by Lena North
“You have something way better than a beige station wagon,” I shared.
“A beige station wagon?”
“You have a crazy friend, and a bar and a really, really nice smile.”
I struggled to sit up again, so he crouched down next to me and put an arm around my back to assist me.
“I’m a tiny bit not sober at all,” I told him happily, in case this fact had escaped him.
“You have a really, really nice smile too,” he said quietly, and I stared into his turquoise eyes where laughter was lurking like it always seemed to do. “And yeah,” he added. “You’re shit-faced.”
“That she is,” Carrie butted in. “Isn’t it great?”
Dupree kept looking at me, and I tried hard to keep my body from swaying. Slowly he started grinning, and then he got up and walked away.
“Eat, drink the coffee,” he called out. “And call out to Ban if either of you starts puking.”
We sat for a long while on the dock, giggling and munching on pizza. Bananas joined us when he’d closed the kitchen, and then Roark sat down next to me. I leaned my head on his shoulder and laughed up at him.
“We’re gonna use your boat,” I informed him.
“I know,” he said with a grin. “I’ll swab off the deck tomorrow.”
“There’s no need,” I told him. “We won’t spend much time on it.”
The beaches on some of the smaller islands Carrie had told me about sounded beautiful, and I figured we’d be in the water a lot too. The way Roark wiggled his brows communicated clearly that he thought I meant we’d be below deck. In the cabin. Before he could say whatever outrageous thing he had at the tip of his tongue, Dupree cleared his throat behind us, and I leaned back to look at him.
“Oopsie,” I chirped, hoping he wouldn’t suddenly morph into the old-fashioned kind of father who objected to his quite grown up daughter having relations with someone she was dating.
He shook his head, but I saw how he struggled to hold back a grin when he told us he’d drive us home.
Since I’d never been shit-faced before, I didn’t know what awaited, but by the time I fell into bed, I started suspecting I wouldn’t feel all that great the next morning. My head was pounding, I felt slightly nauseous, and my eyelids were heavy. Then the door opened slowly, and a large shadow blocked the dim light from the hallway. I yelped, the shadow took a few steps forward and crouched down next to me.
“It’s just me,” Joao said quietly.
“Josie,” I murmured. “Scared me.”
“Sorry.”
He put a hand on my cheek and caressed it gently. He smelled like the ocean.
“You’ve been swimming?”
“Had to check some things,” he murmured. “Heard you had fun tonight.”
“I’m never drinking alcohol again in my life,” I groaned.
“Okay.”
I heard laughter in the low rumble that was his voice but couldn’t keep my eyes open anymore, so I closed them and felt myself drift away.
“Goodnight, Sunshine,” I heard him whisper, and then I was out.
When I opened my eyes the next morning, I wanted to die and preferably as soon as possible. Through the blur in front of me I saw a glass of water and two white pills on my nightstand. A piece of paper was propped up against the glass.
“Take the pills, ask Aunt Paulie to make bacon and eggs for breakfast, and sleep some more. Call me when you feel better. J.”
I smiled through my hangover-induced headache and reread the note again. Bossy, but very sweet.
Carrie and I spent the day in a hammock, and the evening with Tina and Thea at their place. Then we both packed our things. She because Benito would take her back to the mainland early enough to get her to the office by nine. Me because Joao would pick me up when she’d left.
***
Joao
The scent of the wind and the warmth from the sun on his face made the tension in his shoulders fade away. He’d spent part of the weekend sorting through shit to get off his desk. The other part had been a frustrating failure at pinning down a group of men they knew had dumped two big containers in the water just off the coast. The crates had been easy enough to find, and he’d told four of the cousins to haul them into the station. As expected, they’d contained carefully wrapped parcels full of drugs. It had seemed like an amateurish act, so they’d set out to find the boat. The dolphins had followed it, so that had been easy enough too. To his surprise, the men had been calm, and cocky. Small-time smugglers were usually nervous and caved in under pressure. The four men had smugly invited them to search the boat, where they’d found absolutely nothing illegal. Since the only ones who’d seen them dump the drugs were non-human, he had to apologize for the inconvenience and let them leave. His cousins would search the waters in case it had been a decoy, and there had been a bigger shipment unloaded somewhere else, but it seemed unlikely.
“You okay?” he asked the gorgeous girl standing in front of him.
Charlie held the steering wheel, and he held his arms around her, hoping to God he’d been clear enough when he told her about the sleeping arrangements on the boat. He wasn’t going to tell her about the hammock Roark brought out when he wanted to fall asleep watching the stars because he was definitely not sleeping in it.
“This is amazing,” she said and turned her face up toward him.
He kissed her and put a hand next to hers to get them back on course when she started to veer off. She felt it and laughed into the kiss. He closed his eyes briefly and laughed with her. Then she turned and murmured something about distractions, but she did it leaning into his arms.
