Page 17 of Catch of a Lifetime
“Reckon we can lift him up onto the doorstep?” Jerry said, hands on hips and staring down at Dave.
“I don’t know. How much are you bench-pressing these days? I’m afraid I maxed out at two hundred pounds, so unless you can take up the other one thousand three hundred or whatever, no.”
Jerry side-eyed me.
“Sorry,” I said.
“Eh. We’ll work it out.” He dug around in his trouser pocket and pulled out my keyring. He flipped through until he found my house key. It didn’t take long; I had a front door key, a back door key, and a car key. “Step one. Open door.”
Dave made a querulous sound at my feet. I dropped into a crouch and smoothed his hair away from his tense face. “Nearly sorted,” I told him confidently.
The door clicked open and Dave rolled his head to the side, watching Jerry shove it wide before bouncing down the doorstep to join us. Dave’s gaze went from Jerry to the shadowed interior of the house.
“I’ve got an idea,” I said to Jerry. “But we’re going to need more rope.”
“I can get more rope. What’re you thinking?”
I rested a hand absently on Dave’s shoulder and gestured into the house. From here, you could see through the sitting room and into the kitchen. “It’s not a straight shot through to the back door, but it’s not far off.”
He nodded. “Go on.”
“We unhitch the hammock and tie it to a length of rope. Run the rope through the house and out the back door. I’ll do that while you take the bike around to the back. We tie the other end of the rope to the tow bar, and pull him on through. If the bike can’t handle it, we use the Hilux.”
“Genius,” Jerry said. “Except we’ll use my Land Rover. It’s better. Let’s?—”
I wobbled in my crouch when Dave’s shoulder beneath my hand shuddered. With an agonised gasp, he shifted back to human, sucked in a deep breath, and pushed up to his feet.
Jerry and I both lunged to grab him.
“Dave!” I shouted. “What are you doing?”
“Don’t ask him questions, mate, get him in the house while we can!” Jerry shouted. “Come on.”
Jerry had an arm around Dave’s ravaged waist. Dave’s face was tight with pain. His wounds, which had started to look better in his merman form, started to look significantly less better.
“He’s bleeding again,” I said helplessly.
“Yup. Come on, lad.” He wasn’t talking to me that time, he was talking to Dave.
Jerry stepped forward, hauling Dave with him. He wasn’t gentle. Probably because Dave was already beginning to crumple. His knees were bending even though he was quite clearly fighting it.
“Joe,” Jerry growled. “Little help?”
I gingerly wrapped an arm around Dave’s waist and, between the three of us, we managed to get him over the threshold.
“All right,” Jerry said. “Let’s get him upst—ah, shit.”
He shifted.
One moment he was standing between us, towering over us. The next moment he went down, taking the pair of us with him. His tail unfurled and flopped out the door.
“Not ideal,” I said, scrambling to hands and knees. “At least he’s mostly inside.” I cut off and cocked my head, listening to a faint buzz in the background. “Uh-oh.” I scuttled over the floor, squeezed up against Dave’s tail, and poked my head out.
“DPD van is coming up the drive,” I said.
“What?Now?”
“Yes! I ordered some new socks! I didn’t realise the delivery was coming today!” I probably had an email on my phone, but I hadn’t been in an inbox-browsing, phone-scrolling mood for the last few hours.
