The Summer of Chasing Mermaids by Sarah Ockler Read Free Book Online Page B

Natalie was taking advantage all right. As for me, I was doing the same with my last boyfriend, Julien, who was loving his wild, free Elyse. News of our partying had reached Granna before the sun rose.
    After this year’s Carnival, before I’d even been released from the hospital in Port of Spain, neighbors had sent cards full of advice on how I couldn’t let this setback bring me down, how I was still abeautiful girl with lots of prospects. How fate altered our course, and it wasn’t for us to question things or to linger too long in anger.
    Anger, they’d warned, was an invitation for the devil.
    And what were my new plans, they wanted to know?
    I used to hate it, all their macoin’—being nosey. But now I couldn’t decide which was worse—having neighbors spy on me, counsel me like they knew the workings of my heart? Or having them look right through me?
    There, I was a celebrity.
    Here, I felt invisible. Intriguing, maybe. Different. But ultimately unknowable.
    I thought that’s what I’d wanted when I left Tobago. To be left alone, to hunt sea glass in the mornings and write my poems at night, dreaming of the past. To hide out on a rickety old boat that wasn’t mine, unseen.
    But after last night, after seeing all that shared history, closeness and rivalry and dysfunction alike, I wasn’t so sure.
    I was a ghost still tethered to her body, and I didn’t know how to move on. I didn’t know how to explain all that to Lemon, either, especially without a voice. I held her gaze and let my eyes speak for themselves, but when she didn’t question me further, my attention drifted back out to sea.
    A rogue wave lashed the rocks before us, spraying us with mist. I put on my bravest face, not wanting to worry her. When Lemon finally spoke again, she had to raise her voice to outshout Mother Nature.
    â€œYour granna called last night,” she said, licking sea mist from her lips. “You were asleep. I told her about the situation with the house. She thinks you should return home, that this whole regatta business might complicate things.”
    I shook my head. Lemon was the one who’d invited me to the States, who’d convinced Dad and Granna it would do me good to get off the island, away from the constant reminders of everything that could no longer be. It was like she’d sensed my ache across the oceans, and I knew she could still sense it now. That she understood I needed time. Space. Distance.
    From the moment she’d sent the ticket, I promised myself that I’d earn my place here. Do what I could to help at the gallery, even when she’d tried to insist that I relax. As long as Lemon would have me—as long as she had a place for me and I could continue to help out—I had no plans to return to Tobago.
    Besides, there was a chance Christian could pull this off. Kirby had told me that when Christian and Noah raced together, they’d won every time, three years running.
    â€œThat’s what I told her,” Lemon said. “Your dad, too. He knows as well as I do that you’re not going anywhere until—and unless—you’re good and ready. I don’t care what those cocky old fools do with our house.”
    Lemon looked out across the Pacific, the horizon endless and gray despite the rising sun.
    â€œI grew up with those boys,” she said. “Wes and Andy. Ever sincethey were kids, they’ve been pissing in each other’s shoes. Sometimes I think the only reason Andy left the Cove was to prove he was better than Wes. When Wes ran for mayor, Andy sent campaign contributions, even though there wasn’t an opposing candidate. He just wanted Wes to know how much throwaway money he had.” Lemon shook her head. “Either of them would save a baby from a burning building, but bet your ass they’d be sure the other one heard about it after.”
    I tugged on her jacket to get her attention.