Thank goodness she had some privacy. Molly wassonot in the mood to see Max’s smug face. Or his annoyingly muscular body, complete with washboard abs. How did a marine biologist get muscles like that anyway—from wrestling octopuses? Molly didn’t have a clue. Nor did she care, she reminded herself. She let her toes sink into the warm sand as she clutched her phone and tapped the contact for her parents’ landline.
Ursula romped at the end of her leash, chasing foamy, shallow waves. She pawed at a tiny bubbling crab hole in the sand as the phone began to ring.
“Hello?” Molly’s mother answered, breathless. Dotty Prince rarely sat still. When she wasn’t busy grading essays for her high school English lit students, she was usually working in her garden. The overflowing flower boxes on the deck of Molly’s beach cottage were a testament to her mom’s spectacular green thumb.
Was it too much to hope that maybe her mother had a spelling bee or garden club meeting this weekend and her parents wouldn’t be able to attend SandFest after all? A mermaid could dream.
“Hi, Mom,” Molly said.
Ursula scampered away from the water and pressed her snout to the soft ground. When she looked up at Molly, her tiny nose was coated with fine, sugary sand. The puppy sneezed three times in rapid succession.
“Oh hello, honey! What a nice surprise. We didn’t expect to hear from you before Saturday when we leave for the beach. We know how busy you always are with the aquarium and your turtle ladies.”
“Turtle Team,” Molly corrected as she unclipped Ursula’s leash from her collar. What did semantics matter, though? Molly wasn’t the Turtle Team’s leader anymore.
“I’m glad you called. Your father and I are aware of a recent development down there in Turtle Beach. There’s apparently a big change in your life that you forgot to mention.” Mom cleared her throat the way she always used to do when Molly got a B instead of an A on her report card or forgot a homework assignment.
Molly’s heart immediately fluttered like a nervous bird.
Her parents already knew she’d been fired…
But how?
“It just happened.” Molly swallowed. “I haven’t had a chance to—”
“Just happened?” Her mom tut-tutted. “Have you forgotten that we still subscribe to theTurtle Daily? There’s a picture of you with the dog right on the front page.”
Molly opened her mouth to defend herself and then promptly closed it. Dotty wasn’t upset because she’d found out that Molly had lost her job. This was about Ursula.
“Right. My puppy.” Molly squeezed her eyes shut.
Gah. Why had she waited to tell her parents she’d adopted a dog?
Oh right, because her mom and dad were strictly anti-pet. Molly, on the other hand, had always had a penchant for bringing home every stray that crossed her path.
Now that she thought about it, that was sort of how she’d ended up dating The Tourist. She’d been on her way home from work, and he’d been struggling along Seashell Drive with a bicycle rental with a wobbly tire. Molly had given him a ride on the back of her Vespa to Turtle Sports, the local sports rental shop. He’d taken her out for ice cream as a thank you, and boom—fast forward a year later to her broken heart.
She should have just skipped the romance and gone straight to the island’s adoption fair where she’d fallen in love with the orphaned Cavalier King Charles spaniel puppy with the huge, sad eyes. Live and learn.
“You know your father is allergic,” Mom said.
Actually, he wasn’t. Dad just liked to pretend that he was in order to avoid any unwanted interactions with overenthusiastic dogs.
Molly had a sudden flashback to Violet’s Dalmatian, Sprinkles, snatching the mermaid cupcake from Max’s hand at bingo night. In retrospect, Molly had to admit that Max had been a pretty good sport about it. Her father would have probably called Animal Control.
“We’ve gone ahead and booked one of the rental beach houses on the bay, so no need to worry about us staying with you at the cottage,” her mother said.
Molly should have been relieved. Sheknewshe should. But the cottage still belonged to her parents. Molly was simply their unofficial-tenant-slash-offspring. Having them stay in a rental just seemed wrong.
“Mom, that really isn’t necessary. Ursula is a total love bug.” Molly’s gaze swept the shore, but her perfect puppy had bounded out of sight. She had to be somewhere close by, though. Ursula never wandered away.
“Seriously, Mom. You and Dad will hardly know she’s here. Ursula is small and sweet.” Molly shaded her eyes with her free hand and squinted into the sunset.
Still no sign of Ursula.
Wherewasshe?
“As far as puppies go, she’s no trouble at all,” Molly said, voice trembling ever so slightly.