Page 15 of Make Out With A Merman

A splash wrong and sharp.

Then silence.

“Help!”

The voice is high. Panicked.

My head snaps up to see Max, one of our quietest campers, thrashing in the deep zone, his eyes wide and wild.

Before I can move, Callie’s already in.

She dives clean no hesitation, no wasted movement. Breaks the surface near him with a calm, easy stroke like she’s made of instinct.

“I got you, Maxie,” she says, low and firm. “You’re okay. Just hold on.”

He clings to her with that frantic, frozen look I’ve seen before. She keeps talking. Keeps her tone steady. Doesn’t rush. Doesn’t jolt him with instructions. She justisthere.

And somehow, that’s enough.

She paddles them both to the shallow shelf, guiding his legs like she’s done it a thousand times. He’s crying quietly. She crouches beside him, running a hand through his soaked curls and whispering something I can’t hear.

But I don’t need to.

I see it in the way he breathes easier.

In the way she stays kneeling even after he’s safe just in case.

Julie’s already with them now, wrapping a towel around Max. Callie walks back toward me, dripping wet, her face unreadable.

“You alright?” I ask.

“Yeah,” she says, rubbing water from her eyes. “He just panicked. Didn’t realize how deep it got.”

I nod. “You handled it well.”

She shrugs. “Instinct.”

But I know better.

That wasn’t just instinct. That was experience. That was someone who’s been watching more closely than she lets on.

And for the first time since she cannonballed into my life, I realize something:

Callie O’Shea isn’t a problem to solve.

She’s a force to trust.

Even if she drives me insane.

CHAPTER 7

CALLIE

It’s past lights-out, but sleep’s playing hard to get.

My bunk creaks every time I shift, and the campfire smoke from earlier is still lodged in my hair like a ghost with commitment issues. I’ve read the same line in my book six times. Even my journal gave up on me, my last entry just says, “Glitter = good. Ryder = ???”

So when I slip on my hoodie and step into the pine-sweet night air, it’s not because I’m chasing anything.

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