Madelyn.
“Mercer!” she gasps.
“Hello!”
“Mr. Mercer?” Zack lifts his head groggily, and I move forward, pulled like the waves to the shore, arms out.
“Hi, my honorary kraken,” I murmur softly. “Let me take him, you’ve got your hands full.”
“But you have a cart, too—” Madelyn’s protest dies as one of my tentacles wraps around the handle of my mostly empty cart, my eyes still fixed on hers. “Well, that’s handy.”
“Oh, you’ve no idea how handy.” I try not to let my mind wander to all the ways my body can delight hers, how it could wrap every inch of her in my embrace, how it could fill every opening she wants in one breath. I clear my throat. “It’s late for you two, isn’t it?”
“Our sleep schedule is kind of messed up,” Madelyn confesses with a tight grin. “Zack usually naps for a couple of hours in the early afternoon, and today he fell asleep as soon as he had a bath after his swim lesson.
“I’m wearing my whistle,” Zack mumbles into my shoulder, and then snuggles in, one of his hands clutching my shoulder-length hair.
“He’s got quite a grip,” Madelyn warns, her eyes still wide, as if she’s drinking me in.
“An excellent thing for him to have.” I take a peek in her cart and notice that hers holds very similar contents, including two thick steaks.
When she notices me looking, that pretty sunset-pink blush returns. “I was thinking, I can’t believe I agreed to let you cook the dinner. You’re my hero! You saved Zack, and I can never, ever repay you.” The words rush out, thick at the end. Her eyes flutter quickly, not in a flirtatious way, but to hold back tears. “You should be the guest of honor. When it wasn’t so early, and I wasn’t so flustered—”
“Do I fluster you?” I ask before I can think better of it.
Madelyn’s mouth opens and closes a few times. “I... Well... No, not you. The situation.”
Which situation? My being a kraken? The early morning? Me coming over when they’ve just moved in and aren’t settled?
Me being attracted to her? Can she tell?
“Is the situation what I am?” I ask carefully, suddenly wishing Zack weren’t dozing on my shoulder. I don’t want him to hear things like that, things that make him think about howdifferent I am from his mother—even though a week ago, I was thinking those same things myself.
“No! Oh, God, no. No, I’m just... I’m so out of practice at doing anything but being a mom, juggling all the balls by myself, and trying not to let anything drop. I failed so hard yesterday,” she breathes, her own voice matching my hushed tone as Zack gives a little grunt in his sleep.
“You didn’t fail. Being a mother alone is incredibly hard. I know. I’ve seen it done. In our world beneath the water, it wasn’t easier, but it was less complicated in some ways. Women like you are warriors, guarding great treasures. Immeasurable treasures.”
“Thank you for saying that. It helps more than you know.” There’s a little hesitation, and then she confides, “My husband, that is, my ex-husband, detested my becoming a mother. The more I sacrificed for Zack, the more he hated it. Hated me. Hated my body, and everything that changed... I’m sorry.” Madelyn stops talking with a wide-eyed look of panic, suddenly rubbing her arms as if the chill of the store is too much for her. “I told you I was out of practice. I didn’t mean to let all of that out.”
“I wish you would let out all of that and more. I don’t mind. I... It’s quite lonely being a solitary man, even when one moves to a bustling town that welcomes my kind with open arms. I can only imagine how lonely it must be when your life partner suddenly leaves. Places so much of a burden on you.”
“Zack is not a burden!” she hisses, a flash of fire in her eyes that should make me recoil.
Instead, all I can think is how gorgeous such flames are when they’re kindled with righteous indignation.
“No, but being saddled with your ex-husband’s idiocy is. You gave him this amazing gift, and he didn’t praise you for it? Fool.” I hope the way my tentacles suddenly thrash doesn’t put her off. I know I’m snarling.
How very beast-like.
Idiot.
Madelyn doesn’t look away. She looks rather captivated.
“We could talk more about that over dinner tomorrow night. A dinner that I would very much like to prepare.”
“Oh, but you should be the guest of—”
“I am incredibly honored that I was able to save your son, and equally honored to be invited into your home. A single mother is not only a hard worker; she is fierce. You must think I’m a good risk to let me visit your cave. I mean, your home.” I close my eyes briefly, wishing I were smoother at this.
