“Give Roberto my best,” Teo said as I rose from my seat. “We’ve missed his stall at the weekend festival.”
“And his food. No one fries fish as well as Roberto,” Kekoa remarked. “He hasn’t opened up on the beach at all.”
I raised a brow. “What? How long has this been going on?”
“Almost a month. When I called over the weekend to inquire about his health, he said he’d return soon and not to worry,” Teo said.
“I’ll get to the bottom of it.”
When I arrived home, I didn’t find my grandfather waiting on the porch with a cigar, or in his work shed creating another beautiful sculpture for the kiln.
“Abuelo?” I called, walking into the house.
A soft hum emanated from the rear room. It ended abruptly when I shut the door behind me.
“Abuelo?” I called out again. I pushed forward and moved into the single bedroom of his small bungalow where I caught him shutting the closet door. His cheeks were pale, his breaths labored and uneven.
“Abuelo?”
“Don’t you know how to knock anymore?” He pressed his blue lips together in a disapproving, thin line. “Or did you forget while you were at sea?”
“Your door was open,” I pointed out. “But you’re hiding something from me. Why?”
Nothing prepared me for his answer. With resignation on his weathered face, he came out with the truth.
“I’m sick, Dante. A bad illness nearly killed me over the winter while you were gone,” Abuelo admitted to me. “I spent two weeks in the hospital and even longer here in bed to recuperate.”
His words chilled my blood, numbing my fingertips and toes. Abuelo had always been there for me and more of a father than the stallion who conceived me. The thought of him alone, suffering in his sick bed without help, twisted my stomach.
Unless... “Who took you to the hospital?”
“Alessa did.” He coughed a few times into his elbow then gestured to the closet. “I need my machine. I didn’t want you to know about it, but the cat’s out of the bag now.”
“Why not? Why keep it from me, Abuelo?”
“I don’t want you to worry about me while you’re away over the winter months. I have an illness, and it’s not going to get better, Dante.”
“The flu?” I asked, clueless. We didn’t catch it, but I’d seen lots of humans suffering from it.
My grandfather shook his head. “It’s called chronic obstructive pulmonary disease.” I stared at him. His words were Greek to me, just a string of medical jargon that made no sense. “It means my lungs don’t work the way they used to,” he clarified.
“Is it deadly?”
“It can be.”
I dragged the machine out again. He had a small canister of oxygen and tubing with two small prongs. Within moments of positioning it into place, the color returned to his lips and the difficult breathing eased.
I sat beside my old man on the bed and he laid one weary arm around my shoulders. We talked, he told me about the difficult winter, and I struggled to come to terms with the meaning of his words.
My grandfather, the man who saved my life and taught me to be a human, would die in the next couple of years.
And I wouldn’t be present to hold his hand and watch him go.
***
Alessa would never forgive me if I didn’t pop in for a spontaneous visit. Once I’d had some time to adjust to the idea of losing Abuelo, I helped him mix a fresh batch of batter for his stand.
Then he kicked me the hell out of his place. “Go see your girl.”
“She isn’t my girl.”
Abuelo chuckled and told me off in Spanish. I vamoosed and made my way to the aquatics center to capitalize on all the free time I had until my usual clients began booking surf lessons.
“Hey, Dante!” Pam called. The blonde girl shot me a grin and a big wave with her free hand. She worked with a pair of tongs over a marine environment filled with colorful sea urchins and coral. I salivated. They saw beautiful creatures; I saw dessert.
“Hola, señorita. Where’s Alessa?”
“Arguing with the boss. I’m waiting to talk to her too, so grab a number.”
Grumbling, I pushed my way toward Alessa’s office anyway but stopped short when I heard the raised voices. Shit.
“Look, he’s your boss, too. He asked me to do this as a personal favor to him,” Alessa argued.
“Of course. Any reason to shirk your responsibilities. Had I known you would become so unreliable, I would have promoted Julia in your place.” The snide scientist’s voice made my skin crawl.
