Page 68 of Cruel Tides

“You wanted to know who the crusty old fisherman was.” I gestured to Leander. “Here he is. Well—he’s one of the three, anyway,” I added with a shrug, and Danny’s mouth fell open.

Leander’s eyebrows furrowed. “I’m awhat?” He shook his head. “Not a fan of that pet name, beautiful. You’ve done better.” He tilted his head and gave a flirtatious wink. “Pretty boy… My prince…”

Poseidon help me, this was embarrassing. Was he trying to make me melt right to the floor? “Come on,my prince. I’ll explain later,” I mumbled, and his mouth curved at the endearment I’d chosen. “Help me find some shirts so we can get out of here.”

Leander chuckled as I dragged him through the racks. “I still don’t see a problem with us going back naked.” His words trailed off, and Danny’s shocked gasp echoed from behind us.

Yeah, we needed to get out of here. At this rate, she was going to follow us all the way to Dad and Gram’s house. As I rounded a corner, I spotted the shirts. I scrambled to grab all the sizes I could find for the first style I came to and then hurried to the front of the store.

“Mr. Brownlow said I could put these on my dad’s credit,” I said as I set my haul on the counter. Keith stood behind the desk, his face ashen as he looked everywhere but Leander. He seemed too scared to look into his eyes.

I turned to Leander. “Barren and Kai are still at the beach, right?”

Leander drummed his fingers on the desk while Keith started scanning tags. “Yeah, maybe. Not really sure. We made it to the top of the hill, but you were taking so long, I had to make sure you were okay.”

To my surprise, I was thankful that he had. “Thanks,” I whispered, leaning into him as Keith bagged my purchase.

Leander adjusted Kai’s shirt around his hips and drew an arm around me. “No need to thank me, beautiful. I’m here to keep you safe.”

I huffed, grabbing the bag of clothes from Keith. Hoping to hide my blush, I turned to the exit, only to see Laverne’s big black eye pushed up on the other side of the glass.

“I tried to stop him,”she projected in my head, panicked. The bicycle horn was limply dangling from her mouth.“He slipped past me.”

“It’s fine,” I mouthed back, biting back a laugh. For a brief moment, I could understand why Kai and my dad both adored her so much. Underneath her sass, Laverne had a good heart.

When we joined her outside, I gave Laverne’s head a pat. “Not your fault. Leander does what he wants, apparently.” I threw him a pointed look, then noticed the top of two heads poking up from the beach grass on top of the hill we’d resurfaced from. Spiked lavender and curly brown. That had to be uncomfortable—they must have crouched on their bellies to pull that off.

“Got the clothes,” I called, holding up the bag as we headed down the strip.

When we made it to the grass, Kai’s face was pink with a mix of embarrassment and concern. “Everything go okay?” he asked.

“Yeah. But are you okay?” I asked, looking him over. Even with the tall grass surrounding him, his arms were folded over his chest to conceal it. I gave him a smile that I hoped was enough to reassure him. “Lee says you gave up your shirt willingly.” I glanced over at Leander, who was still holding tight to the shredded shirt. “Is that true?”

“Yep.” Kai let out a shaky laugh. “Totally true.”

Uh-huh. “Convincing,” I threw back, then sighed, tossing them the bag of clothes. “All right, time to get changed. After we get home, we can figure out our new plan.”

“Sounds good,” Barren rumbled and dug into the bag.

For how hastily they’d shed their clothes earlier, it sure took them a while to put the new ones on. I waited with my back to the ocean as they figured out who would wear what.

“Eyes to the front, Laverne! I see you peeking,” Kai shrilled, and Laverne huffed, honking her horn at him to express her annoyance. As she walked up beside me, she lifted her nose up to the sky. We stared at the clouds together as Kai spoke up.

“It’s okay if you look, Claira,” he said, a hint of shyness in his voice. “I-if you want…”

Laverne’s whiskers twitched, her teeth slowly peeking from behind her gnarled lip, and I gulped. “Thanks, but I’ll leave you guys to it.”

To my surprise, Barren was the first to finish getting dressed. He came up beside us, placing his hand on Laverne’s head while I studied him out of the corner of my eye. His swim trunks fit snugly around his waist, digging into the muscles on his legs. Even the shirt was tight around his shoulders and neck.

But instead of complaining about the ill-fitting clothes, he gave me a short, encouraging nod. “Your dad will be happy to see you again so soon,” he said evenly, his dark eyes moving to scan the town while Laverne nuzzled his hand.

“Oh—yeah.” I smiled, looking out at the boardwalk. We were about a twenty-minute walk from my home and would hopefully make it there before dinner. “Though, it’ll be hard saying goodbye all over again. How long do you think it’ll take to come up with a new plan?”

“Mmh.” His hand lifted off Laverne to scrub under the impossibly hard angle of his jaw. “Tomorrow.”

Well, at least we would get things moving. The air of mystery around Barren made me surprisingly eager to learn more about where he came from.

“Ready?” I asked as Leander came up to join us. Kai was right behind him, holding the bag filled with the clothes they didn’t use.

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