“Do we have any more push pins?” Iris called, walking into the apartment a few minutes later, holding a dead caterpillar in her hand. “Willow found this around the roots of her tree, so she gave it to me.”
Great.
Another dead bug.
This one was huge, too.
“I think we’re out. Maybe we can just set this guy outside for the birds to eat.”
“Why? Don’t you think he’s beautiful?” she asked, shoving the thing in Finn’s face.
It took every bit of media training Henry had forced him through not to wince. Or gag. Possibly both.
“Yeah, it’s a … fine caterpillar.”
“Fine?” she asked, her face falling, her eyes hardening.
He wasn’t sure what about his words had such adramatic transformation overtaking her, but all the warmth and sweetness he’d come to know her for—creepy hobbies aside—disappeared.
“Well,fine. I’ll just throw him away, then.”
She stormed over toward the cabinet where the trash can lived.
Finn was quicker, grabbing her wrist to stop her from throwing out the fat green caterpillar.
“I will order more push pins,” he said. “Why don’t we stick him in one of those food containers you saved until then?”
It wasn’t just teeth and bugs she collected, but every single plastic container that takeaway food came in. Usually, she could be found scrubbing them while bumbling to herself about plastic pollution and careless humans.
If Finn hadn’t been watching her so closely, he might have missed the look of disappointment that crossed her gorgeous face.
But no.
That made no sense.
He was giving her what she wanted. Why would she be disappointed by that?
Maybe he was just bad at reading her. Perhaps mermaids emoted differently. He really needed to find some time to do a deep dive—as it were—into her culture. If he came from a place of understanding, maybe they could avoid some of the growing pains they seemed to be dealing with.
“I have an idea,” he said as he dropped her arm, so he didn’t give in to the desire to run his thumb across the nearly translucent skin there.
“An idea?” she prompted as he produced a small to-gocontainer into which she quickly dropped the caterpillar. Almost as if it grossed her out to hold it. She even quickly turned to wash her hands.
Finn’s brows pinched as he watched her. “Do you have any plans tonight?”
“Monty is off with his new friends. Why? What did you have in mind?”
“I’m going to keep it a secret.”
Iris’s head tipped to the side, interest clear in those sea glass eyes of hers. Like she was drawn to the spontaneity.
“Do I need to bring anything?”
“Not even your shoes if you don’t want to.”
As much as she hated shoes, she did slip into them before following him out of the apartment, into the elevator, then down, down, down.
He wasn’t sure Iris even knew about the basement of the building. If she did, he felt like she would be spending a lot more time there than in the apartment.
