The Mermaid and her King (4 page)

Skyla

Eric
calls me at six to be sure we’re still on for our date. I have no idea where we’re going, and I don’t care. It’s just going to be nice to have some company with someone who acts like they give a shit.

My strapless, hot pink sundress reaches mid-thigh. It’s
revealing but not over the top. I hear the doorbell ring right after I slip on my heels.

“Hi.” I give
Eric a warm smile.

“Hi, Skyla. Damn, you loo
k great. Your hair down is beautiful.”

“Thank you.” We walk to his car
, and he opens the door for me. He mostly asks about my job on the way to dinner, and he seems really nervous. I am, too since I haven’t been on a date in almost a year. He parks at Haleiwa Joe’s, a seafood restaurant.

“Have yo
u eaten here before?” Eric asks.

“No, but I’ve wanted to try it.”

He smiles before his hand goes to the small of my back as we walk inside. “Good. I think you’ll like it.”

“How lon
g have you lived here?” he asks after we place our orders.

“I moved
here three months ago to be near my brother, Lee, but he was deployed right after I arrived. I’d already given my notice at my place in California, and my airline tickets were already purchased, so I decided to go ahead and come.”

I sure as hell
didn’t know it was going to be this hard to live here alone. I try to hide my sadness as I recall all the loss I’ve experienced in my life. Having no family around sucks.

“How about you?”

“I grew up here. My dad took a corporate job in Waikiki when I was a baby and moved us here from Nevada. I run a real estate firm. I have a lot of flexibility with my job, so I get to surf a lot.” A cheesy smile spreads across his handsome face. Surfing is obviously his first love.

“How did you meet
Chase?” I’m determined to get some answers whether Chase is the one to give them to me or not.

“Our dads
did business together when we were young, so we were around each other a lot. Once we could drive, we became really close. He’d either stay in Waikiki with me, or I’d stay up here, depending on where the surf was good.

I finally just moved to the North Shore a few years ago and started my real estate business.
We’re both twenty-five, so we’ve been friends for like twenty years. Wow, I didn’t realize we’ve been friends that long. Chase owns a lot of property on the island going many generations back. That’s where his wealth comes from. Why do you ask?”

“He’s not very friendly.
He acts like he wants to speak to me one minute and not the next. He did something today that really hurt my feelings.”

“He has some issues. He’s b
een through some shit this year, and I’m sure he’d prefer it if I didn’t share.”

I sit quiet
, twirling my fork on my plate. I think of all the different things it could be. Maybe someone died, or he got a divorce and had his heart broken, so he hates women. Eric chuckles, so I look up at him and see he’s shaking his head.

“You already like him.”

“No I don’t,” I snap back. “That’s a bold thing to say when you don’t really know me, don’t you think?”

“Sorry. I told you about my honesty. It’s good or bad depending on
the topic. I guess this time it’s bad.”

“Chase’s silence is
annoying and intriguing is all. He saved my ass at the beach the other night. Some guys cornered me. I think one of their names was Troy. I was terrified. He ran them off and walked me home. He barely spoke, other than when he scolded me like a child for walking on the beach alone in the dark.” I frown, recalling his rejection again.

“Chase did that, huh?
I know Troy and his friends. I’m not sure what would’ve happened there. I think Troy’s more talk than anything.”

Eric
is quiet the rest of our meal. I’m quickly seeing that asking about Chase on a date was a bad idea. He’s his friend, so I don’t see what the big deal is, but I’m regretting it.

Happy go lucky
Eric wasn’t around on the ride home, either. He parks in front of my house and looks over at me.

“Look,
Skyla. I think you’re attractive and sweet, but I think I need to bow out.”

“Bo
w out of what?” This is the strangest date I’ve ever been on.

“I won’
t compete with Chase for a woman, and I can see that he’s gotten under your skin. I actually hope he shows you that he likes you. He told me not to take you out. I should’ve realized then how much he liked you.”

“He said that?” I ask, sounding surprised.

“Yes. He seemed rather angry at me, actually. I’ve already seen him more alive in the last few days than I have in months.

“
I need him to be happy again, so if there’s a chance you could make that happen, then I’m not about to interfere. He’s too good a friend. Not to mention, he’d be miserable to be around if we dated when he likes you.”

I tap my fingertips
on my knee. I’m not quite sure how to respond. Hearing that Chase told him not to take me out is having an effect on me. I can’t deny it.

“Yo
u’re an awesome friend to him. I really do think you’re great, and I wanted to see what would happen if we went out, but hearing what Chase said did stir up some feelings. You’re sweet, funny and good looking. I wanted our date to go good.”

“Chase is those things.
They’re just buried right now. Well, he’s a dude, so I’m not going to say he’s good looking, but women seem to think so.” Eric gives me a really cute chuckle and smile. “Please be patient and give him a chance. He’s a great guy.”

“I can pay you for dinner. It doesn’t seem very fair.”

“Stop. I’d like us to be friends, and there’s nothing wrong with treating a friend to dinner,” Eric says, squeezing my knee lightly.

“I’
d really like us to be friends, too. Mahalo, Eric.”

His
eyes light up. “You’re welcome. See, you’re quickly becoming an islander.”

I give him a kiss on the cheek and get
out of the car.

Chase

Screw this!
I get out of bed at six in the morning after tossing and turning all night from the jealousy coursing through my veins. All I can think about is Eric and Skyla laughing and smiling. I should’ve stopped him. I’ll hurt him if he kissed her. Needing to release some anger, I decide to go for a run along the beach.

Skyla
comes to this stretch of beach at least four times a week. I’ve watched her from my back steps for three months and worry every time about her safety. She sits and gazes at the water before she plays in the sand like a child. I often see her toned thighs as her sundress blows in the wind.
Her beauty makes me crazy!

