“She likes you,” he said, watching with a big grin on his face.
I rubbed her on the forehead and she held very still as I made my way behind her ears. Her long, thick mane felt as soft as satin. I massaged her neck and she closed her eyes.
“If you want to ride them, you just need to ask.” Tammer was leaning against Yanix, watching me give Ren loves. “They enjoy it.”
“Thanks,” I said. He was trying, and I appreciated it. I doubted we’d be as close as Dad and I, but I was willing to give him a chance.
Tammer’s smile faded and he clapped his hands. All the horses turned to the barn, except Ren. She didn’t move and he shook his head.
“She’s not fully trained yet,” he said and took her head in his hands. He leaned forward and planted a kiss on the end of her nose. “Yaht!” he ordered in some foreign language. She turned and trotted after the others who waited for her. When she reached them, all five trotted together into the barn.
“Thank you for showing them to me,” I said as I jumped down from the fence.
“My pleasure,” he answered and we headed back to the house, which I now saw, faced the sea. The house was shaped like a giant U. The entire thing was made out of white rock Tammer had imported from Greece. Overgrown trees flanked the long driveway leading up to the house. A rainbow of flowers grew around the edges of the house. The effect was overwhelmingly beautiful. Tammer had to make bank.
His pride was his swimming pool. It was unlike any pool I’d ever seen. It was rectangular and it was deep – twelve feet deep! He proudly pointed out the fish tanks in the long sides. A swimmer would feel as if she were literally swimming with the fishes. The sides were a beautiful mosaic of tiny, differently colored tiles. The bottom of the pool was sand. When I looked at him in amazement, he said simply, “I like the water.”
He was quick to show me a gate in the pillars that edged the gazebo area and steps that disappeared under the ocean waves. He told me this was where they scuba dived. It wasn’t strange to think of Mom scuba diving, even though she’d never done it when we were together. Swimming was one of her passions and Florida seemed the perfect place to learn to scuba.
The rest of the house was just as lovely inside as it was outside. The same strange floor was in every room, and each room was painted a different color. The ocean theme played throughout the house.
The living room was completely white with distressed beach wood tables. Seashells and dried coral and seaweed adorned the tables and walls. Large tan baskets of soft blankets were stored under the coffee table. An enormous comfy white couch housed a fleet of different earthen-colored pillows. I told Tammer his house could be a model for the Pottery Barn and he laughed and said he’d have to tell Mom, as she did most of the decorating herself.
When we went into their room, Mom was sitting on their giant bed. She smiled and waved at me. The room was light green and the color flowed into their bathroom. It was twice as big as my room and was complete with its own fireplace. Mom even had a sitting area to apply her makeup. I think I’d seen something similar when we were forced to watch Gone with the Wind in Literature Class.
Along one of the walls was an elegant marble statue of a mermaid. She seemed suspended in the air, as if she were slowly stretching toward the surface of the sea. Beautiful long hair splayed about her, some twisting under her arms and around her back. She was naked from the waist up and yet there was nothing vulgar about the statue. The base was made to look as if she’d just taken off from the sea floor, with sand scattering about her flowing, delicate fins.
“Do you like it?” Mom called from the bed. I nodded and touched the mermaid’s tail with my forefinger.
“Where did you find this?” I asked, lightly tracing my finger along her tail. The artistry was so detailed I could feel every scale.
“We had her commissioned. She was a fortune, but worth it.”
“She looks like you,” I said.
Tammer sat on the edge of the bed, watching me admire the mermaid. I felt something warm develop in my shoulders and run down my spine. It made me shiver. This happened once in a while and it usually meant something big was going to happen. I turned and faced them both.
“There’s something else you’re not telling me.”
A small smile traced Tammer’s lips and he looked down at the deep green quilt they sat on. “All in due time,” he said.
Mom jumped off the bed and put an arm around my waist. “I’d like to show you Naira’s bedroom. She’s so proud of it.”
Mom led me through a door next to the statue of the mermaid, and we entered a small, sky blue room. This had to be the smallest room of the house, by far. There was a bed sunken into the floor - very similar to the tumble pit I had often used in gymnastics. The bedroom looked like a Sea World gift shop, filled with stuffed sea creatures, snow globe mermaids, and to top it off, a large saltwater aquarium that was part of the wall at the head of Naira’s bed. They certainly spoiled her.