SIX
Redford
The crackle of the radio stops me a split second before jumping in.
“Don’t worry, guys, it’s just me. I’ve got this.”
Am I crazy or is Aspen’s friend steering the boat away from the dock? Is there anything these mermaids can’t do?
Aspen lunges for the walkie talkie in my pile of clothes like she’s sliding into home plate. “Mer, thank god. We thought they were stealing the boat with you on it.”
“Nope. I’d have scratched those pyromaniac’s eyes out if they tried. I’m just gonna move this thing away from the fire, but I might need one of you more experienced gentlemen to use the water blasting cannon thingy to spray the dock. Let me know if you need more slack, I can get closer to shore.”
“Can she really drive that thing?” I ask, trying to decide if I’m better off saving the dock or the island.
“Surprisingly, yes. Put her in a car and she’s hell on wheels but there’s no curbs or stop signs out here. She will bump your boat against every rock on the shoreline though.”
“Oopsie,” Meredith’s voice comes through the radio again seconds after a thump in the water. “I think a rock ran right out in front of me. We’re good though, everything’s good, no angry lights blinking at me.”
Aspen laughs, wiping tears from her eyes. Or possibly rain. Sweat? Whatever it is, I have to wipe it from mine as well. It can’t be rain, there’s not a cloud in the night sky. It must be sweat. There is no way I’m misting up over this.
I could watch this woman for hours. Every expression, every move her body makes, I’m completely captivated, but I need to get on Ol’ Gerty and man the water cannon. She’s got nothing on the Roanoke’s monitor but it’ll be enough to take down the dock fire in a matter of minutes.
A flash in the woods catches my eye. A flash that shouldn’t be there, not so far from the house. Son of a bitch, is the fire spreading? It’s not damn near windy enough to jump that far. Is somebody out there?
Gertrude’s evil eye, the floodlight, illuminates the wooded island for a second as Meredith bumps her against another rock, trying to steer closer to the shore. We’re not alone.
The light’s gone as quick as it came but there’s a man out there holding a burning branch like a torch, limping towards us. It might be the dancing flames playing tricks on my eyes in the darkness but I swear to god his skin is green. Who the hell are these psychos?
That moment the light shined this way was all it took, he knows I saw him. The torch in his hand stops weaving between trees but I swear the flames are growing. He must have some sort of accelerant.
The flame grows rapidly before it’s launched in our direction. This maniac is trying to set us on fire.
“Aspen, jump!”
I don’t hesitate to tackle her into the water, using my body to shield her from any rocks on the way down.
I’d do that for anyone I was rescuing, but it’s never felt more personal.
An attack on her is an attack on me. I’d normally lash out over something like this, getting myself into trouble in the process, but this is different.
All I want in this moment is to make sure she’s okay.
Not just her but her best friend, and her pillowcase of artwork on the boat, their computers wrapped in my jacket somewhere along the shore. I’m not only worried about Aspen, a mermaid disguised as a goddess I just met, it’s worse, I’m worried about everything she might worry about.
What the hell? Thomas Redford isn’t a worrier. He’s a warrior. Yet my first instinct isn’t to take this bastard out, it’s to rescue Aspen’s life’s work before it’s too late. The jacket’s flame retardant but it can only withstand so much.
The water’s deeper than I expected but my feet manage to find something solid, giving me enough leverage to turn Aspen to face me, praying she’s alright.
“Did you just save me again?” Her soft voice bounces off the water as it splashes against her chin, sending ripples through my heart that feel more like tidal waves. “What happened? Why are we in the water?”
“There’s someone in the woods, he threw a torch at us. Are you alright? Please tell me I didn’t hurt you.”
“I’m okay,” she whispers, her eyes never leaving mine, begging me to wander through the fall foliage on prominent display inside them.
How am I supposed to look away? Why would I ever want to?
She’s even more beautiful than I imagined when she had her sweater wrapped around her mouth.
