Tangled Tides (The Sea Monster Memoirs) (6 page)

My life was here with Uncle Lloyd, not underwater. I watched an orange and black fish swim around his aquarium—three-hundred gallons of tropical reef, smack-dab in the middle of his living room. Little did he know a real version awaited me just outside his door. How could I tell him I had been turned into a supposedly mythical creature? The very thought of it seemed so insane.

He scratched his flaking forearms and I grabbed the bottle of cocoa butter from the coffee table. Treatments dried out his skin, and he was awful at taking care of himself.

"It's amazing how your place didn't get hit." I rubbed lotion into his arms and hands. "Did you see my house? It's in shambles."

He waved me away and wiped off the excess lotion with the bottom of his shirt. "Storms are finicky things. The sisters of nature must have kept my house out of their path of destruction."

Storms. One of the few things my mother had loved, and one of the only things we had in common. "Do you think my mom would have cared what happened to our house?"

"My guess would be no. But I do think she would have enjoyed the storm. Nature's fury dancing on our little island would have made her smile."

"My mother never smiled."

He studied me all fatherly-like and mussed up my hair. "Once upon a time she smiled a lot."

The only memories I had of my mother were of her sad and crying, or her mumbling—in a drunken, catatonic state—that she wished I was never born. If she had never had me, maybe she would've been the happy, goodhearted person my uncle spoke of so fondly.

She died when I was eight, so Uncle Lloyd took me in. He was the only person in my life I truly loved and trusted. I could still remember moving into his house. My room had periwinkle walls and white lace curtains. The dresser and headboard looked like dollhouse furniture—not that I knew what dolls were at the time. He said it was my new home, and that he and I were family.

"The kind who takes care of each other," he said.

He held me when I cried, made me love-cooked meals, and tucked me in at night. All of those things were strange and new to me, things my mother had never done. One night Uncle Lloyd gave me a stuffed teddy bear, but I didn't know what to do with it.

"You just love it," he told me.

"Love?"

He sighed and shook his head. He did that a lot the first year of us living together. As I got older and learned about the world beyond our little island, I discovered many interpretations of childhood, family, and love. But my uncle's definition of love—the one he told me while I held my first teddy bear in my hands—was my favorite. "It's when you care about someone so much you would risk everything to keep them safe."

We never kept things from each other, but this mermaid craziness would have to be an exception. He would be safer not knowing, and part of loving him meant keeping him safe.

"Decided to try being a blonde?" Uncle Lloyd asked.

I froze. I had forgotten about my hair. He had been gone a couple days. I could say I had dyed it before the storm. Easy peasy. "I d-d-d—"

Crap! Why couldn't I speak?

He saved me from my stuttering spell. "Didn't think I would notice? I must say, you look beautiful."

His compliment made me smile, but the knock at the door made me smile even bigger. "That's Rownan. We're gonna do damage control on the house, but I'll be back in the morning."

I kissed Uncle Lloyd's cheek, and he grunted as I left the room. He didn't think Rownan was good enough for me. Truth be told, in his opinion, no man would ever be good enough.

R
ownan swooped me into his arms and carried me up the steps to my house. Things felt off between us, but what could I expect after being transformed into a half-fish?

"Is this what it'll be like on our wedding day?" I teased.

He rolled his eyes and nodded at the front door. "Open that and you'll get it."

I turned the handle and pushed the door, which was much harder to open than usual. The floors were covered with an inch of water. "Aw, crud."

"I didn't want you walking through it in your bare feet. I'm not ready to see you with fins yet."

Me with fins. How could he say it so casually? What would happen if we went swimming and he saw my tail? I bet he wouldn't act so nonchalant after that freak show.

"Believe me, it's not pretty." Looking down at my feet, I saw the hem of his white coat was caked with mud. Add another item to the long list of reasons why he should dump me. "Ugh, I ruined your coat! I'm so sorry."

"No biggie."

"Yeah, right. I'm sure it costs a fortune to have this dry-cleaned."

He carried me up the stairs to my room without saying another word and set me down on my bed. "You should get dressed. We need to talk."

"Okay." A lump formed in my throat as he walked out of the room. Would he break up with me over this? Of course he would. Why would someone like Rownan keep a half-fish as his girlfriend?

I changed into my favorite sundress, hoping it would give me a shred of confidence, and then called him back into the room.

He looked relieved when I handed him his coat. Even though the house was stifling, he slipped his arms into the heavy sleeves and instantly relaxed. "Yara, I need to tell you something."

This was it. I was going to lose him because a cocky finhole had turned me into a freak of nature.

"Sit down." He pulled out the chair to my vanity table.

"No, thanks, I'd rather stand." Even if I couldn't be strong on the inside, I could fake it on the outside. Never let them see you vulnerable. One of the few useful lessons my mother taught me.

"There's a lot you don't know about me. Stuff I couldn't tell you before. Now that you've been turned, you have to know. Things will change between us and—I don't know how to say this."

Then don't say it,
I mentally begged.
Stay with me even if I am a monster.
"Just say it."

"I'm a selkie."

Not even remotely close to what I expected. "A what?"

"Selkie."

Silky, silky, silky. The familiar sound ricocheted around my brain like I should know what it meant, but no definite answer or image came to mind. "Repeating the word doesn't explain what it means."

"Selkies are … we're sea creatures who can shape-shift into humans. In the water we're half seal."

I fought back a laugh. "Is this your way of making fun of me?"

His jaw muscles rippled as he rubbed his hand over his goatee. "No. I swear it's the truth."

My mind went blank. I stared at him, unblinking.

"Yara?"

