Secrets Whispered from the Sea - Emma St. Clair Page 0,24
made his pairing with Nadia so strange. Mom had been a microbiologist who alternated between working in labs and giving lectures. The number of academic talks Ann and I had ignored at the dinner table was high. When Mom wasn’t drunk by dinner anyway.
Not for the first time, I wondered what conversations between my father and Nadia were like. Did they alternate between discussing mountain pose and the marriage rituals in tribal cultures?
Maybe they did. And if they were both fine with it, I really should be too. But there was just something about Nadia I couldn’t embrace.
“Okay. Where are you staying?” I had wanted to jump in before he got going, but this was the wrong question to ask. It opened a door that I most definitely did not want opened. I squeezed my eyes shut.
Don’t ask to stay with me. Don’t ask to stay with me.
He chuckled, sounding uncomfortable, and I knew he was gearing up for the ask. “Ann didn’t have room, so we were wondering if we might be able to bunk with you at Nana’s cottage.”
So many parts of that sentence bugged me. He’d asked Ann first—no surprise there, though it didn’t lessen my irritation. If she thought I was Nana’s favorite, Ann was totally our dad’s special snowflake. I had resigned myself to being a far-distant second place. The kind of daughter he only called when he needed something. Like a place to stay, apparently.
And bunk with me? He and his second wife, who would have been a senior in high school when I was a freshman wanted to bunk with me? This wasn’t summer camp.
“No. You can’t stay with me.” Maybe a little more bitterness edged into my tone than I would have liked. But I didn’t have a filter left for today.
“I’m sorry?” he sputtered.
I could almost picture Dad, his jaw slack, eyes blinking repeatedly in surprise. “Nana’s house is in bad shape. The AC isn’t even working. It’s just … not possible.”
“But, Clem—”
“The answer is no, Dad. Call me later this week if you want to have dinner or something.” Yeah, right.
It felt far more satisfying to hang up on my father than Chuck. Dad’s request had just been the last thing I could handle today. Maybe if we had a closer relationship, I wouldn’t have minded so much. Maybe if he and Nadia weren’t a package deal. Maybe if the thought of them bunking with me didn’t make me want to stab myself with a sharp object.
As I went to slide the phone back into my pocket, movement caught my eye. All the slack in Grumpy Fisherman’s line had disappeared. He leaned back, tilting the rod as he reeled. That nice neck of his went tight, his muscles and tendons standing out in a delicious way, hinting at the muscular physique under his gray T-shirt.
I really needed to stop ogling him. Especially considering the impression I just made with not one, but two phone calls that made me sound like a jerk. Especially if you only knew half the conversation with none of the context. But it was hard to look away as the line drew closer, and the muscles in his forearms flexed. I never thought I was into forearms either, but I couldn’t seem to avert my eyes as he pulled up a big, silver fish.
And that’s when my phone missed my pocket and slid into the shallow water.
“No no no no!”
I recovered it immediately, but it sat dripping in my palm, the screen remaining black no matter how many times I jammed my finger into the button. Totally dead. Fantastic. Because what I really needed at this point in my life was to find somewhere on the island to get a new phone.
As I turned to go, I caught the barest hint of a smile from Grumpy Fisherman. With deft fingers he unhooked the fish, only to toss it right back into the sea. Its tail wriggled once above the surface before it disappeared. The man met my gaze again, and his smile disappeared.
“I’m not a jerk, you know,” I called out. Today I didn’t seem to be able to keep my mouth shut.
He turned back to the ocean, casting again. “Okay.” He did not sound convinced. Or particularly interested.
“I’m not,” I said, when what I should have done was just kept walking.
“Not really my business.”
“Then maybe you shouldn’t have stood practically on top of me, listening to my whole conversation. There’s a whole beach here.”