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

needed to prove he was sorry before he got any forgiveness from me.

“Well, you were pretty rude.”

“I was extremely rude. You didn’t deserve it.” He turned to look at me. “I’m not usually like that.”

Grease and dirt and sweat smeared his face, but he looked at me. His eyes roved over my face as though he realized he had never truly seen me before. I drank it in like parched Arizona soil during a rare rainfall. Every curve in his hard face softened with humility. I wondered how on earth his former mermaid girlfriend had the nerve to turn away from him—to break this heart and never again see this face.

I looked at the ground after I couldn’t take it anymore.

“I still can’t believe it though,” he said. “It’s weird. My brain has to rearrange everything I thought I knew over the last few weeks.”

“What do you mean?”

“I mean you. I really thought…” He trailed off. “It was stupid.”

“You really thought I was a mermaid.”

He shrugged. Poor guy. Despite all the mean things he’d said and done, I kind of felt sorry for him.

“Delfina said you were a mermaid. She said something about overhearing you at a supermarket, worrying about people finding out. And Samantha called you ‘mermaid girl.’”

“That was just something she started doing since the photo shoot. I never said I was a mermaid though.” I looked at the ground, trying to remember everything that happened since that day at the grocery store. “I was at the store with Samantha. I remember seeing Delfina because I thought she was weird. She kept staring at me. I had a little freak out when I saw my picture in the tabloid. Oh, and I was really thirsty at the time and drank a ton of water right in front of her. Maybe she misunderstood.”

“Huh. I never knew about the picture.”

I thought back on my conversation with Eamon on the beach.

“I’m pretty sure Eamon said Delfina told you about it.”

“She may have mentioned it to Eamon, but neither of them ever said anything to me about a picture. All she said to me was that you were one of them and that she’d get your help to take care of everything. She said, ‘Help from an inexperienced mermaid is better than human help any day.’”

“Wow, really? That wasn’t very nice.”

He chuckled. “Hasn’t knowing Cordelia taught you anything about merpeople?”

“Seidon is nice.”

“Seidon is not typical. Cordelia is. Delfina was probably even worse.”

“Really?” I said with a laugh. “Just when you think you know a person.”

He laughed. “Tell me about it. I still can’t believe it.”

“What?”

“You! You stole the vessel. Then the file!” He shook his head with amazement. “I mean, I know I’m a complete idiot for not knowing who you really are, and I acted like an arse about it. But…you’ve never done anything like that in your life, have you?”

“It’s a wonder I’m not dead in a gutter, huh.”

“Pretty much.”

I smirked, then smiled, and then nudged him. As I looked up at the sky, changing color with the waning of the day, I grinned again.

“So, which Harry Potter book is your favorite?”

He smiled too. “Guess.”

“The Prisoner of Azkaban.”

“You saw my paperback, didn’t you?”

I laughed. “Did I guess right?”

“You got lucky. I finished The Chamber of Secrets before coming out here and happened to bring my favorite one along. So, which is yours? No wait, let me guess. The Deathly Hallows.”

“The Half-Blood Prince.”

“Ah, it’s a good one.”

“They’re all good ones.”

He smiled. “They’re all good ones.”

The sun had long since set when headlights playing along the orchard trees awoke me. I snapped my head up. I had fallen asleep on Calder’s shoulder. Okay, yes I was faking at first. He never pushed me away though. The thought pranced around my head like a pony in a three-ring circus until I really did fall asleep.

“It’s alright, it’s just Uther,” said Calder when I jumped in panic. He offered me a hand. I grabbed the bag of mail and took his hand to help me up. I squinted from the brightness of the headlights.

“You’re all right?” said Uther’s voice from the driver’s window. “You’re not hurt?”

“No, we’re fine.” I climbed into the back seat while Calder sat shotgun.

“We’d have gone back for the other car, but the police probably have the license plate number,” said Calder. “How far are we from the house?”

“A good thirty or forty miles or so. Don’t worry, you did the right thing.”

“We’ll have to apologize to Eamon for not getting his coffee creamer,” I said. Uther laughed.

“You, jung frau, are more trouble than two mermaids put together!”

I yawned, stretched out onto the back seat, and fell asleep.

“Olivia…” I heard Calder’s voice. Mmm. He shook my shoulder. “Wake up, we’re back.”

I opened my eyes. I was so tired I didn’t care if they left me to sleep in the back seat. My eyelids sank. Calder gently shook my shoulder again. I sat up, slid out of the car like a headless zombie, and shuffled into the house.

The next thing I remembered was waking up on the sofa with a blanket over me. A faint glow of sunlight shone through the windows. The tables in the family room had once been a forest of wires and cords. Now they were cleared and empty, the computer equipment packed away. I felt a wave of sadness. So ended my summer in San Diego.

The front door opened. Eamon and Calder walked in. Eamon held a plastic grocery bag containing a carton of coffee creamer. Both men greeted me when they saw me.

“Sorry about the sleeping arrangements,” said Eamon. “You were so tired last night, you laid down on the sofa and wouldn’t be moved.”

“Really?” I said, sitting up, rubbing my eyes, and wishing Calder would stop looking at me. My morning appearance was as revolting as my breath. I made an attempt at taming my hair.

“Yeah,” said Calder, who tried hard to hold back a smile. “You were talking too.