By The Sea (4 page)

Not that I fully believed him about the pelt and turning into a seal thing. I’d have to be crazy to buy it off the bat. However, the way he’d asked for my help, so earnest, I couldn’t turn him down.

We reached the front stoop of my apartment.

Mr. Casey sat on the steps like usual. “Got a man in your life now, Meggie?”

A blush tore across my cheeks. I didn’t dare look at Niall because, knowing him, he probably stared at me with that teasing smile in his eyes. Instead I focused on the steps and took a seat next to Mr. Casey. “He’s just some guy who keeps following me around. Can’t take a hint.”

“Don’t you be bothering her.” Mr. Casey spared Niall a glance beyond his newspaper. An idea struck me as he sat there poring over the headlines like always.

“Hey, Mr. Casey?” I asked, drawing his attention away from his paper. “Anyone new come into town recently? My friend Niall here is looking for someone and hasn’t had any luck. They said they’d be showing up here and it’s not like we’re that much bigger than a four by four.”

He squinted as if staring at the street would help him concentrate. I kept quiet, not wanting to disrupt the process. Niall had a smug look on his face, ridiculous considering his search had been dragging so badly he’d come to me for help.

“Apart from your boy? There’s a trim sort of guy, maybe a retiree, who’s taking up at the shack by the dock and a husband and wife who’ve brought two kids in. I think they’re vacationing though.”

Hope surged in my chest. Actual prospects. Not that they had to be newcomers but if selkies had lived around these parts for years, coming to and fro with their pelts, it stood to reason anyone local who’d wanted to steal one would’ve. Granted, I wasn’t going to go gunning for a vacationing family with kids. The man by the dock, however, seemed like the type to have an interest in a seal pelt.

“Want me to walk you up to your apartment?” Niall asked, ever the gentleman. I shook my head on instinct. Our entire friendship had taken place on the sand and surf and seeing him around town still weirded me out, let alone having him in my apartment. He jammed his hands in his pockets. Way to go, Megan, making him uncomfortable.

“I’m fine.” I recovered. “I’ll see you at work tonight?”

Mr. Casey glanced my way, peeking over his newspaper. Wasn’t going to be able to avoid that gossip. The man kept abreast of everything from the daily news to what color the Mackenzies were painting their new baby’s room.

I sighed and stepped into the corridor. My apartment lay untouched with our empty tea cups still sitting on my coffee table. I picked them up and brought them to the sink, my thumb rubbing against the teabag tag. In a matter of days, he’d already woven his way back into my life. Niall was all I thought about, the same way he’d dominated my mind when I was younger and met him by the sea. However, I had to stop this nonsense. Last time he’d left, picking up the shattered remnants of my life had left me wrecked and disillusioned, and I didn’t need a repeat.

A half hour of prep and I was presentable for work, where again I faced the prospect of Niall. Thankfully, either Gina or Terry would likely corner him and bat their lashes, which meant he wouldn’t have time to flirt with me like he’d been doing all day. Because if I fell any deeper for the way his eyes crinkled with his smile or his habit of tapping on his nose to emphasize a point, my ship would be sunk.

The glass I’d been holding splashed a little water on the floor before I realized my hands were shaking. I’d reached a placid state of living where people didn’t affect me deeper than casual conversation and the occasional laugh. Of course he had to come and complicate things. Suck me into that crap world of emotion where I could get hurt. I dumped the rest of my water and touched up my eye shadow. Despite the logical part of me that wanted to avoid him and keep far away, any time I tried, a hollowness pinched my insides and I struggled to breathe. Good job, Megan. Way to jump straight into the deep end.

My walk home from my shift should’ve been just me. I’d kept my distance and agreed to meet with him tomorrow, even trying to remain inconspicuous with my avoidance. And yet, a couple of minutes into my stroll down the deck, footsteps echoed behind me.

“Meg, wait up,” he called, his voice clear in the quiet night. I turned around, feeling split wide open. The night hit me worse, reminding me of our evening swims and leaving me drowning in memories.

“Don’t tell me you plan on tagging along this whole way?” Levity danced on my voice but didn’t break the apprehension in my chest.

“Did I do something to bother you?” he asked, grabbing my hand.

