Page 40 of Cruel Tides

Then the voice on the phone chimed in. “Turn right at the next exit.”

As Barren directed the car into a turn, I gave her a reassuring pat. “It’ll be fine, don’t worry. They’ll love us.”

Her eyes scanned over each one of us like she was taking in our every detail for the very first time. “I’m not sure how to say this,” she said a little too cautiously, “but you guys don’t really look… normal.”

“Hmm…” I ran a hand through the spikes of my hair. Light purple wasn’t common among merfolk, and it seemed doubly so for humans.

Maybe she had a point.

11

Claira

“It’s that road there,” I said, pointing and ignoring the fact that Barren’s phone was supplying the same directions. “Gram said she’ll be waiting on the porch.” The moment I unbuckled my seatbelt and threw it off, Kai frowned.

“Hey, it’s not safe?—”

I swatted his hand away from trying to refasten the belt. I knew Kai had a weird thing about seatbelts, but we were going, what, ten? Fifteen miles per hour? He could deal for a minute. “That one, there.” I was practically leaning off the edge of my seat. We wereso close. “Third on the left.”

The front porch came into view, and I took a deep breath. There Gram was, rocking in her favorite chair like it was just another lazy evening.

I was clutching Kai’s shoulder a bit too tightly as we turned onto the rocky driveway, but he didn’t complain. Then I reached down to unclip his belt, too, and that got a grumble out of him.

“But the car is still moving,” Kai said with pouty lips.

“Sorry, I’m… excited,” I lied. Well,halflied. I was excited to be home, sure, but I was mostly worried about keeping this joyous reunion from devolving into an outright skirmish. Fishermen versus fishmen.

Leander, Barren, and Kai… These guys probably didn’t know how intimidating they looked to normal humans, all sharp-cut jaws and broad, confident shoulders. Sure, their faces were handsome enough to make a heart hurtwith the need to touch them, but that didn’t take away from how much larger they were compared to every local in town. Well, mostly—Mr. Terance was a heavily built man, but he was about as threatening as the half-dead bloodworms he sold as bait. About as lively, too. The rest of us were insignificant shrimps in comparison, Dad included.

Freaking mermen. With Leander’s arrogant charm, Kai’s boundless energy, and Barren’s, well,everything, Gram needed to see that I was okay before she got a good look at them.

Because without Dad home to reason with her, knowing Gram, she was probably packing some heat.

My legs turned restless as I inched even closer to my seat’s edge. I wasn’t going to push Kai out or crawl over him—he was still recovering, after all—but as soon as this car parked, I needed him to tap into his endless well of energy andmove.

Would antique lead shots do as much damage as modern bullets? I wasn’t even sure if Gram’s prized pirate pistol would fire if she tried, but today wasn’t the day I wanted to find out.

The car eased to a stop, and I scrambled over Kai to open the door. “Do you guys mind waiting here while I go talk to her?”

Barren grunted in affirmation while Leander agreed. “Go for it.”

“Great—I’ll give you a signal when I’m ready.”

Laverne’s neck stretched until the breath from her nose fogged the windshield.“Look at those waves.”

“Is your dad still gone?” Leander asked, struggling to see around Laverne.

I followed his gaze out to the beach, where the sight of an empty pier made my stomach sink. “Yeah, the boat’s gone,” I said, chewing my lip.That’s all right, I reassured myself. It was getting late; he’d be back soon.

Barren cut the engine, and I didn’t push Kai out of the car as much as help him along with an insistent scoot of my hips. When we’d both touched down on the driveway, I tried to nudge him back in the car before Gram could see him.

Kai wasn’t as tall as the rest of them, but he was still a man—err, merman—and I’d never brought a man, human or otherwise, back to the house.

His lips upturned into a warm, reassuring smile as he sat back in the car. “Take all the time you need.” He reached up to brush my hair back over my shoulders, smoothing it with his fingers. “She looks worried,” he breathed, a somewhat wistful lilt in his voice as he nodded toward Gram. “I bet she missed you a lot.”

I softly smiled. “I missed her, too.”

He gave me one last grin before pulling the door shut.

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