Son of a Mermaid Read Online Free PDF Page B

the big black dog.
    “Lucky!” Shea dropped the bag of trash and broke into a sprint. “Leave her alone, dog!” He slowed a bit as he got closer. “Don’t be afraid, little girl. He’s usually very friendly.” With one last bark, the dog walked to Shea’s side, and lay down on the sand in front of him.
    The girl turned her eyes toward him, and he thought he saw a flash of recognition flit across her face before she relaxed the grip on her knees. As she uncurled her long body, he realized the girl wasn’t so little after all. Actually, she might even be about his own age. Despite the early hour and the chill in the air, she wore only a bikini and her curly hair was dripping wet.
     “You’re the Garbage Boy, aren’t you?” Her voice sounded like a cross between a whisper and a summer breeze. “I saw you here yesterday.”
    He squinted up at her. Long damp hair curled down her back and clung to the tops of her arms, given her a drowned kitten kind of look. Her large green eyes were too big for her face. He decided that even though she wasn’t as pretty as Jeannie, or even Maria, this girl was…interesting.
    She smiled down at him. The girl had a nice smile. He felt the muscles in his stomach clench and tighten as he smiled back. “The name’s Shea, not Garbage Boy,” he told her.
    “Shea.” When the girl said his name, it tingled in his ears like music touching him all the way down to his toes.
    After several awkward moments of silence he asked, “Okay, so what’s your name?”
    “My name’s Kae,” she replied with a wide smile, her lips parting to show perfect pearly white teeth.
    “Kay?” It didn’t sound the same when he said it.
    “Kaa – ee,” she enunciated. She stood and stretched her arms toward the sky. He was right, she looked as tall as him. “You must pronounce all the sounds.”
    “Kaa – ee,” he repeated in the same exaggerated fashion and shook his head. “I haven’t seen you on the beach before.”
    “You’re the new one,” Kae replied, using both hands to tuck wet hair behind her ears. “My family is here every summer.”
    Rich summer people? He remembered his conversation the day before with Martha and tried to imagine what a rich guy like Bobby Joe would do if he met someone like Kae on the beach. Probably not stare at her like a complete fool, he told himself with a mental kick. But he still couldn’t tear his eyes from her face.
    “Why do you do it?”
    His eyebrows shot up at her question. “Do what?”
    “Pick up garbage, for Neptune’s sake. Your efforts are really but a drop in the ocean.” She jumped down from the rocks and stood next to him on the beach. “And the trash belongs to the land, not the sea.”
    He stared at her, trying to figure out if she was making fun of him. She stared back, unblinking, cocking her head to one side and running her fingers through her hair. Shea noticed those shining blonde curls were almost completely dried. Does some hair dry faster than others? “It offends me when people treat the ocean like their private garbage barrel,” he finally answered, shaking his head. “And I’m not throwing it back in the ocean. I put it in the barrel so it leaves the beach.”
    She smiled at him, and he felt his heart beat faster, suddenly uncomfortable under her watchful eyes. It was like she was looking right inside of him, and he wasn’t completely sure how he felt about that. “How come you’re not in school?” Shea wanted to change the subject, away from him, away from the trash on the beach. “I thought summer people didn’t show up until closer to the Fourth of July.”
    She laughed, sounding like the tinkling wind chimes hanging in Martha’s kitchen window. “My parents need to arrive early, so I get to come too. We work for a very important family, and there is much to do to prepare after the long winter season.”
    He adjusted his initial assessment. Not rich summer people, but summer workers.
    “Where did you come