The Merman Who Wouldn't Sing, The Tears He Saved For Me novel · Chapter 9 of 24

Chapter 9: The Swim Back

"Who did I let marry him?" I said. "What are you talking about?"

The mermaid's eyes slid past me.

"Move," she hissed. "They're coming."

A hood's shadow fell across the glass, and a hand dropped onto my shoulder.

"Miss Dunphy," said the man with the salt-white cuff. "Mr. Moss says you should find your own way out now."

I looked at the mermaid.

She had gone limp in the water, her face blank and her tail tucked under her.

I let them walk me to my truck.

I drove home with three dollars on the dash.

I didn't cry.

I had cried at the cove, and there was nothing left of it.

At the boathouse I stood in the doorway for a long time.

It was dark, and the broken jamb hung open.

I had a hammer and four nails.

I put one nail in the door, and the water in the slip moved.

I froze.

A wet head rose out of the dark, slow and careful, black hair plastered to his skull.

Gray-green eyes.

"Marnie," he said.

My hammer hand shook.

"No," I said. "No. You don't get to do that."

"I came back."

"You swam away."

"You told me to."

"I told you you were free!" I threw the hammer, and it clanged off a piling and fell in the water. "I told you, and you went, and while I was standing on the beach crying, a man walked into my house and took everything you gave me!"

"I know. I saw the door."

"Four scales, Lachlan. You put four scales in my hand, and you kissed my knuckles, and you swam off, and I was left standing there with an empty sill and a stupid heart!"

"It was not nothing."

"Then why did you go?"

He pulled himself to the edge of the slip.

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