Hook, Line & Sinking (Completed)

10: Moonfell

Second update on Hook this week! Woohoo! And fourth update this week in general, I'm on a roll!

I introduce Matt's brother Orly(Orlando) and his wife Mariana in this chapter. If you want to know more about them, zip over to the short (and completely finished) story The Professor and the Siren. You can read all about their super quick chemistry and turbulent first meeting.

Enjoy the chapter. :-)

*

Moonfell

It had been a week since I'd started working at the Stonefish and both Matt and Dev had given me lessons on how to control water during that time. I was now able to dry myself quickly by vaporizing water and I could repel it should it be necessary. Beyond that I hadn't learned much yet, the guys had decided the focus should be on protecting myself from possible exposure.

I had seen their father, Thomas McLaren, once at the Stonefish and I had a feeling he'd shown up just to appraise me. He'd been nice and polite and stayed no more than five minutes to talk to me but I had the feeling I'd be seeing more of him. Dev had warned me I'd now be invited for any mermaid related events.

On the other hand, I'd seen my own father a total of three hours on Wednesday which had coincidentally been the one evening that week that I wasn't working at the Stonefish. He'd barged in around seven PM, scarfed down some of my leftovers and then headed upstairs to get a few papers from his office and some new clothes. He had slept in his bed but he'd been gone so early the next morning that I hadn't even heard him leave.

In school I'd managed to avoid Jamie, mostly because Mitch and Dev accompanied me pretty much everywhere. It almost seemed like Mitch knew the big mermaid secret but Dev had let me know that he wasn't allowed to tell anyone who wasn't like them. Mitch did not know, though it was obvious that he knew something was up.

I was warned by Matt when I did a three hour shift in the evening on Thursday that Friday was a full moon day and I'd better clear up my schedule to join them. I hadn't had anything planned but I felt a little annoyed that he couldn't have told me about that earlier in the week, it wasn't like he couldn't have known it was a full moon then already.

So I showed up as asked at eight on Friday evening with my bikini top already on under my clothing. A wrap in my duffel along with towels and dry clothing and toothbrush and such, Matt hadn't been very forthcoming about what to expect. Though I wasn't certain if it was because he had purposely meant to be vague or because Thorne had been yelling at him to do something from the other room.

The Stonefish was open and Thorne was running it that night but it was still the meeting point for me. Matt lived in the apartment above it and had told me he'd drive me down to the secluded strip of beach his parents lived near. We'd be leaving from there.

He was leaned up against his old pick-up waiting for me, his arms crossed over his wide chest. Tattoos peeking out from underneath the cuff of his tight, dark gray t-shirt. And just as I was checking him out, he shamelessly returned the favor, sliding his eyes over my body in appraisal. "You look nice, though it's not really appropriate for tonight unless you plan on stripping in front of all of us." He was of course referring to the fact I was wearing jeans and I decided to just roll my eyes and flip him the bird. Just like I liked to get under his skin, he took obvious pleasure in doing the same to me.

"Let's go," I told him after I'd climbed into the truck. "You have trouble with your dad letting you go?" he asked as he started the engine and I just shrugged, "Nah I'm eighteen he's fine with me having my own life." His eyebrows shot up, "So he'd be fine with it if you crashed at my place tonight huh?" "Yeah, since it ain't happening and he knows that," I shot back with a grin. "You can keep on dreaming fish boy."