I pulled my hand away and crossed my arms. “Look, I agreed to help you find your pelt and all. I’m happy to see you, trust me. But you’ve got to understand it’s kind of painful, you being around again when I know you’re going to be gone once the pelt’s found.”

“Is that what you think?” he asked. My guard melted. Even though I wanted to keep my distance, I couldn’t, not when he looked at me with those eyes, ones that even when darkened by shadows hid tomes of buried emotion. We reached the path that carved through the park. A couple stray benches lined the way with the green broken up by trees and the occasional bush.

I shrugged. “What else am I supposed to think? I’m not stupid and I’ve learned from past mistakes.” Not well enough though, getting involved with him again.

He grabbed my hand again and pulled me closer, inches away from him. The salt breeze brushed by us, drawing his scent all around me. But unlike before, when he was cold and wet from the ocean, now he was warm and real. My back arched with the thrill of being so close to him. How often had we swum together? How did he know when I was upset, what I was feeling without asking? Not like I broadcasted. Most people thought I was chipper day in and out, and sometimes I believed them.

The ocean roared behind us, a distant beast. Here was alien territory, standing on land surrounded by the green with the overarching branches casting shadows from above. The sweet smell of freesia flowers mingled with pine, a strange combination for this close to fall. He didn’t make any move to let go of my hand and I didn’t pull away.

The magnetic attraction I’d felt for him, strong as the tide, tugged at me now. Stupid. It was stupid to get attached. To care for him again. But despite my denial, deep down I knew I already did. I was invested the second I knew who he was because my heart still squeezed in my chest whenever I remembered our nightly swims and every time I thought too long on the conch shell around my neck, the longing that followed was too painful. I’d never forgotten him. I’d never stopped caring.

He let go of my hand and my shoulders sagged, whether from relief or disappointment, I wasn’t sure. Until his hands cupped around my cheeks. I stared into those eyes, letting the boy I’d known study me. My longing wasn’t one-sided, not from the way he drank in my features like he was committing them to memory.

Before my mind could argue any more, my body betrayed me. I leaned up and pressed my lips to his. The response was instantaneous.

He kissed me with the fervor of someone who’d waited for years. Maybe we had. His soft lips found mine and his fingers cupped the base of my head, twining into my hair. He pulled me forward, but I needed no urging. I melted into his kiss, hungrily diving in for more. My body pressed against his, the heat flooding through me like a lit furnace. He tasted like copper and salt as I twined my tongue around his, dipping it in, teasing him.

My fingertips trailed down his back, snagging on the fabric of his shirt. Underneath were muscles I knew well, muscles I’d seen flex while he swam, more graceful than a dancer. He nipped at my lip and a slight moan slipped out. My breaths were short, hot and heavy as if the particles around us were weighed down from the tension. For whatever sea creature he claimed to be, God, the boy could kiss.

His hand trailed down, fingertips grazing my skin and leaving a trail of heightened awareness as they clenched around my waist, exploring. I twined my arms around his neck, locking my lips with his again and again, like he’d disappear at any moment. He kissed down my neck, grazing the sensitive skin and making me squeeze my thighs together. His lips moved lower, lower, to the clavicle, until they brushed my necklace. I froze.

Reality came crashing in on me. I had been trying to distance myself while helping because I knew the end result. The end result hung around my neck as a reminder of what happened when I got too close.

He noticed it too from the way I tensed. I pulled his hand from my chest, the mood retreating like a shell tugged toward the tide. Leaning up, I kissed him. Simple and sweet. I drank in the tang of copper, of his soft lips on mine and of the want, the yearning that burned behind those blue eyes—and I let go.

“Sorry,” I whispered. “I’ll help you, but I won’t do this song and dance. I can’t.”

Before he could argue, I slipped away.

The next day, we met by the docks after my shift at Bobby’s, giving us the afternoon to check up on this mysterious retiree.

If you’re supposed to work with someone, I’d recommend not getting all hot and bothered with them the night before. The word of the day was “tense.” Niall didn’t try to bring anything up. I had to at least respect him for not trying to delude me further, but the whole situation made my chest ache. Even if he were to claim he’d stay, would I have believed him? Not likely. I believed in actions, not words. Any two-bit sleaze could spin a tale without breaking a sweat and a good liar wouldn’t even feel bad.

