The Misadventures of Anna Cabbot

History Lessons

"No. No. This isn't happening. This isn't...no."

"It is. This is your reality."

"Well it's a shitty reality."

"Overt, brazen defiance doesn't become you, Anna Cabbot, but I'm feeling indulgent. Convince me."

A sharp inhale. "Seriously?"

"Convince me. Tell my why I should let you live."

The combined efforts of the doorbell and the tea kettle slapped her out of either a memory or a dream, though she'd be damned if she knew which one it was. She killed the burner flame before going to answer the door.

Carson stood on the welcome mat, overnight bag hanging off one shoulder and his oil-slick sealskin draped over an arm.

"You look like you've had a tough week," he said, stepping in to toe off his shoes.

"Work was shit and Erin definitely wasn't right." She paused, then added, "But I had coffee with Jamie before he went to work Wednesday night."

"He's on nights now?" Carson hung his sealskin in the closet.

"He's picking them up when he can." Anna snorted. "It's so funny when he sends me good morning texts after shift because he's so not coherent. Autocorrect can only do so much."

"I see." He eyed her until she blushed and retreated into the kitchen to fix cups of tea. "So, are you two dating? Officially?"

"If by dating you mean occasionally going places together and texting regularly and having low key dinner together then yeah, sure." She ripped open a tea bag.

Carson leaned his hip against the counter and quietly said, "Dating isn't a dirty word."

"Never said it was." She refused to look at him. "How were your kids today?"

"Attention spans of gnats, but that's not really unusual." He crossed his arms over his chest. "You got a wetsuit, right?"

"Yeah." Anna wasn't in a hurry to revisit the hassle and a half that was squeezing her 14/16 size self into a neoprene body glove. It had been worth it, though — her curves had looked fantastic as hell in the dressing room mirror even if finding the right fit had been time consuming.

She may have also gotten stuck more than once.

"Sweet." Carson grinned. "Go for a swim with me tonight?"

Anna wrapped her palms around her mug. "Sure, but I don't want to be in the river above the Falls." She had visions of somehow whacking her head and going dazed and confused over the Falls sans barrel.

"No further down the river than the Peace Bridge, got it."

She beamed.

She let Carson drive under the assumption the selkie knew the best, most secluded spot on the shore of Lake Erie — not too far out of Buffalo — for them to wade in and go for a swim.

"There's things you can feel in the water that you can't on land," he said, flicking on his high beams. "Things make better sense over the water."

Anna nodded and pointed to the side of the road. "Deer."

He came to a stop; they waited for a doe and her two fawns to cross. Even after they were gone Carson didn't move forward for another several seconds. Anna wondered if he'd grown up with the same advice she'd had in that where there was one deer there were usually at least two or three more behind it.

When nothing came bounding out of the underbrush they moved slowly ahead.

"So you're thinking we're going to get a better sense of what's going on to Erin and her lake by actually being in the water." She tugged the cuffs of her hoodie down over her knuckles.