Doctor Castlebury might have been a top notch marine biologist, but he was also a first class asshole. His snooty accent made it sound like he was always talking down to you.
“That isn’t true and you know it. Teo sank a lot of—”
“Teo?” The doctor laughed. “Are we on a first name basis now with the owner of the resort?”
“Everyone calls him by his name,” Alessa snapped back. “I can still help with the morning test samples and we do any cleaning at night anyway when the guests aren’t around.”
“And how shall we care for these animals? Your injured sea turtle?”
Guilt gnawed at my belly, a consequence of my shameless eavesdropping, but the entire conflict was like a train wreck; once I heard it, I couldn’t move away.
“Kai is doing fine. He chooses to stay in the cove and he doesn’t need much.”
“He should be set loose in the wild where he belongs,” Castlebury chastised.
“We tried that and he swam back. This island’s reefs are his home now.”
I stepped away from the door, suppressing the urge to burst through it and trample her boss into the ground. I could have made him a greasy smear on the carpet, but respect for Teo’s rules kept my wild beast at bay. I couldn’t listen to him heap anymore abuse on her. Instead, I sat facing one of the tanks. A graceful yellow tang glided through the water, occasionally pausing to graze on a piece of seaweed wafer. I smiled.
Yellow tangs were one of my favorites, too visually stunning to consider food.
“Just try firing me,” Alessa seethed from the opening door, her hand on the knob. “You can’t.”
“Go play at being a fish tart if that’s what you truly want,” came the dismissive reply from within the room. “Who am I to stop you?”
Asshole, I thought.
Alessa nearly blew past me, her irritated gaze focused on the floor. I reached out and caught her by the hand then tugged her back and into my lap. She toppled into me with a soft ‘oof’ of surprise.
“Look at the tang. She’s being flashy today.” A pair of clownfish darted out and circled the sunny yellow fish.
“Buttercup comes out a lot lately.” Her hand lowered to my shoulder from its mid-slap position. “Jeez, you scared me. Where’d you come from?”
“My mother.”
“Ha. Ha. Cute.”
I beamed at her. “Cuter than Abuelo?”
“Eh.” Alessa lifted her hand and turned it back and forth in a so-so gesture. “Close call. Really though, what are you doing in here?”
“Looking for you.”
“Well, you found me. What’s up?”
“Come out with me tonight,” I said. After putting up with Castlebury’s bullshit, she deserved an evening of carefree drinking and dance.
“I don’t know...” She bit her lower lip. “I have to be here early tomorrow to catch up on inventory stuff before my days in the mermaid tank begin.”
“C’mon, there’s a band playing tonight and drink specials at the beach bar. You’ll have a good time,” I insisted.
Alessa’s expression was torn, so I cheated and danced my fingers across her ticklish ribs. She wriggled in my lap and laughed, squirming to get free, but I didn’t let up.
“Say you’ll come out with me and I’ll stop.”
Her giggles and squeals echoed across the room. The yellow tang and her clownfi
sh pals darted back inside the colorful coral growths.
“Okay!” Alessa cried out, breathless from laughter. “I’ll go. I’ll go!”
“Good. Come on.”
“But I’m working!”
“Pam, can you cover whatever crap she has to do?”
Pam offered a silent salute with her metal tongs. Grinning, I pulled Alessa through the aquatics complex. The hexagonal building had grown in the months since my last appearance. I hurried past the brand new shark exhibit without looking, a shiver running down my spine inspired by memories of encountering the monstrous beasts while in the ocean. Hippocampi were their prey, but thanks to Kekoa we were safe in these waters.
“Hey.” I sucked in a breath. “Thanks for looking out for my grandfather. I appreciate it.” We moved across the paved walkway without a destination in mind.
“He told you, huh?”
I nodded. “He said you popped in almost every day to check on him this winter, and you were the one to make him go to the hospital on the mainland. I wouldn’t have him anymore if not for you. Thanks.”
