“I never asked. Do you have any kids? A wife somewhere in the ocean?”
“No. Not married. No kids.”Not yet.
When my shift is done, I dry off and change out of my lifeguard shirt into a simple black tank top (I don’t like wearing shirts at all, but it seems to be the human custom, and when in Rome...). I’m going to brave the grocery store. Why? Because I can’t just serve fish and kelp for dinner. Not for a dinner that I want to make to help and impress Madelyn.
A salad. Should I go tomorrow? No, I need to go now. I can keep things in my locker, provided they’re not perishable. There’s the little fridge in the lifeguard locker area. I can keep anything cold in there. The fish I’ll catch tomorrow. Flowers. I should bring flowers. I don’t have a vase to keep them in. I’ll buy a vase. Bread. What do humans eat with fish? What do three-year-olds eat with pot pie?
I sit down on the bench in the locker room and open my phone.
“Calder? Call me back. Make sure Janet is there. I need to know what to fix a human for dinner.”
My cousin calls back almost immediately.
“That was fast,” I say.
“I could say the same thing about you. Weren’t you the guy complaining about women and fickle human-ness a few days ago?” Calder quips. “What happened? Who is she?”
“They,” I say.
Calder takes a moment to process. “More than one woman? Mercer...”
“One woman and her little boy. Madelyn and Zack.” The way their names sound to my ears, the way saying the words makes my chest suddenly feel a lightness I’ve never known, tells me that they’re special. That they’re the ones. My family. Mate and child.
“Aww. That’s cute. But dude, you know what to make a human for dinner. Krakens and humans can eat the same food; we just tend to be way more pescatarian. Does she like fish?”
“She seemed fine with the idea of a fish dinner, but not so much for the little boy. He doesn’t like fish sticks.”
“He’s probably never had a truly fine, fresh catch,” Calder huffs. “My boys love when we puree a little fish for them.”
“They’re half kraken, but yes, you’re probably right.” I swallow around a sudden painful lump in my throat, one that’s not supposed to be there, that’s never been there before, not just from thinking and talking about someone still alive, anyway. “I don’t think they get to experience fine dining that often. The mother is single, and she has to work hard to pay the bills, takes care of Zack all alone, and then they just moved into town, so I cannot imagine what that must be like when one has to keep up a house and yard...”
All the things I will sign on for if I woo Madelyn successfully. No more sleeping under the sea, or traveling from current to current with only what I can carry in one severely sturdy, waterproofed case.
“I don’t think you’re Mr. Gourmet, either, Mercer. Janet says try to make things balanced and cohesive.”
All I can picture is a waiter not dropping his tray. “I have good balance. I can certainly carry enough things at once.”
“No, no. Like, not all meat, or not all vegetables. Vegetables, starch, protein. Something for dessert. How are you going to cook all of this?”
“At her house.”
“How are you going to refrigerate it?”
“There’s a small fridge in the lifeguard hut. No one else uses it. I think I’m the only one who even uses a locker. Everyone else just carries a backpack.”
“No one else lives under the water, huh?”
“No.” I live under the water. Always have. Planned to live that way forever. Suddenly, I’m wondering about in-ground pools and expanding the bathroom to put in a giant tub. “When you met Janet, did you know the second you touched her?”
“No. But almost that soon. She was mine from the first day—at least in my head.”
“I saved her son. He is a bright little guy, almost three, and he went out in the water with a babysitter of sorts. Got caught up in the excitement and tried to stand on her bodyboard like a surfer and—” I shudder. “It all happened so fast, but I got to him in seconds.”
“No one swims like a kraken,” Calder murmurs, voice hushed with sympathetic panic.
“When I pulled him out and handed him back to his mother, she kissed me. She... It was just gratitude, I know. Now that I’ve spent a morning with Zack, I think I’d kiss his rescuer, too. He’s truly a special child. So curious! Such a fast learner. God, he must be a handful alone...” I muse.
Janet’s voice is the one coming from my phone now. “Boy, you’ve got itbad.”
