The Ocean's Call: Part One | ✔

Part Thirty Two

Part Thirty-Two

"Did you find anything?" I ask Anya when she approaches me.

She shakes her head. "Nothing out of the ordinary I'm afraid."

I nod, looking beyond her to the depths of the open ocean. Of course, she didn't find anything. What was I expecting? Her to come back with the blonde mermaid in hand. Our work will cut out for us, nothing comes easy. My next hope is resting on Amy Jones having a lot more information. About me, my family and hopefully she has an idea who this blonde mermaid might be.

Now of course I just have to wait for her to return from her trip abroad with family. I've been mystified by this for a while now, what's a couple more days?

I push the no news out of my head, trying to get myself back in spending the day with everyone. Races break out somehow, Emily declaring herself the judge as she climbs onto the boat to observe. Anya and Harley are well and truly into finding out who the fastest is out of them. I even get into it a little, racing against them.

I surprise myself a few times, pushing myself as fast as I can possibly go to win. I win a couple but lose majority. Anya and Harley have years on me, they know all the tricks in the book and they have far more practice actually being a mermaid then I do.

I swim over to the boat, my tail changing into a pair of legs once again. The sensation still something new to me, the tingling feeling that comes with having my legs back in the water is weird. It's also an odd feeling swimming completely naked while others are around.

Austin drops down onto the back of the boat holding my towel under his arm. He spins around so his back is to me, moving the towel for me to reach it. I pull myself out of the water and onto the boat, reaching for the towel he's holding.

I wrap it around my naked body, shivering from the sudden change in temperature thanks to the wind picking up. "Do you ever get used to be naked all the time?" I mutter.

He glances over his shoulder before spinning around to face me. "Eventually but really it's more to do with you being comfortable with yourself than anything else." I don't mistake the way his eyes drop down to my body for a moment before he looks back up at me.

I chew the inside of my cheek, hoping the blush that creeps onto my face isn't noticeable. He has no business saying something like that and then looking at me like that.

"I am comfortable with myself...it's just others."

His mouth twitches into a small smile. "I'll let you in on a little secret."

"Yeah, what's that?"

He leans closer. The air shifts between us, my heart picking up pace as he clouds my every sense. I can feel the heat pouring off him, smothering me. "Their opinions..." he trails off, losing his train of thought.

...like home, the very distinct smell of home.

I lean back, puzzled by his words. That makes no sense at all, their opinions are like home? Smell, what on earth is he talking about? "What?"

He blinks a few times, his gaze dropping to my lips before flicking back to mine. "What?"

"What does the smell of home have anything do with their opinions? I'm confused."

His eyes widen as he steps back, putting space between us. "What?"

I laugh, frowning. "You're being weird."

He rubs his forehead, his brows creasing. He shakes his head, staring at the ground muttering quietly to himself.

"Did I miss something?" I ask, puzzled even more now.