Making Waves (Mythological Lovers) (2 page)

“You know how Abuelo is once I return to the island.”

“True. He’s been lonely without you.” Alessa bit her lower lip, appearing as if she had more to say.

“You look great. How have you been?”

Alessa swatted at my arm. “You’d know if you, you know, wrote or called once in a while.”

“I told you. There’s no internet where my family lives, and I can’t walk to a library on a whim to use a computer.”

I returned one year to discover Abuelo had told all of my new human friends I lived in a piss-poor Sicilian village without internet or technology. He claimed I’d saved all year to visit against my father’s wishes.

That my dad thought the city life would ruin me.

Abuelo couldn’t be closer to the truth.

While it did hurt to fib to Alessa, everything said to her was technically true.

“What are you doing here in the office?” I asked for a change of topic. “I thought you’d be fussing over Kai or one of your other projects as usual,” I said, referring to the resort’s resident green sea turtle. I’d been the one who found the injured creature two summers ago and Alessa was one of his main caregivers.

“Teo asked to see me during lunch and I was just leaving. He even plied me with gifts to bribe me.” She held up a large to-go container full of sushi.

“Getting into trouble already?”

“Hardly.” She laughed. “Harper had a family emergency come up so she flew back to Sydney. Teo asked if I’d take her spot for the rest of summer in the mermaid program.”

“Can you even swim in one of those things? Those phony fins are huge.”

She swatted my shoulder, barely budging me. “I was one of Teo’s first mermaids, you ass. I’m like a fish once I have my fins on, thank you very much.”

Kekoa peeked his head out of the office. “He is ready for you now.”

“Better not keep him waiting. We’ll catch up later once I’m off the clock,” Alessa said. She headed out with her food so I walked into the office. Kekoa shut the door behind me.

“Ah, Dante. You’ve been missed, my friend.” Teo rose from the chair and met me halfway across the floor. The dragon always carried the aroma of soil and green chlorophyll on his skin. As an earth dragon, wild plant life was part of his nature.

After a solid embrace, he urged me to take a seat with him on the office balcony. “Coffee?”

“Hell yeah.”

Kekoa poured mugs for all of us and then he settled in the chair beside me. “If we knew to expect you, we would have had more of your favorite things waiting for you. Maybe some time you will remember to inform us that you have returned.”

I pointedly ignored his comments. Alessa was always on my case about my tendency to arrive and leave without warning. One nag was enough. “Thanks.” I blew across the surface of the heavily-caffeinated brew. Cocoa, chili, and cinnamon was carried to me on the steam, the coffee flavored with rich Mexican chocolate.

“I missed this,” I groaned happily. It was too hot, scalding my mouth, but I didn’t care and sipped from it again.

Teo grinned. “I will make sure your grandfather has a fresh supply.”

“Appreciated. So, am I allowed to resume my old job again now that I’m here?” I was eager to hit the surf and to share my knowledge of the waves. As a seasonal resort employee, I enjoyed the best of both worlds — life among civilization and fun in the ocean.

“Of course. I give you the same answer every year. It’s tourist season, and many want surfing lessons. Kekoa eased the burden on some of the instructors by assisting in your absence, but it is not his preferred use of time.”

The wereshark nodded, a sour expression on his face.

“What’s not to prefer about it? Do you dislike the college coeds fawning over you in their bikinis?” I asked. That was exactly the problem.

“Meh,” he grumbled. “Empty-headed. I have no desire to spend my time with a woman who lacks substance.”

“All of them aren’t that bad.”

He shot me a dirty look. “So
you
say.”

We laughed and caught up, indulging in friendly banter and chat about Teo’s life with a mortal woman. Whenever I returned, I found him changed for the better, an improvement over the sour dragon who once haunted the island.

I envied him.

With each passing year, females among my kind became fewer and fewer. Males battled one another for the privilege of courting our women and winning didn’t always mean we’d earn their affection. Last year was my final chance to find a mate.

I was out of time, assigned to the rear guard as underwater infantry for the herd. Despite the dismal outlook toward my future, I looked forward to my last visit on dry land. The rear guard was a death sentence in a way, our equivalent of serving in the armed forces. Unlike the boys in uniform, we didn’t receive guns, leave time, or salary. Most of the new recruits didn’t last more than two or three years before becoming a meal for an orca or great white.

