Prologue #2
I was on my own.
But, okay, I was a strong swimmer. I could grit my teeth and paddle through the pain.
So, I paddled.
And paddled.
And paddled some more.
Only…the shoreline wasn’t getting any closer.
Dammit, was I caught in a rip current? Had I been fighting against the current without even realizing it?
Is that why I was so tired?
My heart rate kicked up another notch. And another.
I tried to remember my water safety training, but I couldn’t think. My brain was getting fuzzy.
My limbs were heavy.
My leg hurt.
I focused my gaze on the shore, desperately hoping that somebody—anybody—would appear. So, I didn’t know the big wave was coming until it crashed over me, dunking me under once again.
I toppled through the water, head over heels, like a rag doll in a washing machine. The long, dark tendrils of my hair floated around my face and neck like some tentacled sea monster attacking me. I kicked my legs, but—truth—the pain was becoming unbearable, and bone-deep exhaustion was setting in.
I didn’t have the energy to keep my fear at bay any longer. As the rip current—I could feel it now—dragged me even farther out to sea, panic flowed through me in an icy rush.
Was this karma? Was this the universe punishing me for skipping out on my job?
My heart rate skyrocketed.
Suddenly, a future running a Jersey Shore B and B didn’t seem like the worst fate in the world. At least it was a future.
Please, please, please, I prayed silently to anyone up there who might be listening, let me live. Let me live, and I swear, I’ll happily work at the Sunny Side for the rest of my natural-born life.
As if in answer to my plea, I felt a pair of hands on my waist, grasping me from behind. The touch was firm but also calming, so I didn’t struggle against it. Instead, I let those hands spin me around until I saw they belonged to strong arms that belonged to a teenage boy around my age.
A cute teenage boy.
My gaze met his. And locked.
My heart stopped—but not in a bad way.
In fact, I’d never felt more alive.
Staring into his eyes was like staring into another world. A world that was different but somehow familiar. A world that was waiting just for me.
And the way he looked back at me, well…it was as if he’d always known I was coming. And he couldn’t contain his joy that I’d finally arrived.
He had long, flaming-red hair. And a necklace made of seashells. And…a fish tail instead of legs?
I blinked.
Okay. Evidently, I was delirious. Did people hallucinate before they drowned?
Just then, the boy—or whatever he was—released his hold on me and pushed my hair gently away from my face. And it didn’t feel like a hallucination. It felt real.
He felt real.
He removed the strand of shells from around his neck and put it around mine.
I wanted to tell him I didn’t need his necklace; I needed his help. Except, I didn’t need help anymore, that was the thing. The pain in my leg was fading. And despite being underwater, I was somehow breathing just fine.
Had he done something? Had the necklace done something?
With a questioning look, I touched my hand to the strand of shells.
Nodding, he smiled at me. It was a smile like I’d never seen before. A smile that awakened feelings like I’d never felt before. I started to ache again, but in a good way.
A really good way.
Shyly, I smiled back, and the ache—that other ache—got worse.
Or…better, maybe?
And then everything went black.
* * *
I opened my eyes, squinting against the bright sunlight.
“Oh, thank Gawd,” said someone. A woman. “She’s awake.”
I looked around. There were three of them, three young, tanned, Spandex-clad women—a blond, a brunette, and a brunette with white-blond streaks. They were all crouched around me, and I was flat on my back, lying on the damp sand down by the water.
“Are you okay, hon?” asked the same woman who’d just spoken. The blond.
Nodding, I propped myself up on my elbows, coughed a little, and took a few deep breaths.
“I called 911 anyway,” said the brunette. She waggled the phone in her hand, and the sun glinted off her bedazzled phone case. “They’ll be here soon.”
I nodded again and sat all the way up.
“What happened?” asked the last woman. The one with the streaks in her hair. She leaned closer and spoke in a conspiratorial whisper. “Was this your first time drinking?”
I shook my head. “I wasn’t drinking,” I said. My voice sounded shaky. “I was just swimming. I got a cramp, and then a wave knocked me under. But then…”
I touched my hand to the necklace. Only, it wasn’t there.
Alarmed, I looked down.
Yup. The shells were gone.
Gone?
But then, how—
Quickly, I cut off that train of thought. Who was I kidding? The necklace wasn’t gone. Obviously, it had never existed.
And the Little Merman? Well, he must have been a dream. An illusion. Just a random firing of neurons creating a vision of my perfect romantasy hero, straight out of one of my books.
With my hand still on my chest, I cleared my throat as a cover. I didn’t think it was a good idea to let these women know I’d been hallucinating a hot merman mid-drowning.
“Then I, uh…I guess I got lucky, and the tide brought me back to shore,” I told them, settling on the most likely explanation.
But if that was what had happened, it wasn’t just lucky. It was nothing short of a miracle. Perhaps someone up there was looking out for me.
Suddenly, I thought about those black-and-white photos of my ancestors back at the B and B, the way their eyes had seemed to follow me. Had they followed me all the way down to the beach? Had they been watching me? Or watching out for me, maybe?
And…had I just made a pact with them?
I let that idea sink in.
Then, I glanced around at these three women, with their suntanned skin and their hoop earrings and their workout clothes in bright colors and various animal prints. I felt like Dorothy waking up from her fantasies of Oz and coming back to reality. This was my world, after all, wasn’t it?
The Jersey Shore was my world.
And after what I’d just been through, well…I was truly grateful to be here.