She always stops as she walks
, digging her toes into the sand, looking at it as if she’s having a deep, unspoken conversation with it. Screw a damn penny for her thoughts. I’d give her a thousand bucks to know what she thinks about that damn sand. She intrigued me before I met her, and now, I can’t get enough of her. Fuck, what is she doing to me?

After I walk home and make some coffee, I go
back out onto the patio and take a seat. I spot Eric coming around the side of my house. He always parks in my drive when he comes to surf. I’m sure he wants to rub it in about his date.

“
Hey, bro,” Eric says as he climbs the steps.

“
I just made coffee if you want some.” I can’t look at him.

“Thanks
, I’ll be back.” He props his board against the stairs. He comes back out with his coffee and sits in the chair next to me. “I wanted to get a surf in and talk to you before I head home. I have some properties to show later. Um, I took Skyla out last night.”

Bastard
. He’s not wasting any time, but I try to stay cool since he’s a good friend. “How’d that work out?”

“Not so good. She’s intere
sted in someone else.”

Dammit.
A situation I can’t control whatsoever.

“She actually told you this? Seems like she would
’ve turned you down on the date and not wasted your time.” I can see out of the corner of my eye that Eric’s staring at me. I finally look over at him.

“She likes you,
man,” he says.

I turn my head away from him. I don’
t want him to see the effect his words have on me. That’s not what I was expecting to hear.

“What are you talking about?”

“She kept asking about you
during dinner. She’s irritated at your behavior toward her, but she definitely likes you, so I’m not going to ask her out again. She’s awesome, so I’m going to be pissed if you don’t act on it. I know you like her, or you wouldn’t have told me not to go out with her.”

“
I don’t deserve to be with her. She’s better than any woman I’ve been around.”

“You’re being a chicken shit
, Chase. You’re just afraid to live. You don’t have experience doing it without numbing yourself with drugs and alcohol first.”

“You’re right
. I don’t, so I need to leave this alone. I’m sure I’d somehow hurt her.”

“
Stop making excuses. All of your friends are really sick of it, and you’re not going to have any left if you don’t stop wallowing in self-pity. Bud wouldn’t want this, and you know it. He’d smack you upside the head right now, letting a fine piece of ass like her walk away.”

I glare at him.
I’ve thought about her that way, but I don’t like hearing it out of his mouth.

“I’m just playing, dude. She’s
a sweet girl. I wanted to see if I got a reaction out of you, and I did. Ask her out. She told me you rescued her. That speaks volumes of how you’ve changed because you would’ve been too strung out to even notice her before.”

“I’ll think about it
.”

“Think about getting your ass back on that board, too. I miss having you out there.
Enough of this girly talk. I’m going to catch some waves.”

Anyone who’s willing to
walk away from a woman that amazing just so my pathetic ass can have a shot with her is a good friend. Little did Eric know, if he hadn’t voluntarily given up Skyla, I was going to offer him a hundred thousand dollars to walk away from her.

Skyla

It’s s
even in the morning on Saturday. I sit on my couch, trying to make sense of what just happened. The cleaning agency called and told me they are permanently assigning me to Chase’s home. They said he told them I did a great job.

Did he honestly fire the other lady just
so I can go there and be humiliated week after week? Half of me is doing cartwheels, and the other half is angry.

I’ll be relieved
when I can quit this job. I get to in less than two months. That’s when I turn twenty-one and receive my trust fund from my father’s death.

It’s been two days since my date with
Eric and since I’ve seen Chase. It’s going to be a long day now that the agency woke me up early. I’m messing with my phone when I get an idea.

I want to get to know
Eric and Andy better. I need friends, and I would feel safer on this island if I had a male friend. He told me he surfs early on the weekends, so I pray I don’t wake him as I dial his number. It goes to voicemail, so I leave him a message telling him I’d like to bring them lunch on the beach. This would ease my guilt over our date.

Taking a chance that
Eric will call back and want me there, I go ahead and drive to the grocery store. I love Panini’s, so when I shipped some of my things over from California, I sent my Panini maker. I purchase sourdough bread, turkey and ham, several kinds of cheeses, basil pesto and Dijon mustard.

Eric
calls as I arrive back home.

“Hello
.”

“Hi, Skyla, it’s
Eric.”

“Hi, are you at the beach today?”

“Yep, Andy and I are both here, and the waves are good, so we’ll be here for a while.”

“You have to let m
e bring you lunch.”

“I won’t turn down food. It’s not like we can get anything out here.”

“Will you be near Chase’s house?”

“W
e’re not far from there.”

“
OK, I’ll be there in a couple of hours. I have a hot pink bikini, so you should be able to spot me.”

“I seriously doubt I could miss y
ou, Skyla. You’re one smokin’ hot chick.”

I giggle from his unexpected compliment.

“Um, thank you. I’ll see you then.”

Close to two hours lat
er, I’m ready for the beach. After packing the sandwiches in a basket and everything else in my swim bag, I start walking and soon realize I underestimated the heaviness of everything I’m carrying.

Standing back on the beach, I search
the water and see who I think are Eric and Andy surfing. I watch them briefly before I go to find a spot to sit, stopping when I see Chase sitting in a lounge chair. His back is to me, but I can’t miss his hair or build.

My heart pounds as I make the realization that I have no choice but to go to him. No matter how rude he’s been to me, I can’t bring myself to make things awkward for
Eric and Andy by setting up away from Chase.

I can’t find it in my heart to
exclude him, anyway. I decide that this lunch will either make or break my attraction to him. I take a deep breath and continue walking.