Catch of a Lifetime Read Online Free PDF Page A

was a man.
       "You can ride in the back with me," Michael said when they approached the big, black vehicle. "Usually Rocky does, but he stayed home today. Rocky doesn't like boats."
       She'd have to thank Rocky, because she'd always wanted to ride in one of these. The purloined Jet Skis and other small watercraft her professors had had them test in the middle of the ocean were nowhere near as interesting as wheeled vehicles.
       She followed the little boy inside, mimicking his movements after he latched a belt across his chest and waist. She'd heard the reasoning behind buckling up, but, as a member of the ocean community, she had a natural aversion to being restrained by anything. But when in Atlantis… or, Florida, as the case may be.
       "I never went to a beach before Rainbow brought me here," Michael said, brushing hair out of his eyes and readjusting his hat when Logan turned on the cool air.
       Angel had heard about air-conditioning but the con cept of a man-made breeze still stumped her—not that it kept her from enjoying it. The cold air reminded her of the body-surfing trip she'd taken with friends off the coast of Greenland.
       If only she could write all of these impressions down. Her fingers were itching to get hold of the tools of her trade.
       "We had lots of snow in the winter," Michael contin ued. "I'm real good at building snow forts. I bet you're really good at sand castles, aren't you, Angel? Logan and I made one, but it fell down. Will you show me how? I want to build the biggest one ever. And we can decorate it with fish and mermaids and sharks and sea shells and everything."
       "Sure—"
       "And what about lunch?" The little boy barely paused to breathe. "Can we eat seaweed? How about clams? I've never had those. I bet they're good, huh?"
       "Actually—"
       "And tuna fish. Well, I've had lots of that and I really like it with mayonnaise but no relish. I don't like that. It's good with cheese sometimes and I like chips with it, but you have to have cranberry juice with it because orange juice tastes yucky and ruins everything. What do you want for dinner? Logan can buy us whatever you want. He got me a cheeseburger last night with extra pickles. I like pickles but not relish. How 'bout you?"
       Angel caught Logan's eyes in the mirror he looked into occasionally. Those brown eyes had been so close and so warm when they'd almost kis—
       No, dammit. She had a once-in-a-lifetime opportu nity here—and since she'd become Immortal at some point, that was a really long time. She wasn't going to blow it for a good-looking guy. Logan Hardington was a Human and her ticket to the job she wanted more than anything. A-n-y-thing.
       Luckily, Michael's chatter discouraged conversation between her and her subject . The little boy didn't need any encouragement to keep chatting, nor did he slip up and ask her about being a mermaid. He also didn't seem to require answers. A noncommittal hmmm from her every now and then was an invitation to keep asking.
       She kept glancing out the windows, dozens of ques tions springing to her lips, but she didn't voice them. Logan would know something was up if she started ask ing about things he considered commonplace.
       To her, they were anything but. The world looked so different from this side of the beach. The palm trees weren't quite as tall as they looked from the water, growing next to buildings that reminded her of the walls of an undersea trench. Streets were laid out just like Atlantis, but traveling them was so different. Back home, if she wanted to go to the next street, all she had to do was swim over the buildings, but here Humans had to maneuver around them.
       Birds were the only ones who had the same kind of freedom on land as Mers had in the sea, where the shortest distance between any two points was a straight line, no matter the direction. It was an odd concept to get used to.
       And there