Fathom by L. Standage (spanish books to read .TXT) 📕

at my understatement. “Well, at least one good thing will come from all this.” She peered up at me with that familiar, impish gleam in her eye.

“What?”

“Hottie McScottie,” she said. “This is your big chance!”

I laughed. Wait…did mermaids laugh? What was that like under water?

“A chance for what? I’m not on the hunt for a relationship, especially with someone who lives halfway across the world. And anyway, even if I was—which I’m not—he’s not into me.”

“How do you know?”

“He can barely stand to look at me. Haven’t you noticed?”

Samantha frowned. “He’s like that with everyone. We barely know the guy and we’ve only seen him, what, three times? Maybe he just takes a while to warm up to people.”

“Whatever. It doesn’t matter.” I held my chin high. “He’s cute and he’s a biochemist. That’s all I know about him.”

“See? Another nerd.”

“Shut up,” I said, but smiled in spite of myself. A part of me, the same part that noticed Calder examining sand instead of throwing a football, rose up with intrigue. But I ignored it. “I’m going to go hang up my towel.”

“Hoping you’ll run into Hottie McScottie?”

“Stop calling him that. He has a name, you know.”

Sam grinned. “Ooh, defending his honor. You do like him.”

I rolled my eyes, fought off another smile, and then went out in the hall toward the bathroom with my towel. From behind the closed bathroom door, the shower ran. I’d have to hang my towel up later. I turned to go back. But Calder’s voice stopped me. It came from one of the nearby bedrooms. The door was open an inch.

“Why doesn’t Eamon just send them back to where they came from?” he said. “They’re a liability.”

“Just put the water bottles over in that corner and quit worrying,” Natasha replied. I heard a pack of water bottles flop onto the floor as she continued. “Olivia has information that will help us. And she got the vessel back. Even you couldn’t do that.”

He hushed her. “Not so loud.”

“What’s the matter? Don’t like being outshined for once?”

“No. That’s beside the point. I don’t trust her.”

I stepped back, the towel hanging limp from my hands. He didn’t trust me? What’s not to trust? I’ve been nothing but trustworthy. I was a nice person, wasn’t I? Was there something about me that drove people to dislike me? A prick of old heartbreak, loneliness, and feeling unworthy broke through the walls I’d built to block out those stupid memories.

“I get it,” Natasha replied. “Believe me. You don’t have to like her. But you do need to protect her and her friend. Just stick it out until this is all over, then you’ll never have to see her again.”

I took another step back, my heart squeezing. It shouldn’t have mattered. I had no interest in Calder. I barely knew him. He was just a guy. A biochemist from Scotland who saved my skin at a theme park. Smart. Brave. Hot. I cringed. It did matter. Why? Why couldn’t I just let him dislike me and move on? It wasn’t like he resembled Landon in any way.

Then I realized: it did matter. Because aside from all the things I noticed about Calder, even though I didn’t know much about him, the biggest was that he was Landon’s opposite.

“Here, take the rest of this stuff downstairs for me,” said Natasha. “I need to go check on…”

I didn’t hear the rest. I hurried back to the bedroom I shared with Samantha before Calder caught me eavesdropping again.

“I thought you were going to hang up your towel,” said Samantha when I came back in. She sat perusing her cell phone. I turned away from her and lay the towel on the floor at the foot of my bed.

“Someone was in the bathroom.”

“What’s wrong?”

“Nothing,” I lied. Some best friend I was, promising not to keep stuff from her anymore. But this was different. This wasn’t life or death. Just a fleeting attraction. I could admit to it, so I could also let it go. If Calder didn’t trust me or even like me, well then, that was his problem. I didn’t have to let it affect me anymore. I took a quick breath and picked up my hairbrush.

Someone knocked on the door.

“Come in,” I said. Natasha opened the door. She looked at my bed and frowned.

“Oh, your bed deflated!”

I glanced down at the wilted air mattress. “A little…”

“We’ll fix it for you.”

“Thanks.”

“We’re going to be leaving in about a half hour. Do you think you two will be ready?”

“Sure.”

“Where are we going?” asked Sam.

“We’re going to meet up for lunch with some other friends. You can come down whenever you’re ready to go.”

“Okay,” Sam and I said in unison. Natasha closed the door.

I looked at Samantha. She opened her makeup bag and started dabbing product on her face. She looked at the clock on her phone, then went back to painting her eyes.

Thirty minutes later, Sam and I came down the stairs and to the front of the house. Through the open door, the rain had become a drizzle. I saw Uther in the driver’s seat of the van. Eamon, wearing a windbreaker and a tweed golfer’s hat, spoke to him through the driver’s side window. Natasha and Calder loaded provisions and some equipment in the back of the van.

Calder passed me, arms full of blankets. I tried to keep a casual expression, despite the bite of anger at his words from before.

“How long do you think we’ll be gone?” I asked. He ignored me, passing Natasha as she came into the house.

“It’s a precaution,” said Natasha, her hair damp from the misty rain. “In case we can’t come back here. You’ll be grateful for water and some food if we’re forced to lay low for a day or two.” Sam and I glanced at one another with trepidation.

“We’ll be fine,” she continued. “If all else fails, Walter’s got a fully supplied boat ready to cast off at Mission Bay.” She motioned toward