Page 25 of Make Out With A Merman

“You thought I’d freak out?”

“I thought you’d run.”

I laugh. “You’re ridiculous. I once taught a swim lesson during a thunderstorm. You think some ancient lake magic’s gonna make me pack up my glitter and go?”

Something changes in his expression.

Like a crack in ice.

He steps closer. “You’re not afraid.”

“Terrified,” I say honestly. “But I’m also here. And I’m not going anywhere.”

His breath catches. Barely.

And then we’re close again. That same too-close distance from the dock, from the canoe, from the fire pit after dark.

“Callie,” he says, voice low, “you make me crazy.”

“You said that already.”

He nods, stepping even closer. “I meant it more now.”

We’re centimeters apart.

He smells like lakewater and lightning.

And I hate how much I want to lean in.

“Are we really doing this right now?” I whisper.

He breathes out a laugh, surprised, rough. “No. But I don’t think I can stop.”

Neither can I.

But before either of us can close the space, a horn blows from the other side of camp.

Training time.

He pulls back first. Regret etched in his shoulders.

I try to catch my breath, but my lungs are still in the argument.

Still in the way he looked at me like I was gravity.

And maybe, I look at him the same way.

CHAPTER 10

RYDER

Something’s wrong.

Not just a twitch-in-the-gut, off-season algae bloom kind of wrong.

Deep wrong.

Old wrong.

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