Smiling, he asks, “Which schools?”
“There are a few in California, and I like the College of Charleston in South Carolina. SUNY Stony Brook is my top choice, though.” I pull in a breath and meet his eyes. “It’s in New York. On Long Island. Not so far from my grandparents,” I add, because I don’t want him to think I’m trying to chase him.
He cradles my face, the rough pads of his fingers brushing my jaw. “Not so far from West Point.” Touching his lips to my hair, he murmurs, “I wouldn’t hate being close to you next year.”
I smile up at him.
I wouldn’t hate that either.
***
We head for the manta ray exhibit. There are a few benches near the glass-walled pool, but we sit on the ground, stretching our legs out on the pavement. The rays glide through the water, stirring up the sandy bottom when they dip low. I could fall asleep watching them.
“It’s kind of mesmerizing,” Henry says.
“Totally. God, I wish I could join them.”
He grins, more relaxed now that we’re seated and still. “I bet you watchedThe Little Mermaida lot when you were a kid.”
“I did! I used to waste birthday candles wishing I could live under the sea with Ariel.”
“Not to mention Delphina.”
“That’s right. My first true love.”
He laughs, but I’m serious. My parents introduced me toDelphina and the Starlit Sea. They took turns reading a few chapters aloud each night. We finished about six months before they left for their getaway in Tampa. I read the subsequent books independently, repeatedly, and then I met Gabi, a girl as Delphina obsessed as I am.
My parents didn’t know Gabi long, but they adored her. They were buddies with Maggie and Byron too. During those months when Mom and Dad and Gabi overlapped, our parents went outfor drinks, and we had a couple of joint family barbecues. My mom often got on the phone with Gabi’s mom to discuss us girls and this reality TV show about rich housewives that they both loved.
After the accident, it was hard to be at home but impossible to be anywhere else. Memories of my parents floated around me like bubbles in the sea. They were everywhere, but fragile, impossible to touch. Tati might as well have been a cyborg. She never once cried in front of me. She completed tasks from morning until night, handling the wake and the burial, keeping the house, managing the money, and dealing with my grandparents, who had been weepy and cross since they’d arrived in Florida.
I realize now that my sister was too busy and too stressed to cope with her own grief, much less walk me through mine, but at the time, I felt utterly abandoned.
After the accident, Gabi slept over for weeks, hugging me while I cried into the night.
Maggie checked in often, bringing meal after meal.
Byron helped with repairs and heavy lifting.
After the accident, I slept withDelphina of the Starlit Seaunder my pillow, imagining Mom’s voice lifting indignantly as she read Delphina’s parts, Dad’s tenor speaking Uncle Kye’s lines like he knew the merman personally.
When Tati was prepping for us to move out of the four-bedroom split-level we grew up in and into our two-bedroom apartment at the Towers, she packed up my room while I was at school and found the paperback in my rumpled sheets. When Igot home, she confronted me, making me feel foolish, like sentimentality was for little kids who didn’t know better.
“Keep your books on the shelves,” she snapped, then left me to cry alone in my boxed-up bedroom.
Even at ten, I knew I should try to cut her some slack. She hadn’t had a good night’s sleep since our parents’ passing; dark hollows had appeared beneath her eyes. She had paper cuts all over her hands thanks to the hours upon hours she spent wrapping valuables in packing paper. There was a shit ton of tension between her and our grandparents. She missed Mom and Dad and her life back in Boston.
But she wassosnippy with me.
When Gabi came over later that day, I told her about my confrontation with Tati. She labeled my sister a wicked sea witch and tuckedDelphinainto the box with my folded linens.
“Why do you think mermaids are so often romanticized?” Henry asks now.
“Good question. Aside from the mermaids in theHarry Potterbooks, who are terrifying, they’re usually portrayed as attractive. Irresistible. Once Delphina finds her way into the sea, mermen fall over their tails trying to get her attention. She only has eyes for Hurley, though.”
Henry shakes his head, amused. “Hurley?”
“He’s the love interest,” I say, likeobviously.It blows my mind that there are people of my generation who aren’t entrenched in the Delphinaverse. It’s as weird as people Tati’s age who’ve never readTwilight.
