Chapter 5
TAYLOR
I frowned as I processed his last words. ‘Did you just say warn me?’
‘No, sorry… warn wasn’t the right word. What I meant was, I just wanted to make you aware that I was getting into the water, so you weren’t frightened.’
I weighed up my options, which were few and far between.
If this guy wanted to harm me there wouldn’t be a hell of a lot I could do about it, apart from fight back.
Down here on the beach no one would hear a call for help, and although I was pretty fast on my feet, I’d still have to get out of the pool and past him before I could try and get up the path to the house.
But my instincts weren’t screaming at me like they had in past situations where there had been even a hint of danger.
The vibes Jack was giving off were more like golden retriever vibes. Harmless and potentially adorable.
‘Do I need to be frightened?’ I asked.
‘No,’ he said, sounding offended by the very thought. ‘God no. Never. I would never hurt you. In any shape or form.’
‘That’s a pretty big promise to make. What if we kept meeting in the pool every night and fell in love and then you decided that you couldn’t be with a mermaid after all so broke it off and I spent the rest of my life here, pining under the stars.’
‘Uh…’
I swam slowly to the other side of the pool and he did the same, as if we were sharks, circling each other. Somewhere down the bay, a seal barked. Just the once, as if that’s all he could be bothered with in the heat. ‘Just kidding. It’d be more likely to be me who did the dumping.’
‘How do you figure that?’
‘We mermaids are transient folk. Don’t like to be tied down to any one place in particular.’
‘I suppose you prefer to keep a sailor in every port.’
‘God no. Imagine the effort involved. Trying to remember the right name every time. The potential to muck it up would be huge.’
He laughed. ‘So, why weren’t you?’
‘Scared?’
‘Yeah. I mean, we’re far enough from town that I’d say we’re pretty much on our own out here, and the closest house is what…
four or five hundred yards away? I’m pretty sure it’s a summer vacation home too, currently uninhabited.
The grass by the gate hasn’t been cut for a month or so, and there’ve been no new tire tracks on the drive.
Even after we had all that rain a couple weeks back. ’
I was taken aback. ‘Who even notices things like that?’
‘I do. I like to keep aware of my surroundings. Anyway, I’ve only met your uncle a couple of times, but I can’t imagine he’d be able to get here very fast if you screamed, or offer you much assistance if I attacked you.’
I snorted. ‘Great-uncle. And even if he could help me, he wouldn’t. He’d probably help you though. Help you dig a hole to bury me in.’
‘I take it you guys don’t get along.’
I pushed off the warm rocks and flipped over onto my back, staring up at the stars dotted across the sky and the moon that was only half full but was bright enough that I’d picked my way down the track to the beach without using a torch.
The water buoyed me up, supporting me like an old friend. ‘You could say that.’
‘Why not?’
‘Long story.’
‘OK. So to get back to my question, a stranger, who happens to be of the masculine persuasion—’
‘What’s that got to do with anything?’ I rolled back over onto my stomach and stared at him.
I could see his broad shoulders above the water, his tousled hair silhouetted against the sky behind him.
Before he’d got in, before he’d realized I was here, I’d had the chance to study him, purely from a defensive viewpoint of course.
The way a boxer studies his opponent before a fight.
Looks for weaknesses. All I could think while studying Jack was, damn he’s big.
He was all in proportion, wide shoulders, muscular arms and legs and a trunk that was broad at the chest but narrower at the waist, but all of it together was just…
big. I should have felt afraid. I didn’t.
‘Well, you know. The whole, man versus bear thing,’ he clarified. ‘Hashtag-not-all-men.’
I smiled, knowing he couldn’t see it in the dark. ‘Right, of course.’
‘So this male stranger starts to get in the water with you in the middle of nowhere, and you’re telling me you weren’t scared?’
‘How do you know I wasn’t?’
‘You didn’t seem scared.’
‘Pure bravado. Never show fear. Also, I live in New York,’ I said, as if that explained everything.
He was understandably not satisfied with this explanation. ‘So?’
‘So I know how to take care of myself. My friends and I have done self-defense classes at the gym. The instructor said he’d never seen anyone with natural self-preservation instincts like mine.’
‘Congratulations.’
‘Thanks. Although,’ I added thoughtfully, ‘given the size of you, I might not have been able to fight you off. But I would have one-hundred-percent gone down trying.’
‘The size of me?’ I could hear a smirk in his voice.
