Page 48 of Stranded With the Grumpy Mermaid

I dive.

The cold closes over me and I go down hard, then turn beneath the surface and kick toward open water.

Fast. Then even faster. I break through the next swell and laugh.

The sound comes out half breath, half saltwater, and I laugh again because I can.

Because this is mine. It wasn’t the island that gave this back to me. Rafe didn’t give it back either.

But he was there when I finally stopped fighting it. He comforted me and held me and made me feel pleasure more fully than anyone before him.

That matters. So does the fact that I miss him so badly it hurts.

I float on my back beyond the break, the dome of the AETHER telescope glowing on the hill above the trees.

And finally I stop avoiding the other truth.

I love him.

I don’t know exactly when it happened. Maybe it started on the Belle, somewhere around a Tupperware container full of home-baked muffins.

Maybe it happened on that island. It doesn’t matter.

I love him.

I ended things because I was afraid being with him could damage the career I fought for. That fear hasn’t disappeared. People may talk. Some of them may assume the worst.

But now I know what being without him feels like. And I don’t want it.

I don’t know if he’ll forgive me. I don’t know how we make the department problem work. Maybe he doesn’t even want me anymore. But I want to try. I owe him that much.

I swim back.

The shift back comes easily. One moment tail, the next legs, and then I’m standing naked and dripping in the dark. Getting dressed takes forever because wet skin and formal clothes were not designed by people who like each other.

I finally manage to pull my pants over my wet legs and hold my shoes in my hand.

Then I go back.

A knot of departing guests is moving toward the gangway, wraps and laughter and event badges. I catch a program officer I vaguely know by the sleeve.

“Dr. Vasquez. Have you seen him?”

She takes in my bare feet, wet hair and damp clothes.

“Are you not boarding? It’s the last boat of the night. Anyone left is going to have to spend the night on the island.”

Everyone is getting off the island. Well, everyone sensible is getting off to the safety and comfort of a hotel on the mainland, where they will sleep in a well-made, plush bed.

But not him.

I know Rafe. There’s no way he’s going to leave the AETHER telescope tonight.

There’s a peninsula on the south end of the island, past the dome, where the land runs out and nothing blocks the sky.

That’s where he’ll be.

The boarding crew is already calling the final passengers.