Evie waited her turn and then pressed in so that she could read the plaque. Clancy stood right next to her, but it took everything in him not to run. He kept his eyes away from the mermaid. “Oh, wow! So Rutherford Flynn’s fishing fleet was saved by a mermaid—is he an ancestor of yours?”
“Uh, yeah. My dad’s great-grandfather or something like that.” Clancy looked around to make sure no one he knew saw him there, since only dorky tourists and New Age woo-woos hung out at the mermaid fountain. God, this was embarrassing.
Evie began mumbling out loud as she read. “So Rutherford tries to swim back into the storm to thank the mermaid, and almost dies. Holy crap. An innkeeper’s daughter named Serena nurses him back to health and he wakes up and thinks she’s the mermaid! Ha! Awesome!” Evie turned to him and must have detected his impatience. “We can go if you want.”
“No.” Clancy put his arm around her shoulders. “We’ll stay as long as you like.”
Evie got this look on her face he’d never seen before. Like she might cry or something. Then she kissed him on his cheek. It was quick but he’d been right—her lips were silky and warm and his skin was on fire where she kissed him.
“Thank you, Clancy. You are so nice to me.”
At that moment, he would have done anything, anything in the world for that girl.
“So do you believe in the mermaid? You never said.”
Anything but talk about that. “Uh, well, sort of, maybe, but not really. I mean, not literally. But it’s cool. Sort of.”
Evie went back to skimming over the history. “So they marry, he gets rich with a fishery company and he builds this fountain in Serena’s honor. Oh! After fifteen years of marriage he still thinks she’s the mermaid! That’s wild!”
“Yeah. Wild.”
“So, okay, here comes the legend part. People start believing that if you take the mermaid’s hand and kiss it, asking for true love with an open heart, she will grant you your wish. But . . .” Evie quickly turned to look at Clancy and found his face right up near hers. He was busted.
“Oh.” Evie got red in the face and returned her attention to the plaque. “So, you’re not supposed to ask her to send you true love if you have someone specific in mind, someone you already know, and if you do . . . jeesh, that’s harsh. ‘Happiness will elude you,’ it says.”
“Let’s walk over here and see her up close.”
Clancy held Evie’s hand and pushed through to the front of the crowd. The two of them stood just off to the mermaid’s side. Her gaze was focused directly over them, out to the sea. Evie raised her chin and looked straight up. Clancy couldn’t help it. He must have been swept away or something, because he looked up, too, just so his eyes could see what Evie was seeing. Mist from the fountain rained over their hair and clothes. They didn’t say anything for a minute or two. Then Evie whispered.
“She’s so incredibly beautiful.” Her mouth parted slightly and her eyes were as big as sea scallops. “Very strong. Powerful, but, I don’t know. It’s hard to describe.”
“She’s strong but she’s all girl.”
Evie swung her head around and stared at him. Where the hell had that stupid comment come from? He was such a loser.
“Exactly.”
Nope, he was a frickin’ genius.
Whoa. Just then, the hot sparks were going completely nutso inside him. All he wanted to do was get out of this crowd of socks-and-sandals-wearing dads and get Evie alone. But, since he was trying to be a gentleman and all, he had to give her the opportunity to do what all the tourists did on Bayberry Island.