‘You’re not exactly small, are you.’
‘Thanks. I guess the moonlight exposed more of me than I thought.’
It took me a few moments to realize what he was referring to. ‘I wasn’t talking about that,’ I blurted, grateful for the dark so he couldn’t see me blush.
He laughed. ‘I know. I’m teasing.’
‘Well, anyway,’ I said, keen to change the subject. It felt like he was flirting with me, and even though I wasn’t technically doing anything wrong, it was difficult to shake the muscle memory of being married. It was hard enough remembering to say my maiden name again. ‘To answer your question—’
‘Finally.’
I ignored that. ‘I figured that you were here to swim in the pool, not specifically to attack me. Like you said, we’re in the middle of nowhere, so how would you have known I was here? Besides, I gave you more of a fright than you did me. That was quite some scream.’
‘I didn’t scream,’ he protested. ‘Maybe I yelped a little. But that’s understandable. I wasn’t expecting anyone to be down here.’
‘Neither was I, but I still didn’t scream.’
‘You had the advantage of watching me approach.’
‘Don’t flatter yourself, I wasn’t watching you.’
He was quiet for a while, swimming lazy strokes across the pool. I watched him unobtrusively, trying to get more of a sense of what he looked like, but the moon had dipped behind a cloud and only his profile was visible. Still, it was a strong profile. Chiseled jawline, sharp cheekbones.
‘Why New York?’ he asked.
‘What?’
‘Why would you choose to live in New York when you could live here?’
‘Because I want to live there.’
‘Don’t you like Pine Harbor?’
‘It’s not that I don’t like it.’
‘Then what is it?’
‘I had to grow up here, remember.’
‘You poor thing. Surrounded by all this beauty and nature right on your doorstep. Not to mention the tight-knit community of great people who, from what I’ve seen, look out for one another. I can see how that would be horrible.’
His sarcasm irked me. He sounded just like one of the thousands of tourists who poured into the place every year.
Enchanted by the national park on our doorstep.
The lighthouse that perched on the cliff overlooking the entrance to the harbor.
The wharf covered in colorful fishing buoys.
The picturesque town with its treelined streets and quaint buildings that looked like they were part of a rom-com movie set.
The manicured park in its center with its colorful flower beds, water fountains, town clock and wrought-iron bench seats for resting.
Blossom trees in spring, colorful oak leaves in autumn.
Even the street lamps were the old-fashioned kind that looked like lanterns.
‘You’ve got no idea.’
‘Tell me.’
I resented the fact that he had so easily written me off as ungrateful for growing up here, but he knew nothing about it. ‘Why should I? I don’t even know you.’
‘Isn’t that what we’re doing? Getting to know each other? I plan on staying here in your mother’s cabin for a while, so we’re bound to run into each other from time to time.’
I shook my head. ‘As soon as my mother comes back, I’ll be gone again.’
‘Yeah, but you’ll be back to visit your mom.’
I was instantly suspicious. Why did it matter to him if I visited my mother or not? ‘Are you asking me or telling me?’
‘Mm?’ His tone was faux innocent.
‘Let me guess. My mother complained that I don’t visit enough and made you feel sorry for her.’
‘She didn’t complain, exactly,’ he replied sheepishly. ‘But she did mention it when we first met. Only in passing. She seemed sad.’
Familiar guilt flooded through me, followed swiftly by anger that my mother had confided in a stranger who was now the one making me feel guilty.
‘I come home when I can,’ I snapped. ‘At least once a year, sometimes twice. But my life is in New York, and she knows that. I have my business there, a great apartment. Friends.’
‘And your husband,’ he added, when it was obvious that I had finished talking.
‘What exactly has my mother told you?’
‘Not much. Your mom just said you were married. Childhood sweetheart, or something like that.’
‘He was not my childhood sweetheart. And you and my mom seemed to have talked about an awful lot of personal stuff.’
‘I didn’t pry, if that’s what you’re insinuating. Your mother is just very forthcoming.’
He had a good point. My mother liked to talk, and not only talk, but overshare.
‘Well whatever, I don’t have a husband any more,’ I said shortly. ‘Not really.’
‘Not really?’
‘It’s complicated.’
‘Where is he?’
‘At this time of the night? Probably in bed with his girlfriend.’
‘Ah. That kind of complicated.’
‘Yes.’
‘I’m sorry.’
‘Don’t be. I should never have married him in the first place.’
