Promise Bound Read Free Page A

I thought it was normal to ask the father first.”
    Jason: “Son, I appreciate the gesture, don’t get me wrong. But this isn’t something you should surprise her with. Are you sure? You’re both so young.”
    Me: “Do you think she’d say no?”
    Jason: “I think she’d say what’s the hurry.”
    Hurry
. The need for hurry glowed in Lily’s skin, and in her eyes, and in the light that shone from both. Or rather, the absence of that light. Couldn’t Jason see that in his own daughter? Couldn’t Sophie, who despite her maintained humanity was more in tune to moods and emotions than any full-blooded mermaid I knew?
    Jason: “It doesn’t have to be an engagement ring. Why don’t you call it a promise ring? They were very popular in my day.”
    I had to admit, a promise ring fit my mer-sensibilities. In promising myself to Lily—a promise she knew I’d be incapable of breaking—maybe I could restore some of the happiness that last summer’s events had stolen from her. I don’t know. Maybe I was kidding myself.
    As Lily worked the pendant in her fingers, she didn’t blink; her thoughts seemed very far away. “We could fake some postcards from Jack,” she said, propping herself up on one elbow. “You could go to Canada and send them from there, saying, ‘Don’t worry about me. I’m hiking through Ontario. I’m fine. Love, Jack.’ That sort of thing. I wish I had saved the card he gave me. You could have used it to copy his handwriting. It was messy. That’s all I can say about it.”
    Beneath her oversized cardigan I recognized the Jimi Hendrix T-shirt she’d worn when she confronted Jack, and nearly lost her life.
    “I would never go to Canada without you,” I said. I waited a few seconds, but she didn’t respond. Finally I prompted, “So?”
    “So … what?” she asked.
    “So, if I go to Canada, will you come with me?”
    She looked at me with a serious expression. “Do you think postcards would give the Pettits some peace?”
    “What more can we offer? Really, Lily, people go missing every day.”
    “And that’s supposed to make me feel better?”
    No. Not really
. I drew one finger through her hair andtucked a strand behind her ear. “Why do you have to feel bad about this? It’s not your fault what happened to Jack.”
    “It feels like my fault.”
    I sighed, trying to be patient. “If it were up to you, everything would be your fault … but you didn’t answer my question.”
    “What question?” Pine sap snapped in the fireplace and scattered sparks on the hearth.
    “If I go to Canada, will you come with me?”
    “Let’s just wait and see,” she said, kissing the end of my nose as if punctuating a sentence.

3
LILY
    W hen I came down the stairs, I was glad to find Calder awake, too. I didn’t want to go back to sleep. I smiled against his chest, remembering the way he half crawled, half climbed the stairs toward me and, when he stood up, how his pajama bottoms hung low on his hips, revealing the line of muscle that made my insides squirm.
    His bare chest, broad and scarred with a crisscross of cuts in various stages of healing, expanded with a deep intake of breath. I’d never felt the misery I’d seen in regular mermaids, but his reaction to me—like I was filling some emotional tank—wasn’t too hard to understand. I felt the same way.
    Calder’s body warmed me even more than the fire. I curled into his chest and wrapped one arm around him, pulling my knee up over his leg. He drew me closer, and I inhaled the patchouli-like scent of smoke and incense that perfumed his skin and flooded my mind with memories. He dipped his chin and tipped mine up, kissing me.
    “Don’t fall asleep,” he said. “You need to get back to your room before your dad gets up for a midnight snack.”
    I smiled at the thought of getting caught, but it barely moved my lips. All I could think of was how stupid I was being. Why had I suggested Canada? I wished I’d never brought it up.