SEVEN
Aspen
Redford’s hands all over my bare legs as he boosts me into the fireboat have me burning up. Meredith might need to turn that water cannon on me at any second.
She’s right there to greet me, pulling me into her arms before I’ve cleared the side of the boat, collapsing into a cuddle puddle on the floor.
“How are we alive?” she asks, laughing into my wet hair. “And where is Loverboy going?”
“I’m sorry, who?” But I know exactly who she’s talking about.
“Oh please. You two look like you’re about to hump each other’s brains out every time you make eye contact. I want a firefighter. Preferably not the old one, or the dorky young one. Did you hog the only hot firefighter for yourself? Maybe we can share.”
“Mer, I know how you share. Remember the Reese’s incident at lunch? And the upstairs bed our first night here?”
“Ugh, fine. I’ll find my own firefighter. Look at him, not only is he sexy as hell, he’s carrying our stuff over his head so it doesn’t get wet. He’s already more thoughtful than your last boyfriend. Can we keep him?”
“I want to, god, Meredith, do I want to. But I think first we need to figure out what we’re gonna do. Where are we gonna live?”
“There’s that cute little camping store in town, maybe we can get a tent or something, until we can rebuild.”
“Camping? Have you met us?”
“I don’t want to go back home,” she whines, finally letting go of our horizontal bear hug. “It’s just felt so right being here, like this is where we should’ve been all along.”
“I know. We’ll find a way, I promise. Look at what we made it through tonight, we’ll get through this.
Oh my god, Mer, you don’t know what’s in here,” I practically shriek, taking the jacket from Redford’s outstretched hands and giving it to her so I can help him climb aboard.
I’m sure he doesn’t need my help but any excuse to touch this man will work for me.
“Holy shit! Our computers, you got them?”
“He went back in for them,” I sigh, talking to Meredith but unable to take my eyes off Redford. “We didn’t lose anything we can’t replace.”
“The second we get back to the firehouse,” he says, wiping water from his face in slow motion like he’s trying to get the cover of the calendar, “we’re backing up those hard drives.”
Our tandem eyeroll has him holding up his hands in a peaceful gesture.
“Does he think we’re stupid?” Meredith hisses as Redford reels in the hoses, now that his partners have much fancier ones from their bigger, high tech, much less Gerty boat. “He thinks we’re stupid, doesn’t he?”
“I think you two are a lot of things. Stupid isn’t even close to one of them.”
“We were supposed to row to town tomorrow, her friend runs a shop there. She was gonna let us use her wi-fi to upload everything, it’ll take a while. There’s no service on the island.”
“Do you need to call someone, let them know you’re okay? The boat’s old but her satellite phone still works.”
I instantly regret shaking my head. I should have pretended to call my parents, it’s embarrassing not to have anyone in your life other than the friend standing beside you. Do red flags come in sizes any larger than that?
“I should probably tell my family what’s going on. See you in a couple hours, I guess, when they stop lecturing me about how wrong we were about coming here and how right they were about everything, ever.”
“Oh goody, their favorite game,” I chirp with an exaggerated round of applause, hoping a joke or two will make the sexy firefighter forget I’m not calling anyone.
Redford slips the phone out of Meredith’s shaky hand the second she’s done dialing.
“Hi, this is Thomas Redford with the Cedar Spring Fire Department. There’s been an accident…
She’s okay, but she was attacked and the house was unfortunately lost. I have to tell you, your daughter and her friend are hands down the bravest women I have ever encountered.
Their resilience and quick thinking, I’ve never seen anything like it.
You must be so proud… Yeah, I have her right here, I’ll see if she’s up for talking, it’s been a hell of a night. ”
Meredith takes the phone, tears welling in her eyes as she tries thanking him but all she gets out is a silent lip quiver. I’m not doing any better, it’s taking both hands over my mouth to stop me from ugly crying all over myself.
“I can’t…” Words aren’t working yet. “Thank you.” Two syllables appears to be the limit at this moment. “You are so…” The added syllable to my arsenal isn’t helping get my point across. “That was the sweetest…”
“I’d be happy to make someone in your life realize they almost lost the most precious thing they’ve ever had in it. I’ve got at least one more of those speeches in me. Another ten or so if it’s for you.”
“It’s okay, her parents are pretty much all I’ve got. They told us this was stupid but we begged. They planned on selling the island. It’s been passed down on her father’s side for generations.”
Reluctantly, I take a second to breathe, worried I won’t continue. These aren’t things I talk about with anyone, least of all hot firefighters who might be into me. So why do I keep talking?
“We ran into a string of bad luck a few months back. She lost her job, I was about to, the writing was on the wall. Then I got dumped, everything was in his name, so we moved in with Meredith’s parents.
In-law suite above the garage,” I add through gritted teeth, because the in-law suite part makes it at least slightly more respectable.
“This was supposed to be our redemption story.”
He shakes his head solemnly, chewing on his lower lip like it might stop the wrong words from spilling out. Words that might break my heart? Which sounds ridiculous because we barely know each other. All this is, is a little crush on the guy who saved my life. Right?
“Aspen, you have to know, nothing that happened tonight was your fault. You didn’t make a mistake by coming out here and starting your redemption arc. Which, by the way, I’m having a hard time wrapping my head around the fact that somebody broke up with you.”
“I know, right,” I giggle, rubbing his arm as he steers the boat into open water. “If he wasn’t working he was training for marathons or sleeping with other women so it was kinda doomed from the start. I wasn’t a big fan of either activity, the sleeping around or the running, so he replaced me.”
“Oh I highly doubt that. I haven’t known you for very long but, Aspen, one thing you are not is replaceable.
I meet a lot of people in this line of work and I can say without question, I’ve never seen anyone smile in the face of adversity like you.
You’re strong, you’re funny, you’re sexy in the most blatantly obvious yet also the subtlest ways.
Hell, forget all that, you’re more interesting than most people could dream of. ”
“I am?”
“I was gonna jump in the water with you even if we didn’t have to, just to see if you really were a mermaid.”
“And the verdict?” I manage to eek out through my ear to ear smile.
“Well, you didn’t sprout a fin for legs but I’m still not convinced you aren’t a mythical creature that doesn’t really exist. You get more captivating and, honestly, too good to be true by the second.”
“I don’t think you get out enough,” I laugh, stroking his arm with both hands now, the way you might rub a marble countertop on a steamy summer night while waiting for the air fryer to beep.
Or is that just me? “But it’s okay, you don’t need to get out more.
I like that you think of me that way. I like being your mermaid.
You know you could have talked to me back then? ”
“I almost did, once. We waved actually. Then my dad said howdy-”
“From the boat and we tried to lasso you. Oh my god, you’re cute cowboy kid. I kept hoping to see you again. I swear, every time we’d go into town it was nothing but old folks, if you were on the pier, I doubt I’d have ever gone home.”
Saying the words, even in a joking manner, has me bummed instantly. I was hoping this would be the summer vacation that never had to end. Back then, we always had something to go home to.
Redford picks up on my sudden shift in mood, wrapping his arm around my shoulder so I melt into it. He doesn’t need to say anything, he probably doesn’t even know what caused my smile to fade into the darkness of the open water, but his touch is enough to soothe me.
And give me every reason in the world to find a way to stay here on Cedar Spring Lake, where I’ve always belonged.