It was unsettling to fall so hard and so fast for someone, but he had no intentions of backing away. He’d tried to take it slow, which had amused his brother and cousins enormously. Then he’d seen that delighted surprise in Charlie’s eyes when she realized he understood she’d want time with Carrie, and known he was so far gone he’d never find his way back again. There wouldn’t be anyone else for him, ever. This was it.
The realization didn’t scare him. They’d known each other a short while but who they were becoming together was so damned beautiful it made his chest tighten at the same time as he felt like laughing. And he wanted to sleep with her. It wasn’t the sex, although he was male and she was gorgeous, so he wanted that too, but what he wanted most of all was to wake up with her in his arms.
They approached the island where they’d spend the day, and he pointed at it. She immediately raised her hands and moved to the side with a smile.
“Not parking this thing,” she said.
He laughed as they turned toward the beach and he was still chuckling when they packed clothes, towels, and food in a small inflatable raft they’d bring ashore.
***
“Are you going to tell me what protector of the Islands mean, Joao?” Charlie asked sleepily, and Joao turned his head to look at her.
“Sure,” he said and hoped he could get through it quickly, so they could get back to the boat and go to bed.
It wasn’t even time for dinner, but they’d spent the whole day exploring the island and swimming in the crystal-clear water. They’d had lunch under some trees by the beach, and then they’d slept for a while. And Charlie had done all this in a new bikini. The bathing suit she’d used before had been dark blue and looked like something his aunt Pauline would wear. When she walked out from the cabin in her new bikini, he’d had to bite his tongue and close his eyes for a second to ensure they didn’t pop right out of his head. The thing was turquoise, and it was small. Or, perhaps not small exactly, but there was a lot of skin, and that skin looked soft and warm.
“Now?” she prompted him, and he had to smile when he realized he’d lost himself in thoughts about that bikini. Again.
“How much do you know about the legends from our past?”
“Some. I’ve read up on it since I got here. There were group
s of people protecting our country. Some from the mountains and some from the sea. Legends say the ones in the mountains had dragons to their help, and the ones by the water had sea creatures.” She paused and frowned. “I sort of assumed the sea creatures were euphemisms for how you turn into mermaids.”
“Watermen.”
“Whatever.”
They shared a grin because this wasn’t the first time she’d insisted he was a mermaid. He pretended to be offended but since he mostly found it cute, he wasn’t, and she knew it.
“Yeah, that’s about it. There were watermen here and along the shore of the mainland. Dragons in the mountains.”
He waited a while to see if she’d pick up what he was saying, and it took her a few seconds, but then her eyes widened.
“But –” She cleared her throat and restarted. “But if you can change to watermen, does that mean they could change to dragons?”
Her smile was wobbly, and it disappeared when he nodded slowly.
“Yikes,” she breathed. “Can they still do it?”
“Nope. It evolved into something else. They talk to all kinds of creatures, like we do with the dolphins, although for them it’s mostly flying ones and mostly birds.”
She laughed weakly and stared at him.
“There were kings back then too. One in the mountains and one on the mainland by the shore. We were far away out here, and we never had a king. We had a protector instead.”
He made another pause to see if she was following what he said. Considering the size of her eyes, she was not following anything.
“Are you some kind of mermaid king?” she squealed.
He started laughing, and when she frowned, he had to laugh some more.
“No, I’m not some kind of king, Sunshine.”
“What does it mean then?”
“It changes over time, depending on the needs. Back in medieval times, the protector was called the general, and he led the waterfolk out here on the Islands.”
“Waterfolk?”
“The women shifted too, but it got lost somewhere, and I guess they just changed the term to watermen.”
“Huh.” She sat up and looked out over the ocean and then she turned to him. “So, you’re like the head honcho?”
“Yup.”
“A general?”
“Not really…” he tried to put words on his role and sighed. “Nowadays it’s a more informal role, and it doesn’t have to be about actual protection anymore. During war times, yes, the protector has been a general, but there has been scholars or healers too. The one before me was a businessman. He built up the tourist business, helped with loans to start up small businesses, sort out infrastructure, that sort of thing. When he passed, I guess it was time for the protector to be a lawman. Someone who could restore order.”
“Makes sense,” she murmured. “Does it make you happy?”
“Happy?”
“To be the protector.”
He frowned. No one had ever asked him, and he’d never thought about it like that. It was simply who he was, and it was a legacy he’d never questioned.
“Yeah,” he said finally. “I’m proud of who we are on the Islands, and who we will be in the future, so yeah. I know I do good things for the community, and since I’m proud of that community, I guess you could say it makes me happy.”
“Good.”
He blinked and waited for her to ask more questions.
“That’s it? Good?” he asked when she remained silent.
“Well, yeah. If it makes you happy, then it’s good, isn’t it? And it isn’t a surprise, really. You’re bossy and like telling people what to do. I thought it was because you’re the chief of police, though.”
“Okay.”
Well, that had been easy.
“Is being the protector why you get away with not preparing any food?”
“No. I get away with that because I suck at cooking and always bring the booze.”
“Do they have to obey you?”
