Page 51 of Chasing Tail
Chapter 27
Iwas almost certain the brothers weren’t going to be back to Beck’s love nest until this was over. I’d miss talking to them, but I understood, and even if I liked them a lot, I didn’t need them around complimenting me all the time. There were some mermaids like that, and I honestly wanted to stab some of them with my spear.
When we woke up, I could hear voices and noises from outside the door. I knew it wasn’t my princes. They were quiet when we were sleeping. Someone was arguing beyond the door. Taron heard it too.
I bolted awake and grabbed my abalone dagger. Taron and I crashed through the door, ready to fight, but the three sins were standing there, so we immediately put our fists and weapons down and calmed ourselves. Adamo just chuckled.
“I forgot mermaids aren’t shy about nudity.”
“Stop staring,” Salem snapped, slapping him on the back of the head.
“We didn’t mean to wake you,” Tristan said. “We know the princes have been feeding you since you can’t hunt for yourselves right now. They need to show their faces at the palace for this to work, but you two don’t need to starve. So we came to make sure you were fed.”
“Why fighting?” Taron asked.
“Well, I dated a mermaid, and Salem lived with a sea witch for a while. We know your diet is more than just raw seafood. We were both taught recipes and were there while they were modified for land. Certain parts of the world eat raw fish on land too. It’s delicious, and you should totally introduce your druids to it. Both of us have different recipes for mussel and seaweed salad, and we both think ours is superior. We were arguing over who was going to make it.”
“Are all men like this on land? Mermen hunt, but they don’t even try to learn to feed themselves. Unmated mermen either live off what they hunted or go home to their mothers for prepared food. You all seem to know how to cook here and have no problem doing it for women.”
Salem chuckled. He was the only Sin who wasn’t staring at my naked body in appreciation.
“Some men are like that on land too. Beck, Callum, and Forrest have the best chefs in this entire kingdom preparing their meals. If they get hungry, they can ask anyone in the palace for anything they want, and it’ll be brought up to their rooms. Given their father, those three could be quite spoiled and ended up just like him, but they took after their mother. You have no idea how much you lucked out with them, and I don’t just mean that they want to help.”
“I’ve been glad Taron didn’t kill them when they knocked me over in the street for a while now. Why don’t you make both recipes? Taron and I eat a lot.”
Salem cleared his throat.
“Why don’t the two of you put some clothes on while we cook?”
“I want to learn,” I said. “They’ve cooked me land food. I want to show them food from my home.”
“Me too,” Taron said.
Tristan started laughing.
“Adamo will teach you like that, but Salem won’t let you in the kitchen unless you put clothes on. Our brother Kobe enjoys cooking in the nude, and he’s burned his bits frying things in grease more than once. He still insists on making breakfast naked, even if we’ve tried to talk him out of it.”
Taron and I just shrugged and went back to the bedroom to get dressed. It wasn’t taking as long for me since Taron learned how to tie me into these awful dresses. We were both pretty excited to go out there and meet the Sins for a cooking lesson. I almost forgot what we were going to be doing tonight. Almost. It was still there in the pit of my gut.
The Sins were something else. I really liked them. I didn’t want to kiss them or mate with them like my druid princes, and I knew it would bother Taron if I did. But, they were just new friends, and that was okay.
Salem and Adamo were teaching us several modified mermaid recipes. They were familiar to me. My mother taught them to Seira and me. She made it fun, just like they were doing now. They weren’t just teaching us how to cook either. They were helping Taron getting better with talking out loud.
He’d figured out a lot on his own, and I was so proud of him. He didn’t care about it before, but he wanted it now. I knew he would eventually come to that conclusion. Taron wouldn’t have wanted me speaking for him in the ocean, and even back home, we weren’t attached at the fin.
Taron and Beck had a thing that was separate from ours. I was sure Taron wanted to ask him things in private. There were probably things on land that the brothers enjoyed doing that Taron would too that I would completely despise. I wanted them to go out and have fun. Something told me I’d enjoy hanging out with Topaz while they were doing that.
She might have legs and be a druid princess, but she reminded me a lot of a mermaid. I was fairly certain she wouldn't get eaten or poisoned if it was magically possible to give her a tail to go swimming with. I respected that and liked that she fought with dresses and words. She was probably good with magic and fists too. My princes would have taught her that.
I’d give it to Adamo and Salem. By the time they were done with us, Taron talked much better and smiled up a storm. We had an entire spread of food from home that we could make to pay the brothers back for spoiling us with land food. And it tasted good too.
“Now, some seafood can be served raw like how you eat in the ocean,” Salem said. “We enjoyed it in other kingdoms long before Adamo met his mermaid. You just need to remove the bones and skin, slice it up, and serve it over rice with a little vinegar. They’ll love it. Some seafood needs to be cooked, or people on land will get sick, especially if it’s been out of the ocean for a long time.”
“We don’t eat certain things in the ocean either. Things rot and make us sick in the ocean too. This is really good. Do you enjoy eating this too? Do you think the princes would like it if we made this for them?”
“It’s not just that it tastes good,” Adamo said. “Mesi didn’t just miss food from home. She really liked land food. She wanted to share her food with me. I’d already taught her how to use the stove, and she’d mastered several recipes. There was a lot of trial and error to get this right, but a lot of love went into it.
“I never told her when it tasted bad because just that she was trying meant a lot to me. She always knew. She’d eat one bite, then take my plate away and throw it in the trash. She kept trying until it was perfect, like what you’re eating. It was the effort and love that went into it and that it tastes good. My brother Kobe handles Gluttony, and he loves cooking. He’ll tell you one of the simplest ways to tell someone you love them is to cook for them, even if you are bad at it.”