It’s as if her scintillating personality extended beyond the canvas and painted this masterpiece before me.
It’s so much more than finding her attractive, I want to appreciate everything that makes her who she is, inside and out.
“You’re staring at me,” she says through a smile that isn’t enticing me to look away, as if the world isn’t burning down around us.
“Sorry.”
“Don’t be. I didn’t say it was a bad thing. I should probably let you fight that fire though.”
“Might be a good idea. I need to check on your computers anyway.”
“It’s fine, I can see your jacket from here,” she says, glancing over my shoulder, letting her hands wander up my back until they’re clasped around my neck, like she’s holding me here. A hold I never want to break out of. “Does that mean you can stay here a few seconds longer?”
“You have no idea how badly I wish it did. Unfortunately, I don’t think these guys are going to stop. I gotta get back to my radio, see how far out help is.”
“Can I come with you?” The way her words fall so softly against my wet lips, butterfly kisses in the rain, I’d give her anything she asked for in this moment. “I feel so much safer by your side.”
Obviously she can’t but I find myself nodding anyway, needing her to be close enough to protect at all times, especially with a bloodthirsty criminal loose on the island. “Aspen, I saw the guy with green paint on his face. It’s him.”
“He’s still on the island? They must have left him behind. We knocked him off the ladder with a curtain rod.”
“That explains the limp. I need you to stay in the water, and not because I think you’re an actual mermaid. He’s clearly using fire as a weapon, you’ll be safer here.”
“No I won’t, I’ll be safer with you. Wait, why would you think I’m a mermaid?” Confused, she looks down like she might be able to see her fin through the dark water.
“It’s nothing. I just… A long time ago, I’d see you and your friend out here on the island every summer.
No one knew anything about you, or if you really existed, so I started calling you the mermaids.
A mysterious creature too beautiful to actually exist. It seemed fitting.
Then you disappeared for so long, I figured you had to be a myth. ”
“Even mermaids go off to college.” Her sweet smile is so hard not to kiss, I don’t know how I’m controlling myself, not when she’s so close I can hear her lips part with every heavenly syllable.
“This is our first time back since high school. The island belongs to Meredith’s family, the Cushings. I just tag along.”
“So you’re telling me you’re not really a mythological being? Because now that I’ve met you, I find that hard to believe.”
“Just a regular gal living on an island with her bestie because it turns out the real world kinda sucks. Sorry to disappoint,” she says with a shrug, batting her lashes at the starry sky.
“Are you crazy? Aspen, you couldn’t be further from a disappointment. I’m trying to figure out how someone like you is real.”
The grip her soft fingers have around my shoulders tightens. “I think I know how to prove it.”
“Oh yeah?”
“Mmmhmm.”
Her pillowy lips move closer, beads of water running over them, making my mouth jealous of their current positioning. I’ve never longed for anything as desperately as I long for her kiss. More so now than the day she waved to me on the boat.
“Reddy, you lazy bum. Swimming with a pretty mermaid when there’s a fire to fight. Am I gonna have to do both our jobs?”
Hollis may be my best friend but I could kill him right now. Doesn’t he realize I was about to kiss this mermaid?
“Don’t worry, brother, the cavalry’s arrived,” he calls from the police boat as the Roanoke saddles up on the other side of the dock, extinguishing the flames with a water cannon so powerful it could drain the lake.
“Looked like you jumped out of the way just in time. I take it we’ve still got a perp on the island? ”
“You’ll know him when you see him, he’s got a green face and he walks with a limp.”
“Sounds like the kind of guy we want to invite to poker night, other than the whole murderous tendencies thing. Go on, get the girls out of here, we’ll secure the island. Don’t let them out of your sight, whoever’s on the boat is still out there.”
Aspen pulls away slowly, treading water beside me in the most graceful manner, as if to prove I was right all along and she really is a mermaid. “I like the sound of you not letting me out of your sight.”
Best assignment I’ve ever been given.
Except, how am I supposed to focus on anything other than kissing her?