Wasn’t altogether sure I’d stop.
He’d stop. Ivy’s here.
Thinking of her pulled my head back in the game. I drank the water he’d brought me, then leaned back on my hands, staring at the sky while he stayed quiet and stoic beside me. The moon was out and made me think of Rocco. Of how his moods had been so tied to the lunar cycle that I’d figured him part wolf.
I missed him too, but it was a different pain, and not one I wanted to face down tonight. “Anything you want to talk about before I come in your house?”
Decoy turned his head. “You’ve been in my house before.”
“This doesn’t feel different to you?”
“I don’t know. It’s hard to pin down how anything feels when I’m around you.”
Nodding, I shifted to face him more. “There’s this thing, when you look at me, it melts my brain into mush.”
Scepticism clouded his features. Not because he thought me a liar, but perhaps because he didn’t believe anyone could feel that way about him.Because no one ever has. I didn’t know his story, but it was so clear to me that he’d never felt loved the way his daughter did.
“Was that your dinner?” he said suddenly. “In that parcel? I chucked it in the fridge without thinking.”
“Rubi sent it. For tomorrow. So you don’t have to worry about cooking for everyone.”
Decoy chuckled. “Of all the things I’m worried about, that’s pretty low down. I did buy a fridge full of fruit on our way home, though. Liliana told Ives you eat a lot of berries. That caused some confusion with your merman status.”
“Seaweed has berries. Fish eat those.”
He laughed some more. “She’s been telling Liliana that you taught her to be a legitimate mermaid. Think you might have another pupil you didn’t ask for on your hands.”
“I don’t mind.”
“Really?” His gaze sharpened. “You don’t mindanyof this?”
“Why would I?”
“Because other people’s shit—other people’sdemandsare taking over your life.”
“I don’t see it like that.” Decoy’s hand was so close to mine. I gave into the strongest temptation and linked our fingers together. “I’m here because I want to be. And I have zero issue teaching any kid who wants to learn how to swim. Kids who love the ocean grow into adults who care about saving it.”
Decoy closed his eyes and squeezed my fingers. “Stop being so fucking attractive.”
“Back at you.”
His shy grin returned. The night air got a little warmer and I let it happen, enjoying the sensation of his hand in mine and his simmering presence beside me. “So... do you go to bed early or are you a night owl?”
Decoy opened his eyes. “Depends. Ivy gets me up early, so I try to get my head down when she’s here. And when she’s not, the nights seem to last forever. If I’m not working, I usually end up banging my head against the wall.”
“You bring any PTSD home from the army?”
“Not really.”
“That’s an ambiguous answer.”
Decoy tipped a beer bottle I hadn’t noticed to his lips, draining it before he set it down again. “I didn’t see much combat action. Just a few hairy moments in Afghanistan. The peacekeeping got to me more. I did two tours in Mali. Saw some brutal shit. But I haven’t had time to think about it much. Sometimes it feels like I never will.”
“Maybe you won’t. It was another world. Another lifetime. It’s the things I can’t leave on another continent that haunt me the most.”
“Rocco?”
I hummed an affirmative, nonplussed that he read me so well. “He was my best friend, and now he’s my nightmare. I’ll have to give him a hard time for that in the next life.”
