Chapter 26

TWENTY-SIX

CHIP

I sighed and rested my head on the rock, letting my dark hair float in the water around my shoulders. Sylvester slid off the top of the rock into my lap so I could cradle him, then he let out a big sigh and rested his head on the rock just below mine.

"I know, baby." I ran my hand over his silky smooth fur. "You miss him, too."

It was Saturday evening, just after sunset and the Island was already busy with the zombie crawl. I had hoped Monroe and I could go together, like a soft launch into society as a couple. His voicemails hadn't stopped, and neither had mine. We just hadn't managed to both be at our phones at the same time. Pickles assured me him and Dawson were working with the king still and that she wasn't having much better luck getting ahold of her soulmate. But they weren't home yet so my plans had drowned right with the excitement. I wanted people to see us together on land not fighting or pulling pranks on each other. I wanted them to have a little preview of the new us before we told everyone we were together.

However that plan relied on talking to Monroe about us.

I grabbed the waterproof bag hanging around my neck and lifted it up so I could see my phone inside. No new messages. Where are you? Why aren't you back yet? It's spooky season and you're missing it.

My chest felt tight. I'd missed his last call by twenty minutes because a couple siren kids got their fins caught in the coral. By the time I called back, it'd gone straight to voicemail. I'd been so disappointed all I managed to say was I hate this phone tag game, when are you home? After I hung up I considered calling back to say more but it felt like too much.

I tapped on my screen until that last voicemail replayed on speaker, " Hey! I missed you. Again."

Sylvester's head popped up. His big black eyes stared at my phone where Monroe's voice was coming from. He cocked his head to the side and it was the cutest thing. I hugged him tight to my chest.

"This game is getting less and less fun, isn't it?" Monroe chuckled and it sent butterflies through me. "Well, I'll be home tonight. I promise."

"Sure you will," I grumbled and glanced up at the shore where the golden lights of tonight's party were in full swing. "After the zombie crawl, I bet."

" What Dawson? Oh. All right, all right. I'm coming, " Monroe sighed into the voicemail which made me and Sylvester do it too. " Anyway, um, Torren texted me that she had to drop off Sylvester to you…thank you for watching him. I feel so bad for leaving him. Right, I gotta go but I can't wait to see you!"

I stared at the phone then groaned. "He feels bad for leaving you , Sylvester. Not me apparently."

He rested his face on my chest. I smiled and dropped the bag with my phone and just sat there cuddling sweet baby Sylvester. If Monroe wasn't careful I was going to steal him. At this point, i'd seen him more than Monroe had because as soon as I got back from rescuing Anthony and the others I went right to visit Sylvester at Torren's. Then he'd spent some time with me in the ocean while I helped Torren practice shifting into marine animals. No one wanted a whale in a pool again.

All I could think about was Monroe. I found myself laying around just reliving that week he'd spent in the water with me. Every smile. Every laugh. Every time he held my hand…when he kissed me.

I swooned.

Then I sat up straight so fast Sylvester craned his neck to look at me. My heart pounded in my chest as my mind finally connected the dots with what was happening in my chest. My stomach tightened into knots.

"Oh no." I looked into Sylvester's eyes. "Oh no, Sylvester. This is bad. Bad, bad, bad."

He just cocked his head to the side.

"This is not good. This is not just a crush." I gripped the rock for support. "I've got it bad, Sylvester."

He oofed me with a little breath out his nose.

"I've got it bad for Monroe." I whimpered and leaned into the rock, pressing my face against the cold surface. "How did I get here? How did this happen so fast? A week ago we hated each other."

I heard Pickles voice in my head when she looked me in the eye and said ‘ Yeah, I'm not sure I believe that anymore. It's giving hindsight is twenty-twenty.'

"No no, no." I flicked my tail up and down like I was stomping my feet. "This isn't right. This Isn't good."

Sylvester whined.

I lifted my head and looked at him. "This is dangerous for my heart, Sylvester. This is too much, too soon. Too fast."

My body was hot and tingly yet there were goosebumps covering my arms and shoulders. I groaned and pressed my palm to my chest, feeling the erratic beat of my heart against my hand. This epiphany was rocking me hard.

The whole reason I'd pushed my annoyance and anger with him to the side and asked for the truce was to make life easier. To take efforts so I wouldn't lose my best friend because of him. Pickles was Monroe's cousin's soulmate. That meant Pickles would be around Monroe all the time. Him and Dawson were basically brothers, they were all they had for family. I didn't want my sister to have to choose between spending time with her soulmate or her sister because I hated Monroe.

Which was a joke in itself. I never hated the man. That should have been the red flag waving in the breeze warning me for where I was headed . . . an express ticket to smitten and head-over-heels.

Oh, oh this is bad.

"We have to take this slow, Sylvester. We can't just jump into the deep end and be a couple already. We haven't even been on a real date, where we both know we're in a romantic setting. Dates have to come first, don't they? Don't they? "

Sylvester just cocked his head to the side and watched me.

It didn't matter that he couldn't speak, I didn't need anyone else's confirmation here. I'd gone and fallen for Monroe hard. I'd gone from enemies to lovers faster than a mako shark hunting. We needed to pump the breaks. We needed to slow down and ease into the happily ever after - because if we were wrong about this…

I shuddered at the thought.

We'd been wrong about the anger and dislike in the beginning so there was no reason to assume we couldn't be wrong about the romance. For all we knew this was pure lust and infatuation. If he wasn't my sister's soon-to-be in-law then I would've just hooked up with him to get that out of the way. At least then I would've known if this was just a physical thing. But no, I couldn't touch him now.

No, we had to take it really slow to make sure we actually, genuinely liked each other. Because no matter if I liked it or not, Monroe Whittaker was going to be in my life as long as Dawson was. That didn't even begin to include the working relationship. Starlight Tours was now my company too. If things went sour between me and Monroe romantically I could lose him, my sister, and my company.

I exhaled in a rush, my head felt wobbly with this revelation.

Sylvester oofed at me.

"I know, I know. I'm a mess."

I pinched the bridge of my nose then looked up at the shoreline of Megelle Island. We were only about twenty feet off shore, but not on the beach side. This edge of the Island was rocky cliffs so no one was going to notice us sitting here. But we saw them. We also saw the bright lights flashing from Main Street. We heard the music blasting from the stage at the edge of the festival.

Sylvester whimpered and nodded his cute little seal nose at the shore.

"You know what? You're right. We should be there having fun. I need to get my mind off of Monroe. If I sit here all weepy and swooning I'll be a goner before the moon fully rises." I took a deep breath then cupped Sylvester's face with both hands. "Let's go get my sisters and as many sirens as we can find then we'll get zombified and head to the party. What do you say? Wanna be a zombie seal?"