Page 5 of Catch of a Lifetime
Also, I’d been right about the weather, and while I’d been waiting for Jerry, the day had gone from bright and cheery to grey and blustery with scattered rain. The kind of tourists who thought themselves special enough that the PRIVATE: NO TRESPASSING signs didn’t apply to them were also the kind to huddle in the coffee shop or tearooms whenever the sun went in.
So much for the good news.
The bad news was that Dave in his human form had been impossible for me to drag up to the house. Even with Jerry’s help, it would have been a struggle.
Dave in his merman form was well over eight feet long and probably weighed about the same as a Holstein bull.
We didn’t have a chance of moving him.
“Right.” I sat back on my heels, shoving my damp hair out of my eyes. I rested one hand on Dave’s side above his gills. I couldn’t stop touching him. It had been over six months since I last did.
We’d parted in the autumn a few times now. I accepted it. Didn’t like it, but I accepted it. It was part of loving Dave.
Now that I knew he’d come back to me, it wasn’t so hard.
Just…he had to keep coming back. Hehadto.
Jerry leaned over and poked me again.
“Ow.” I smacked his hand away. “Stop doing that.”
“Stop drifting off, then. I mean it. We’ve got to stay focused. For Dave.”
“Yes.” I blinked my misty eyes clear and blew out a sharp breath. “First things first. We need to get him up to the house and out of sight.”
Jerry looked over my shoulder and down the length of the beach to the short flight of rough steps that became a track winding up to my small house on the headland. He winced. “How are we going to do that, you reckon?”
We both stared at the magnificent, unconscious, enormous merman between us.
“We’re not getting him off the ground between the two of us, I know that much,” I said.
“I could get Vinny and Patrick over here. They’d help.”
“No.” I didn’t hesitate. I liked Jerry’s brothers—well, I liked Patrick. Vinny was a dick—but no.
“You can trust them. I swear.”
“I only trust you, Jerry.”
He tried not to puff up at that. He failed miserably.
“We’ve got to handle this between us.” I gauged the distance from where we were at the water’s edge to the steps and the headland, and then from here to the dunes. I sagged. “We can’t carry him, we already know that. And I’m a good driver, but I don’t think I can get the Hilux down here without moving a few dunes first.”
Jerry scoffed.
I glanced over at him, and back at the dunes. “You think I can?”
“No, that was because you think you’re a good driver.”
I glared at him. “Do you thinkyoucan?”
He sucked his teeth, then shook his head reluctantly. “Been a long time since I went off-roading. Doesn’t matter, anyway. There isn’t a wide enough path through the dunes, even if I tipped it.”
“Okay. Cars are out. There’s got to be something else we can get through the dunes.”
We looked at each other.
“Quad bike!” we both said at the same time.
