Page 87 of Make Out With A Merman

What if I didn’t leave?

I find Julie again just as she’s chasing Jason away from the sound system with a glowstick like it’s a holy relic.

“Hey,” I say, stepping in before the kid’s eyebrows get singed. “About what you said earlier…”

Julie raises a brow. “The job?”

“Yeah.” I rub the back of my neck. “I was thinking. I mean, I’ve got the degree. Engineering. Design systems, structures, maintenance… all the logic stuff I usually bury under glitter.”

She smiles. “You want to build things?”

“I want tomakethings that matter. Stuff the camp could use. Safe float systems, enchanted filtration, maybe even updating the ward lines without relying on century-old rune bandages.”

Julie whistles low. “That sounds… like a hell of a contribution.”

“And I don’t know,” I say slowly, “maybe I stopped running from being useful in that way.”

Julie looks at me. Reallylooks.

“You could shape the future here, Callie.”

I grin. “Then I better order more duct tape.”

She laughs, and I swear I feel like I might actually be exactly where I’m supposed to be.

Later, I sit on the lifeguard tower.

Not because it’s my shift.

Just… because.

The kids are swimming again.

Laughing. Splashing. Daring each other to do backflips off the float rings I rigged back on day two.

And this time?

They’re safe.

We’resafe.

I scan the lake calm, clear, no ripples deeper than a cannonball. No hidden pulse. No hum in my bones.

Just summer.

Just sunlight.

Just a boy with a monster’s power and a girl with an engineer’s brain who decided love might actually be stronger than anything the lake could throw at us.

Ryder’s out there, too, kneeling at the shoreline, teaching Evan how to coil a rope.

He looks up at me, eyes catching mine.

And smiles.

The kind that says,We’re okay now.

I believe it.

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