With both of us avoiding our hookup and the tension hanging like a winter blanket, I was as uncomfortable as I’d been when I first met “Mason.”

“So your plan is to break into someone’s house? Didn’t they teach you land laws in seal school?” I argued, jabbing a finger toward the cabin. It stood on the opposite side of the docks, adjacent to the last pier in the row. It had been for sale forever. No one wanted to buy the shack because the door hung off the hinges and the roof puckered in. Plus, every time a storm hit, the cabin took the brunt of the damage. The only type of person who would live there was someone who loved the ocean more than people, was crazy, or some selkie pelt-stealer.

“We didn’t have seal school,” he grumbled. “And if he’s not home, what’s the big deal with rooting around his house a bit?”

“See? This is why you belong in the ocean, because it does whatever it wants. Isn’t someone taking something of yours what got you into this predicament in the first place? If we get caught here, we’re screwed.”

We traveled along the dock as we bickered, the cabin growing closer by the second.

Niall grunted, not satisfied with my logic. “Well, then, Miss Morals, what would you propose?”

The scent of cinnamon and fresh-baked apple pie from the Starry Sky Bakeshop wafted my way. My lips quirked with a smile.

“Why don’t you leave that to me?”

***

I waited by the door, utilizing every shred of self-control to keep from tearing open the packaging and stealing a slice of pie for myself. It didn’t help that I could see the caramel and gooey apple filling from the cutout. Not in the slightest.

I’d already knocked once, but no response.

Maybe he hadn’t heard me. I raised my hand to knock again when the door opened.

Not as grizzled or old as I’d expected, but the man’s salt and pepper hair gave away his age. He was bony more than anything, with sharp elbows and knees protruding from the sag of his pants. His pale eyes darted around, not staying in one place for long. Either guilty or crazy. Wonderful, this would make distracting him a dodgier endeavor.

Niall had slipped around back but I didn’t see him now, which I supposed was a good thing. We had agreed on a compromise since he argued if we both went in, he couldn’t poke around much. Which meant I had to be the distraction while he rifled through Mr. Crazy Eyes’ belongings.
Gulp
.

“Hey, neighbor!” I tried on a smile that felt way too full and my voice was a pitch too high. A worse candidate for distraction couldn’t have been found, because already my nerves were on edge while I worried on the thousands of ways Niall could get caught.

“Can I help you?” His gaze lingered on the pie. No, wait, I was wrong. He was staring at my chest. I buried my revulsion. He didn’t bother hiding his leer and his eyes glinted, surrounded by weighty wrinkles.

Niall was going to need time, which required acting on my part. While I’d never starred in any plays, one thing I could do was handle creeps on a job. If I could deal with them at Safe Harbor, I could deal with them here. I thrust my chest forward, giving him the full view.

“Heard you were new in town and figured you hadn’t been by the bakery, yet. It’s a great introduction to living here.” I lifted the pie-laden box.

He stared at it like I’d offered him a thrashing cat. With the way that cinnamon wafted through the breeze, if he didn’t want it, I was two steps away from tearing into this pie. My arms had begun to tire, holding it aloft, when he snatched it from my hand. His eyes narrowed. Well, even if we hadn’t found the guy who’d stolen Niall’s pelt, this town had earned itself one crazy.

“So when did you move in?” I asked, angling myself so he couldn’t shut the door.

“Last week. Thanks for the pie.” His voice was cautious, tentative.

What I didn’t expect was the door flying at my face. The wooden pane hit my forehead and elbow and scraped the side of my leg. I tumbled, landing on my ass in front of his cabin in shock. For such a slight man, he had some strength to him. I frowned, rubbing my stinging elbow. No glimpses of him from the widow. What a freakin’ jerk. I should’ve saved that pie for myself.

Oh, crap. Niall was still inside.

Despite the tumble I’d taken, I rushed up to the door again and knocked. Not that I expected New Crazy Neighbor to answer, but at the very least I was hoping it’d offer a distraction. As long as Niall heard my knocks and got the hell out of there.