“Give Roberto my best,” Teo said as I rose from my seat. “We’ve missed his stall at the weekend festival.”

“And his food. No one fries fish as well as Roberto,” Kekoa remarked. “He hasn’t opened up on the beach at all.”

I raised a brow. “What? How long has this been going on?”

“Almost a month. When I called over the weekend to inquire about his health, he said he’d return soon and not to worry,” Teo said.

“I’ll get to the bottom of it.”

When I arrived home, I didn’t find my grandfather waiting on the porch with a cigar, or in his work shed creating another beautiful sculpture for the kiln.

“Abuelo?” I called, walking into the house.

A soft hum emanated from the rear room. It ended abruptly when I shut the door behind me.

“Abuelo?” I called out again. I pushed forward and moved into the single bedroom of his small bungalow where I caught him shutting the closet door. His cheeks were pale, his breaths labored and uneven.

“Abuelo?”

“Don’t you know how to knock anymore?” He pressed his blue lips together in a disapproving, thin line. “Or did you forget while you were at sea?”

“Your door was open,” I pointed out. “But you’re hiding something from me. Why?”

Nothing prepared me for his answer. With resignation on his weathered face, he came out with the truth.

“I’m sick, Dante. A bad illness nearly killed me over the winter while you were gone,” Abuelo admitted to me. “I spent two weeks in the hospital and even longer here in bed to recuperate.”

His words chilled my blood, numbing my fingertips and toes. Abuelo had always been there for me and more of a father than the stallion who conceived me. The thought of him alone, suffering in his sick bed without help, twisted my stomach.

Unless... “Who took you to the hospital?”

“Alessa did.” He coughed a few times into his elbow then gestured to the closet. “I need my machine. I didn’t want you to know about it, but the cat’s out of the bag now.”

“Why not? Why keep it from me, Abuelo?”

“I don’t want you to worry about me while you’re away over the winter months. I have an illness, and it’s not going to get better, Dante.”

“The flu?” I asked, clueless. We didn’t catch it, but I’d seen lots of humans suffering from it.

My grandfather shook his head. “It’s called chronic obstructive pulmonary disease.” I stared at him. His words were Greek to me, just a string of medical jargon that made no sense. “It means my lungs don’t work the way they used to,” he clarified.

“Is it deadly?”

“It can be.”

I dragged the machine out again. He had a small canister of oxygen and tubing with two small prongs. Within moments of positioning it into place, the color returned to his lips and the difficult breathing eased.

I sat beside my old man on the bed and he laid one weary arm around my shoulders. We talked, he told me about the difficult winter, and I struggled to come to terms with the meaning of his words.

My grandfather, the man who saved my life and taught me to be a human, would die in the next couple of years.

And I wouldn’t be present to hold his hand and watch him go.

***

A
lessa would never forgive me if I didn’t pop in for a spontaneous visit. Once I’d had some time to adjust to the idea of losing Abuelo, I helped him mix a fresh batch of batter for his stand.

Then he kicked me the hell out of his place. “Go see your girl.”

“She isn’t my girl.”

Abuelo chuckled and told me off in Spanish. I vamoosed and made my way to the aquatics center to capitalize on all the free time I had until my usual clients began booking surf lessons.

“Hey, Dante!” Pam called. The blonde girl shot me a grin and a big wave with her free hand. She worked with a pair of tongs over a marine environment filled with colorful sea urchins and coral. I salivated. They saw beautiful creatures; I saw dessert.

“Hola, señorita. Where’s Alessa?”

“Arguing with the boss. I’m waiting to talk to her too, so grab a number.”

Grumbling, I pushed my way toward Alessa’s office anyway but stopped short when I heard the raised voices.
Shit.

“Look, he’s your boss, too. He asked me to do this as a personal favor to him,” Alessa argued.

“Of course. Any reason to shirk your responsibilities. Had I known you would become so unreliable, I would have promoted Julia in your place.” The snide scientist’s voice made my skin crawl.

Doctor Castlebury might have been a top notch marine biologist, but he was also a first class asshole. His snooty accent made it sound like he was always talking down to you.

“That isn’t true and you know it. Teo sank a lot of—”

“Teo?” The doctor laughed. “Are we on a first name basis now with the owner of the resort?”