“You don’t have to thank me for it, Dante. It’s what anyone would have done.”
How long had it been since I first returned to land, searching for the man who saved my life? Thirteen years. Thirteen years ago, I could barely speak a lick of English. With the help of Abuelo and Teo, I learned it as if it was my first language. I picked up the rest while instructing my clients.
“He’s all you have now, right?”
I shook my head. “My dad is still alive, but he doesn’t approve of me coming out this way, you know? He doesn’t think of Abuelo as family, but I do. I wouldn’t be here if he hadn’t found me on the beach. He and Teo got me back to my family.”
Alessa nodded in sympathy. Her small hand rubbed my shoulder. “His sickness isn’t a death sentence, Dante. We still have years left with him.”
You may, but I won’t.
***
“When did you start dancing like a male stripper?” Alessa demanded. “What the hell, Dante?”
“What? What’s wrong with the way I dance?”
“There’s nothing wrong with it, you know, if a guy is wearing a banana hammock for me to stuff dollar bills inside,” she said, flustered.
“It’s the same as I’ve always danced.” At least I didn’t feel like I was doing anything different.
“Ha. If you say so. Who are you showing off for?” She made a show of scoping out our surroundings, likely scouting for a client of mine. I wasn’t fazed by the rumors anymore.
The combined effect of the heat, our mixed drinks, and dancing brought a rosy flush to her cheeks and the glow of sweat to her skin. She smelled divine. In close quarters, I couldn’t ignore the floral scent drifting to me, mingled with Alessa’s natural smell.
What is that smell always surrounding her? I wondered. Beneath the floral perfume of shampoo and body splash, I frequently caught a whiff of the ocean. Salt water. Like it was part of Alessa’s soul.
“Alessa!”
The tenor voice calling out her name took the wind out of my sails. Alessa’s smile faded, replaced by the scowl I’d worked so hard to wipe away.
“Save it, Ricardo. I already told you, I’m done talking.”
“That’s it? I mess up one time and you’re done with me? I thought I meant something to you.”
“For Chrissake, take the break-up like a man.” Alessa raised a hand for another drink. The bartender placed a shot glass full of tequila down beside a plate with lemon wedges and salt.
Ricardo’s expression contorted into a mask of hate. I winced and looked away, focusing on my cerveza.
“You got someone else then?” He paused, as if to consider his accusation, and before Alessa could deny it he continued. “Like anyone would want your fat ass, puta bitch. Go spread your legs for someone el—”
I jumped out of my seat and between them, placing myself in his face. “I think you need to go before all the liquor you’ve drank makes a bigger fool of you, Ricardo.” The strong scent of tequila reached me, worsened by my close proximity to him. My nostrils flared as I breathed it in, my attention fixed on his bloodshot eyes. Her ex-boyfriend was a sip away from a case of alcohol poisoning.
“You got a problem, Dante? This is between me and Alessa. You go and mind your own business.”
Despite her ex’s bodybuilder bulk, the macho act didn’t intimidate me; I towered above Ricardo by a good five inches and had natural, athletic muscle. For Alessa, I’d snap him in half with my bare hands. “You involved me in this when you disrespected her in front of me.”
Ricardo stood his ground. So did I. From the corner of my eye, I saw the bartender moving closer to the phone and a member of resort security weaving toward us through the dance crowd.
“Fine. You keep her then.” Ricardo made a parting comment I couldn’t translate, but from the heat rising to Alessa’s face, I knew it had to be bad. Once he was gone, I turned to face my friend and found her facing the bar with her head down on her folded arms.
“Hey? Lessa? I didn’t mean to embarrass you.” I set my hand between her shoulder blades. She was warm beneath my hand, her smooth back covered in a fine layer of dewy sweat.
“I think I’m done for the night.”
“Wanna walk it off?”
She shrugged without lifting her head. “May as well exercise my fat ass off.”
