How to be a Mermaid: A Falling in Deep Collection Novella by Erin Hayes Read Free Book Online

dead. It would have been all too easy to fall in the pool and then have someone find me, bloated and drowned. I’ve read stories like that before where someone had snuck into an aquarium and fell in, only to be discovered in the morning.
    I shivered and wrapped my arms about myself. I’m too morbid sometimes.
    Cautiously, I walked back to my station and looked at myself in in the mirror. No wonder the aquarist thought I’d been drinking. I looked awful. There were dark purple circles around my eyes, making me look like a zombie. My dark hair was in disarray and it would take a long time to get it looking somewhat presentable. I was also slightly sunburned on the side that had been exposed to the morning sun.
    I gingerly lifted the hair from the right side of my head, and I saw a dark, angry spider web of bruising. So that’s where I had hit my head. Thankfully, I didn’t have any blood on me and my hair mostly covered it up. It certainly didn’t look like I had fallen into the Gulf of Mexico and split open my head. It looked like I had hit it pretty badly, sure, but nothing like what Nereia and Finn were talking about.
    Maybe it truly was all a dream. Regardless, I probably shouldn’t swim that day.
    Yet then I’d be in even more trouble because I didn’t report in last night and I’d be missing out on a performance today. Not to mention that something deep inside me wanted to go back into the water.
    A shower would do me a world of good. I glanced at the clock on the wall. It was 8:15, so I had about forty-five minutes to get showered and get myself looking like a normal human being. I had to get a move on before Christine showed up.
    I got to my feet and headed into the shower, my muscles groaning and my head aching. As soon as I turned on the water, I felt rejuvenated, like I was an entirely new person. I closed my eyes and put my hand up against the wall, leaning into the spray. I relished the sensation of the warm droplets hitting me and cascading down my body.
    It felt good.
    I groaned in pleasure, and it wasn’t the normal, “Oh that feels good”. This groan was something different, like something was aroused deep within me. My cheeks burning, I turned off the water and quickly toweled myself dry, not caring if I was too coarse with my scrubbing. I was glad there was no one there to see me.
    I self-consciously put my bikini on, ready for the performance later on today, and then put my robe on over it. Jordyn was going to be handling the meet and greet with the kids, which was a relief. I probably needed all the time up until the two o’clock performance to get myself together.
    I headed back out into the changing rooms, pausing when I heard voices out there.
    “...think she’s okay?” a voice asked. Alaina.
    “I hope so,” another voice said. Christine . She sounded so worried. “The cops won’t take a statement until she’s been missing until twenty-four hours. I’m so worried about her.”
    I closed my eyes and if it wasn’t for my sore head, I would have given myself a facepalm. They called the cops? I really was in some deep shit. I also cursed myself that I hadn’t texted them as soon as I got back to the changing rooms. I’d been too absorbed in what had happened that I completely forgot. My mother was probably freaking out as well. I usually texted her a few times a day to let her know that I was all right.
    “You don’t reckon that she was kidnapped?” Jordyn spoke up. “Maybe she just ran away?”
    Before their conversation could get any more morbid about all the possibilities of what happened to me, I steeled myself and walked into the changing room. All three of them were there, setting their bags on their make-up stations. At my appearance, they all froze, looking at me like deer in headlights. Christine’s jaw dropped and the other two stared at me with wide eyes.
    “Tara?” Alaina asked.
    “Hey guys.” I self-consciously placed a strand of wet hair behind my ear. “Sorry