“Everyone calls him by his name,” Alessa snapped back. “I can still help with the morning test samples and we do any cleaning at night anyway when the guests aren’t around.”

“And how shall we care for these animals? Your injured sea turtle?”

Guilt gnawed at my belly, a consequence of my shameless eavesdropping, but the entire conflict was like a train wreck; once I heard it, I couldn’t move away.

“Kai is doing fine. He chooses to stay in the cove and he doesn’t need much.”

“He should be set loose in the wild where he belongs,” Castlebury chastised.

“We tried that and he swam back. This island’s reefs are his home now.”

I stepped away from the door, suppressing the urge to burst through it and trample her boss into the ground. I could have made him a greasy smear on the carpet, but respect for Teo’s rules kept my wild beast at bay. I couldn’t listen to him heap anymore abuse on her. Instead, I sat facing one of the tanks. A graceful yellow tang glided through the water, occasionally pausing to graze on a piece of seaweed wafer. I smiled.

Yellow tangs were one of my favorites, too visually stunning to consider food.

“Just try firing me,” Alessa seethed from the opening door, her hand on the knob. “You can’t.”

“Go play at being a fish tart if that’s what you truly want,” came the dismissive reply from within the room. “Who am I to stop you?”

Asshole,
I thought.

Alessa nearly blew past me, her irritated gaze focused on the floor. I reached out and caught her by the hand then tugged her back and into my lap. She toppled into me with a soft ‘oof’ of surprise.

“Look at the tang. She’s being flashy today.” A pair of clownfish darted out and circled the sunny yellow fish.

“Buttercup comes out a lot lately.” Her hand lowered to my shoulder from its mid-slap position. “Jeez, you scared me. Where’d you come from?”

“My mother.”

“Ha. Ha. Cute.”

I beamed at her. “Cuter than Abuelo?”

“Eh.” Alessa lifted her hand and turned it back and forth in a so-so gesture. “Close call. Really though, what are you doing in here?”

“Looking for you.”

“Well, you found me. What’s up?”

“Come out with me tonight,” I said. After putting up with Castlebury’s bullshit, she deserved an evening of carefree drinking and dance.

“I don’t know...” She bit her lower lip. “I have to be here early tomorrow to catch up on inventory stuff before my days in the mermaid tank begin.”

“C’mon, there’s a band playing tonight and drink specials at the beach bar. You’ll have a good time,” I insisted.

Alessa’s expression was torn, so I cheated and danced my fingers across her ticklish ribs. She wriggled in my lap and laughed, squirming to get free, but I didn’t let up.

“Say you’ll come out with me and I’ll stop.”

Her giggles and squeals echoed across the room. The yellow tang and her clownfish pals darted back inside the colorful coral growths.

“Okay!” Alessa cried out, breathless from laughter. “I’ll go. I’ll go!”

“Good. Come on.”

“But I’m working!”

“Pam, can you cover whatever crap she has to do?”

Pam offered a silent salute with her metal tongs. Grinning, I pulled Alessa through the aquatics complex. The hexagonal building had grown in the months since my last appearance. I hurried past the brand new shark exhibit without looking, a shiver running down my spine inspired by memories of encountering the monstrous beasts while in the ocean. Hippocampi were their prey, but thanks to Kekoa we were safe in these waters.

“Hey.” I sucked in a breath. “Thanks for looking out for my grandfather. I appreciate it.” We moved across the paved walkway without a destination in mind.

“He told you, huh?”

I nodded. “He said you popped in almost every day to check on him this winter, and you were the one to make him go to the hospital on the mainland. I wouldn’t have him anymore if not for you. Thanks.”

“You don’t have to thank me for it, Dante. It’s what anyone would have done.”

How long had it been since I first returned to land, searching for the man who saved my life? Thirteen years. Thirteen years ago, I could barely speak a lick of English. With the help of Abuelo and Teo, I learned it as if it was my first language. I picked up the rest while instructing my clients.

“He’s all you have now, right?”

I shook my head. “My dad is still alive, but he doesn’t approve of me coming out this way, you know? He doesn’t think of Abuelo as family, but I do. I wouldn’t be here if he hadn’t found me on the beach. He and Teo got me back to my family.”