Page 51 of Make Out With A Merman

“Shut up,” I whisper. “I’m having a moment.”

We stand there a little longer,just the two of us again, the lake breathing slow beneath the web of light I made.

Ryder doesn’t say anything for a moment.

“You should feel proud.”

I glance sideways. “Because Torack didn’t insult me?”

He shakes his head. “Because what you made matters. You saw a problem and built a solution that’s smart, safe, and ” he hesitates, then smirks, “annoyingly clever.”

I laugh once, sharp and surprised.

Then he says, more gently, “You’re a good engineer, Callie.”

The breath gets knocked out of me.

Because no one’s said that to me in… a long time.

Not since I left the internship back home. Not since I swapped out schematics for sunblock and safety vests.

I swallow. “Thanks,” I say, but it comes out small.

And it makes something tighten in my chest.

Because that word,engineer, carries a whole life behind it.

Deadlines. Expectations. Pressure. A version of me that wore pencil skirts and pretended she knew what she wanted.

I didn’t run to Camp Lightring just to escape job hunting.

I ran fromgrowing up.

From being serious. From being stuck.

From becoming someone who stopped laughing.

But hearing it fromhim, in that voice, with that look in his eyes, doesn’t feel like a trap.

It feels like maybe I could be both.

Maybe I already am.

CHAPTER 18

RYDER

The moon’s high and the air’s thick with lake mist and regret.

She’s out there on the dock again. Same as last night. Legs dangling over the edge, arms looped around her knees like she’s holding herself together with sheer willpower.

I should walk away.

Should let her have space.

But I can’t. Not anymore.

The distance isn’t helping. It’s killing me.

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