“Anyway, I went to see your dad.” She circled back to what they’d been discussing in the first place. “He misses you.”
“Fat chance.” His father might miss having control, but he certainly didn’t miss his disappointment of a son.
“Why do you do that?” Nikki asked.
“Do what?”
“You think your dad’s the worst. But, Mer, he’s really not.”
“Says the girl whose father signed a deal to merge companies.”
She looked down at her lap. “You know about that?”
“I keep up with the news.”
“That’s not why I’m here.”
“Sounds to me like you’re taking his side. Did he follow you?”
“What?” Her eyes narrowed. Moisture glossed her doe eyes. “No. Of course not . . . I wouldn’t betray your trust. I’m not you.”
This conversation was going nowhere. “Tell me what he said, Nikki.”
“Maybe I shouldn’t. You clearly don’t trust me and honestly, Mer, I have no reason to trust you.”
Merrick waited.
Nikki sighed. “I kept it casual.” She rested her forehead on the steering wheel. “We met for lunch and I told him I was going to Berkeley, and he happened to mention your mom went there, you’re welcome. I thought it might at least give you a clue to her past. Maybe someone there knows or remembers her.”
Merrick wanted to kiss her for how awesome she’d been, but he refrained. No matter the physical attraction between them, his heart wasn’t in it.
“I deserve better, Mer.” Nikki straightened and checked herself in the visor mirror.
“Yes, you do.” Out the window, he saw Grim’s car, still idling. He wanted Nikki to be happy. Grim was her opposite in every way. He was a mess, he wore shorts and flip-flops, which Nikki would hate, but they had one thing in common.
They were two of the best people he knew.
“Come on.” Merrick reached over, turned off her ignition, and tossed her keys in her purse. “I want you to meet someone.” He stepped out of the car and skirted the bumper to open her door.
“I see the gentleman in you hasn’t burned off with all this sun.”
“Hey, I’m not all bad.” He turned on his charm, but this time it meant something. He led her to Grim’s car.
His friend promptly rolled down the window. Then he whistled. “Hello, Dolly!”
Oh, man. Merrick scratched the back of his head, waiting for Nikki to react with an eye roll or some sort of snobbish lip curl.
Instead, she batted her eyelashes. Was that a blush? “Are you seriously driving an ’89 Camaro?”
“Why yes, ma’am, I believe I am.” Grim lowered his sunglasses and winked.
Nikki opened the door for herself and hopped inside the front seat.
“Looks like she’s riding shotgun,” Grim said to Merrick, but didn’t take his eyes off Nikki.
Merrick moved to Grim’s side and climbed in behind his seat. He sat back, listening to Nikki and Grim talk shop and cars and horsepower and all the stuff Merrick had never learned or cared about because he’d never needed to. He had a license, passed his driver’s test, but he never drove. Anywhere.
As Grim pulled out of the lot and cruised toward the highway, a shift took place inside Merrick. He’d been too quick to judge. Too fast to make assumptions about people based on first impressions and a few trivial facts.
Merrick poked his head between the front seats. “Hey, can you drop me at the high school?”
“Sure.” Grim flipped the blinker switch. “Any particular reason why?”
“I need to talk to the counselor who comes to the library on Wednesdays.” It wasn’t a total lie. He would talk to Miss Brandes. She might know where he could find Coral.
Merrick peeked at the date on his phone. Friday. He couldn’t wait almost an entire week to see her again.
He shot a text to his sister. She hadn’t checked in yet, but he wasn’t too worried. Grim’s mom had come back to town for the weekend and offered to hang out with Maya for a bit.
How’s it going with Aunt Ashley?
Maya’s instant reply helped him release some of the tension he’d been carrying.
We went shopping and she took me for tea and now we’re collecting seashells. I don’t need a babysitter, as I am almost 11, in case you’ve forgotten, but if I have to have a nanny I pick her.
Merrick frowned. He’d specifically told Aunt Ashley he preferred his sister hang out at the house. It appeared Maya pulled out all the stops and persuaded her otherwise. He hated that they had to keep Grim’s mom in the dark. She was a bit of a free spirit. Didn’t believe in television and traveled “wherever the wind took her,” as Grim put it. She had no idea they were hiding. She’d learn the truth eventually. She might even figure it out when Merrick got to asking questions about his mom.
Are you wearing a hat and sunglasses?
Maya replied with a selfie. A wide-brimmed beach hat shaded her face and giant, bug-eye sunglasses covered the rest.
Satisfied, Merrick closed his phone and took in the view. Where are you, Mom? Maya needs you.
And he needed a time-out. A break from worrying about Maya and wondering if his dad would show up any second.
Maybe Coral could be that break for him.
He let the thought simmer as another one formed.
Maybe she could even be more.
Twenty-Eight
Coral
Spring didn’t last. It waved a brief hello, only to be swept up with the heat of summer’s breeze. She wouldn’t miss it, though. Here, summer meant no school. It meant more time to focus on what mattered.
What did matter?
Her sister. Only her sister.
Coral scrutinized her Young Literary entry again. If she planned to enter, it needed to be perfect. The longer days called to her. Days spent sleeping in and writing at the beach and figuring out who she was and who she wanted to be.
And her sister’s prince. There was still the matter of finding him. Merrick would help her. He’d promised. Maybe she should go back to the library, see if he was working. Not because she wanted to see him. Of course not. He was her sole lead.
Him and this bracelet. She touched the delicate pearls with her fingertips. Her sister had never said so, but Coral suspected the piece had been a gift from the prince himself. What if it was a clue to discovering his identity?
Her phone alarm sounded and Coral silenced it. Then she pulled the medication from her purse and stared at the label. At the name printed there. Her heart raced as she read the directions she’d memorized but felt the need to review anyway. She would not speak to Miss Brandes’s therapist. Coral’s grandmother had forced her to see a doctor. He’d prescribed the bottle of pills after asking a handful of questions and not once looking her in the eye.
I don’t need this. I’m fine.
She unscrewed the cap and emptied a capsule into the palm of her hand. Her grandmother would check the count. So Coral dropped the pill into the sand and buried it beneath the grains. She hated the way it made her feel. The way it coated everything in sugar when deep down in her bones she knew it wasn’t real. The anxiety always came back. The thoughts of death and Red Tide lingered forever at the door of her heart.