“They’d better,” he muttered. “Technically yes, but I don’t push it. I could if I wanted.”
“What does that mean?”
“I…” He tried to find words for what he could do, which to him was the weirdest of his abilities. “If I want to, I can order the watermen to do anything I want.”
Her brows went up, and she started grinning.
“So, if you wanted Roark to lie on his back and suck his toes, you could just order him? And he’d do it?”
“Jesus,” he grunted and barked out laughter at the visual. “Yeah, baby, I could.”
“Fantastic,” she grinned. “I can see many funny moments in our future.”
“I don’t use it often,” he protested. “It still feels weird. They all know I can, though, so they usually do what I tell them.”
“Bummer.”
He grinned and reached out to pull her close to him.
“Wish it would work on you,” he murmured. “Might mean you wouldn’t argue so damned much with me.”
“Bossy,” she said. “Is it inherited, to be the protector?”
“It can be anyone in the family, really. It isn’t inherited from father to son, although it can be, but Papi’s uncle was protector before me.”
“How did you know you were the one?”
“We found out when I was fifteen. Got pissed and told Roark to dip his head in the toilet.” He grinned when understanding lit up her eyes. “To my complete surprise, he did.”
She started laughing, and like always, it felt like the sun was suddenly a little bit brighter.
“Let’s go back to the boat. Dinner is ready, and I’m hungry.”
“Did you cook?”
“I wish you didn’t look so suspicious, Sunshine,” he chuckled. “No, I didn’t. Picked it up from one of the restaurants.”
***
Charlie
I leaned back and looked at Joao, hoping I wasn’t giving him the puppy-eyes Tina had accused him of having, but I probably was. It had been the best day in my entire life, and since I’d seen the look on his face when I walked out in my new bikini, I was pretty sure the day wasn’t over yet.
He explained over dinner how the former chief of police had become lazy and how this laziness had resulted in drug shipments coming into our country via the Islands. Joao had apparently had enough five years ago, and when the older man had decided to take a month off to visit his daughter on the mainland, Joao had simply changed the whole set up. They’d arrested forty-six men for smuggling drugs during that month, which people on the mainland noticed, and liked. He’d been twenty-four years old when the director for our special forces asked him if he’d take the position as chief, something he’d accepted on the spot. Then he’d deputized all his cousins, told the mainland they were receiving training and enlisted the dolphins around the Islands to help them hunt smugglers. And now, four years later, the ones estimating such things had told him only ten percent of the inflow of drugs via the Islands remained. He was aiming for zero, knowing it was virtually impossible but still fighting for it.
I thought that was pretty awesome and told him so, which made him uncomfortable.
“I’m not a hero, Charlie,” he muttered.
He was, but since he didn’t want to be called one, I simply told him he was more of a hero than me. This moved us on to talk about my tedious job in accounting, and then to how I’d grown up. It was clear that he thought it had been horrible and I tried really hard to convince him it hadn’t been bad. I hadn’t been abused, at least not as I saw it. I’d been ignored, but I’d had clothes and had never gone hungry.
“No child should grow up like that,” he insisted.
“I know,” I sighed. “But it’s done. And things are different on the mainland. I can’t imagine a child in our families here on the Islands being ignored that way. You share everything, in a way, so someone would step in and care for the child.”
/> His eyes slid to the side briefly, and then he said something about the daycare situation in Croxier. I wasn’t listening.
“What was that glance about?” I asked instead.
“Nothing.”
Judging from his voice, it apparently was something.
“Joao.”
“Nothing.”
“Josie.”
He sighed and gave me a long look.
“Not sure I should tell you,” he said.
Oh. Well, shit. I’d been so caught up in our bubble of happiness and had forgotten that he would know things from his job which he couldn’t share with me. It wasn’t as if I’d babble about it to half the island, but there were things he couldn’t share. I should have known better than to push and felt a little awkward.
“Sorry,” I mumbled. “Of course, you shouldn’t share secrets with me.”
“It’s not that,” he protested. “It’s just weird.”
I waited and didn’t know what to say.
“I know Tina talked to you about trying for a baby,” he started slowly. I nodded, and he sighed again. “It was pretty awful, Sunshine. She was almost four months along when she miscarried, and she was so sad. Thea held it together, but Tina just cried. I’d never seen her like that before, and I hope to God I won’t ever again.”
“I know,” I said.
Tina still choked up when she talked about it.
“They want to try again.”
“What?” I hadn’t known, and I wondered how Tina would handle it. “Is she ready for it?”
“Not Tina. Thea.”
Of course. That made sense and would be easier for them.
“They…” he paused, and I raised my brows in surprise when I saw a faint blush on his cheeks. “They need a donor.”
I got it immediately. They’d asked him.
“They asked you?” I still asked quietly, not sure how he felt about it because his face had turned carefully blank.
“Yeah.”
“How do you feel about it?”
I didn’t want to tell him what I thought. This was big, and my opinion shouldn’t influence him.
