.