‘I’m sure a lot of people say that when a marriage breaks up. Hindsight is a wonderful thing.’
‘It’s not hindsight at all. I knew on our wedding day that I shouldn’t be marrying him.’
If he was surprised that I was opening up to him almost immediately after telling him to mind his own business, he didn’t show it. ‘So why did you?’
I stared up the stars. ‘Have you ever felt like you were caught up in something that you couldn’t get out of? Like you were on a train heading somewhere that you knew was wrong, somewhere you had no business going, but with no way of stopping the train?’
To his credit, he thought about it. Didn’t just dismiss the question as absurd. As if he sensed that I was sharing something incredibly vulnerable. ‘No. I don’t think so.’
‘Trust me, you’d know if you had. It’s the worst feeling in the world.’
I moved my arms through the water, enjoying the feeling of my skin being cleansed, and the day being washed away.
My sudden openness had shocked even me. Maybe it was because we had the cover of darkness, or my mother’s tendency to overshare was rubbing off on me.
Maybe it was because we were complete strangers.
Or maybe it was because I’d had a few drinks and needed someone to vent to.
I wasn’t sure, but whatever it was, I felt comfortable sharing things with him that I hadn’t shared with anyone.
‘I don’t understand,’ he said. ‘If you knew that you didn’t want to marry him, why didn’t you just call it off?’
‘The weight of other people’s expectations, I suppose,’ I admitted. ‘And guilt.’
‘Guilt?’
I realized I’d said too much. This was heading into dangerous territory. ‘Ignore me. I’ve had a couple of wines and I’m wallowing.’
‘Are you sure? I’m happy to listen if you need someone to vent to. I’ve been told I’m a good listener.’
‘Does your wife say that?’
‘I don’t have a wife.’
‘Divorced?’
‘I’ve never been married.’
‘Girlfriend?’
‘Why don’t you just come out with it and ask if I’m single?’
‘What?’ I blustered. ‘That’s not what… I wasn’t… I don’t care if you’re single or not.’
He laughed.
‘Let me guess, you’re teasing again,’ I said drily.
‘Not my fault you make it so easy.’
‘Your turn in the hot seat, Mr. L.A. Are you enjoying slumming it here in Pine Harbor?’
‘I’d hardly call it slumming. This place has its appeal. It’s very picturesque.’
‘I’m sure L.A. has scenic highlights too.’
‘Of course, but nothing like the small-town charm of this place.’
‘You wouldn’t think it was so adorable if you’d had to grow up here.’
‘I never said it was adorable. I don’t think I’ve ever called anything adorable in my life.’
‘You said it was charming. Charming is a synonym for adorable.’
He sighed. ‘You’re one of those people.’
‘What people?’
‘People who use words like synonym in everyday conversation.’
‘I suppose you think people from small towns have limited vocabularies. Stereotyping much?’
‘I didn’t say that.’
‘Good, because it’s my turn to warn you; we don’t really like judgmental people around here.’
‘I’m not judging anyone or anything.’
‘Good.’
‘I mean it.’
‘Good,’ I reiterated. ‘Keep it that way and you’ll be just fine.’
‘You know, for a place you seemingly couldn’t wait to get away from,’ he said after a long silence, ‘you’re pretty defensive of it. And that’s not judgment, merely an observation.’
‘You know nothing about me.’
‘That’s true,’ he conceded.
‘All I wanted was a nice, peaceful swim to cool off,’ I muttered.
‘I’m sorry I ruined that for you.’
I sighed. ‘You haven’t ruined it. Not completely.’
‘It’s actually my favorite part of the day,’ he admitted. ‘Coming down here.’
‘Do you come down every night?’
‘The past few weeks, yeah. L.A. summers are hot, but this is a different kind of heat. It’s been so hot that the tar on the roads has been melting.
But it’s the humidity that really gets to me.
Even the air is sticky. A cold shower after work is good, but finding this swimming hole was a godsend.
It cools me down long enough to get some sleep, at any rate. ’
‘Yeah, it’s pretty special,’ I agreed.
‘There’s something about being here that puts life into perspective.’
I groaned. ‘You’ve been listening to my mother.’
‘Why?’
‘That’s exactly the sort of cheesy thing that she’s always saying.’
‘Is it?’
‘Yes, it is. And I don’t buy into it when she says it, either.’
‘You really don’t like this place, do you?’
I couldn’t answer that. Didn’t know how.