Page 33 of The Plus-One Deal

I waited, patient. Jake kicked at the sand, gathering his nerve.

“Me and my friends were wondering if we can make you a merman.”

I blinked. Of all the things he could’ve said, I hadn’t anticipated that one. “How does that work, making me a merman?”

“Well, we would bury you and make you a sand tail, and then make you a seaweed wig to be your hair.”

Claire burst out laughing. I shot her a sharp look.

“Go on,” she said. “You’d make a cute merman.”

I scowled at her betrayal. Some help she was.

“Please, Mr. Farley? Our dads never let us.”

I thought about telling him their dads were right. But Claire was watching me expectantly, and so were the kids. I shrugged, defeated. “Fine, you can bury me, but no kelp on my head.”

“Not even a little bit?”

“Not even a strand.”

“Deal,” said Jake, and stuck out his hand. I thought he was going to shake with me, but he tugged me upright.

“You don’t have to,” called his dad. “Don’t let them push you.”

“It’s fine,” I called back. “As long as they promise to unbury me when they’re done.”

“We will,” said Jake, and dragged me away. Next thing I knew, I was on my back on the beach, getting buckets of wet sand dumped on my legs.

“Did you check that for crabs?” I mimed pinchy claws.

“No, there’s no crabs.” Jake piled on more sand. I lay back and gave in to it, and watched them sculpt my tail, using a loose stick to draw on my scales. The little girl had gathered a bucket ofshells, and she arranged them like flowing hair around my head. The boys laid out kelp as fins for my fish tail. I struggled briefly and fruitlessly when one took a picture, but I didn’t protest too hard. What harm could it do? At worst, I’d get laughed at. I could live with that.

They were stringing me a necklace when I looked back at Claire, broken shell beads on a string of kelp. She smiled when our eyes met, but I thought she seemed… sad? Her eyes had a distant look, like she was half-dreaming. Wistful, maybe, was her expression. Then it was gone, and she was laughing, holding up a crown she’d made from crumpled tinfoil.

Still, never mind a penny, I’d have spent a buck for her thoughts. I’d have given about anything to know her mind in that moment. To know if her heart was torn the same way mine was, between what we might’ve had and what could be.

CHAPTER 13

CLAIRE

We were having breakfast on the terrace when Verity skipped over, dressed for the beach in a bright coral caftan. Ken came behind her, her constant shadow, and nodded hello to Conrad. He nodded back.

“We’ve booked a boat tour,” said Verity. “One of those glass-bottomed boats. You can see all the fish, the coral, whatever. Sea turtles, they’ve got. You guys want to join us?”

I thought of begging off to get back to work, but truth was, I’d worked well into last night. Everything at Timeless was under control. I could afford one more day of fun in the sun. One more day with Verity was more of a risk — but it came with the shot at a juicy reward. Verity signing with Timeless would be a dream come true.

“I’d love that,” I said. “Conrad?”

He glanced up from his phone, which I hadn’t seen him pull out. “I’m sorry, what?”

“A glass-bottomed boat tour. What do you say?”

Conrad frowned at his phone. Fired off one last text. Then he stowed it in his pocket. “Sure. That sounds fun. Joe took one of those tours out in Hawaii, and—” He cut himself off, shook his head, and smiled strangely. “And they saw a sunfish so big, they thought it was a shipwreck.”

Verity laughed. “Yeah, I heard those things get pretty big. Anyway, we’re running upstairs to grab our sunscreen. We’ll meet you back here in ten.”

I shot Conrad a black look as they hustled away. “What did you almost say?”

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