Raw, unbridled anger washed over me. There’s nothing wrong with her ass.
“Come on. The coast by your place should be quiet right now.”
“Whatever.” Alessa slid off her stool and headed out, but at a slow pace with her arms wrapped tight around herself. I managed to convince her to step out of her strappy heels. Together, we walked barefoot over the damp sand where the foamy surf came in with the tide. It was warm beneath my feet, heat lingering despite the loss of the sun.
I seethed along the way. Every time I opened my mouth to speak, the words on the tip of my tongue felt too trite for consoling her. “Your ass isn’t fat,” I finally said as her place came into view.
“You’re just saying that,” she moped.
“Why would I lie to you? I have nothing to gain from making up things, Alessa. Ricardo is a dick.”
“Yeah, I’ll agree with you there. I don’t even know what I saw in him. Guess that’s why it was such a short fling.” She sighed and let her shoulders droop more.
“Want me to beat him up? Bury him in the sand? I can do that, you know. There’s enough of him to feed a thousand sea creatures.”
A small smile tugged her lips. “He’d make the beach smelly.” She stumbled on the sand, a misstep of her foot.
“Damn. True.” I slyly snuck my arm around Alessa’s shoulders to steady her. The same alluring scent tickled my senses again. “Whatever you’re wearing smells nice, by the way.”
“Huh?” She blinked. “Oh. Thanks. I put flowers in my bath sometimes when I wanna soak.”
Dreading the sight of her house in the distance, I tried to stall with small talk. Anger at Ricardo made me desperate to put the smile firmly on her face again before we parted ways. “Remind me to call you next time I want to smell pretty. Do I get to come in and eat you out of house and home since we missed out on our chance for dinner?”
“I dunno. Last time I let you in my fridge you complained about my lack of veggies.”
“You won’t hear a complaint from me this time. I will eat Pop-Tarts and grin through every bite.”
I did. By the time she nodded off to sleep, I was on a strawberry-filling induced sugar high. But my friend had a smile on her face well worth the price of my sleepless night.
Chapter 3
~Dante~
The appointments came hard and fast over the next days, packed together on a tight schedule to appease the demand for my services. Repeat customers returned from last year, eager to advance to the next step in their training.
Alessa believed I spent more time dipping my cock into
my students than sliding a board onto the surf. It wasn’t true and hadn’t been since my first year as an instructor, when I was fresh to the world, eager to please any woman on two legs, and blown away by how good sex could feel.
I didn’t have the honor of breeding in the herd, so I quickly became addicted to receiving any form of attention on land. Abuelo even sat me down for the talk, plied me with condoms, and set me free again until frequent sex with an endless line of willing females began to bore me.
They still bored me. No-strings-attached sex was okay for a while until the shifter in me wanted — needed — more.
I spent my hour lunch break drifting aimlessly until a moving crowd caught my eye. Teo’s island had a strict event schedule, filling each day with activities and shows.
I never kept up with the schedule, and had no idea where they were going, but our destination became clear once the shuffling gait took us below ground.
A fair-skinned mermaid drifted past, golden hair streaming behind her. I hadn’t watched one of the mermaid shows before, too disinterested in watching humans playing at a life they could never understand.
The real mermaids of the paranormal world were terrifying, man-eating beasts. They’d laugh at the humans wearing silicone tails and green bikini tops.
Alessa is in there somewhere, I thought, intrigued.
“Mommy, are the mermaids real?” the child beside me asked her mother. She couldn’t have been more than three or four, with rosy-red cheeks and a head of blonde hair.
“Of course they are.”
“I wanna be a mermaid.”
An ethereal beauty glided by the aquarium glass, her fiery red hair adrift in the water. Her blue tail held hints of green and gold iridescence and the flowing fin faded into gold and ruby at the tips. Seaweed, pearls, and artistically placed fish netting made up her bikini top.
Making Waves (Mythological Lovers) Page 2