"You're telling me you're like a merman, but instead of being part fish, you're part seal?" He nodded. "There's no such thing."

He stood up taller and lowered his chin. "I assure you there is. Many such things."

I shook my head involuntarily. He had to be kidding. Never in all my home schooling, or all the stories told to me by vacationers and boaters, had I ever heard or read about a creature like that.

He took my hand and put it against his fur coat. "This coat is like a skin to me; it helps my blood stay cold. Selkies are meant to live in cold temperatures. Without our coats and some other preservers, we'd die—especially here in this warm climate."

"We?"

"My kind."

My fingers gripped the soft, white hairs. How had I never questioned why he wore a fur coat in the hot Florida weather? Why didn't everyone who saw him question it? "There are more people like you?"

"Of course." He said it all snarky, like
I
was the strange one for not being savvy about secret seal people.

"For weeks you've been telling me how much you hate merfolk. Now you're telling me you're just like them?"

"We're nothing like merfolk. You and I are very different, but that doesn't change the way I feel about you."

My mind raced. Did this mean we could be together? We were both some sort of half water, half land weirdos. Would this bring us closer, or drive us further apart? Rownan had never taken me to his house, never introduced me to his family or friends. The mysterious thing had seemed cool at the time, but now I understood why he was so secretive. "Do you really live in Key West?"

"Yes, I didn't lie about that."

"What else
did
you lie about?" My legs felt wobbly and my heart pounded so hard I could feel it in my throat, but Rownan didn't seem rattled at all.

"You never asked me if I was a selkie."

"I didn't know such a thing existed! Why would I ask you about it?"

"If I told you, what would you have done? Freaked out? Never spoken to me again?"

He was right. I probably would've run away screaming if he told me he was a—"Selkie," I whispered, trying to lodge the strange, new word into my vocabulary.

"We're extraordinary creatures if you keep an open mind about us. Please don't shut me out because of this. You have no idea how important you are to me."

Yesterday hearing Rownan say something so sweet would have sent me floating into the clouds. He never talked to me that way. Today his words sent a chill through me. Shock. My body must be reacting so strangely because of shock.

He was the same as before. Dark chocolate hair, goatee to match, and thin lips that curved downward into a sexy pout. His strong hands still looked like they could snap someone into pieces, contrasted by his big, puppy-dog eyes. His irises were so dark they almost blended with his pupils; two black, full moons floating in almond-shaped skies. He did resemble a seal, but he also resembled his half-brother.

I pictured Treygan's eyes. They were the same shape as Rownan's, but Treygan possessed blue moons—rare, unusual, blue moons.
Stop it, Yara. No more thinking about Treygan.

"I'd never shut you out, Rownan. We're meant to—we're—" Why couldn't I say it out loud? A week ago I had started telling him we were meant to be together. It was my line. It always made him smile.

"I know, baby. You don't have to say it."

Warmth spread over my skin, but it had nothing to do with Rownan. My mind felt like it was physically stretching out the bedroom window and down into the front yard.

"Treygan's here," I announced suddenly. How did I know that? It was like I could sense him approaching the house, but how? Were merpeople psychic? Too many new things were being thrown at me at once. I felt dizzy.

Rownan glanced at the window. "Be careful with him. He'll try to turn us against each other."

I had never seen Rownan scared before, but now fear practically oozed from his sweaty forehead. Did he really think Treygan could come between us? I wanted us to get back to normal, but with these new revelations, I didn't know what normal was anymore. "He could never turn me against you."

"Promise me that will always be true."

To stop the room from spinning, I focused on his pale lips framed by his goatee. "I promise. Why can't Treygan just leave me alone?"

His coat slid out of my fingers as he stepped backward. "I hate to say this, but you need him right now. He'll have to teach you to survive as one of them."

"Whatever he has to teach me, he can do it with you here. I don't want to be alone with him."

"You're one of his kind. He'll look out for you. Just remember your promise."

I slid my hands inside his coat, wrapping my arms around his waist and burying my face against his chest. He smelled different, like saltwater and smoky mint, but I tried to ignore it. My legs felt stronger and my head felt clearer. "Don't leave me."

"You have to go with him, but I'll be fixing up the house and trying to figure a way out of this mess."

"Row," I looked up at him. "Do you think there's a way for me to turn into a selkie?"

His ebony eyes seemed to glisten. "Legit? You would do that?"

"I'd rather be part seal than part fish."

"You did look hella cool in my coat." He kissed my forehead and turned away.

I pulled him closer, but something still felt off. "I want a goodbye kiss."

Our lips met and I waited for the familiar tingle to rush through me. Strangely, I felt nothing. We went through all the motions, his hand gliding up the back of my neck and his tongue making perfect circles around mine. So where was my tingly feeling? I opened my eyes and pulled away. My lips felt cold and tasted salty.

"I'll find you soon," he said. "Put on your boots before you go downstairs. I'm still not ready for your fin premiere."

We walked together down the stairs, our kiss on instant replay in my mind. Why was that kiss so bad? Were things already changing between us?

I was careful not to splash water on my legs as we made our way to the front door. Treygan sat on the porch steps—wearing clothes, thank God. He didn't move a muscle as Rownan walked past him.

"Why didn't you tell me?" I huffed once Rownan was out of ear shot.

Treygan didn't turn around. His blue t-shirt stretched against his rounded shoulders. "Tell you what?"

"That Rownan is a selkie."

"It wasn't my place to tell you. Besides, you wouldn't have believed me."

"You're probably right." He stood up and turned to face me. I sneered at his t-shirt. "Ironic, don't you think?"