The Silkie's Call

by Laura Browning

  Whiskers came up next to her and she reached out to stroke his sleek fur. His nose nudged her cheek. Annabel laughed and slid her hands along his body, her fingers stroking the back of his head and then running along his powerful flippers. As her hands moved back up to the spot where his flippers joined his body, the seal moved his tail and sent them forward. She held on, laughing as they moved through the water. When he started to move too quickly, she let go and he slowed down and came back, blowing bubbles in a circle around her from her feet up to her face.

  “Silly,” she murmured softly. “Not so fast. You scared me.” He offered himself again for another ride, and this time she stretched out along his back, her legs floating on other side of his long body. They bobbed through the water, her laughter floating up carefree and easy.

  ****

  Taylor watched from the top of the dune. He was alarmed at first, but then quickly realized what he was seeing. What on earth was Cayden thinking? Had he told her? He began to walk slowly down the ramp, watching his sister and the animation on her face. It had been so long since he’d seen her so carefree, and he realized that Cayden was giving her a freedom of movement she had lost since her accident. Although she was much more mobile in the water, she still had limitations and those limitations were even greater on land.

  When he set foot on the dock, the seal suddenly stopped and growled. He swam close to the ladder and then ducked away from Annabel and was gone. She looked after him, disappointment plain on her face, and grabbed the ladder.

  “You scared him, Taylor!” she complained as she pulled herself up to the dock.

  Obviously she didn’t realize who her seal friend really was. “Poppy! What are you thinking? Don’t you know seals can be very dangerous?”

  She laughed. “Not him. That’s Whiskers. I used to play with him when I was just a little girl!”

  “Well, how do you know it’s him? What if it were some other seal?” Taylor immediately thought of Cayden’s brother or father. “How could you tell before it was too late?”

  Poppy hesitated. “I don’t know.”

  Chapter 8

  Cayden came by that evening. When Annabel excused herself to make coffee, Taylor waited only until the door shut behind her. He turned to Cayden and demanded, “That was some shit this afternoon? Does she know it was you?”

  “No, she doesn’t know it was me,” Cayden replied. “I just thought it would be a way to keep an eye on her, make sure she doesn’t overextend herself. Although I didn’t do too well yesterday.”

  Taylor frowned, his protective urges instantly on alert. “What do you mean?”

  “She was exhausted when she got out of the water. I let her sleep for a while and then used the clothes I stashed in the Revenge to return in human form. I had to help her back to the house and then massage her legs. She cramped. Does that happen a lot?”

  “It’s pretty common. There’s a very fine line between enough exercise and too much exercise. It can also be a sign of other problems like bladder infections, but she has feeling almost everywhere but her feet, even if she doesn’t have muscle control, so that’s normally not an issue. Her mobility isn’t as good. Especially in her right leg.” Taylor paused. “Look, I can see the benefits to you swimming with her as a seal, but what if it’s not you who shows up? How would she know?”

  Cayden’s eyes narrowed on Taylor before he looked up and out across the bay.

  “I see your point. I’ll admit it’s hard to tell us apart in seal form, unless you’re one of us or a real seal. Still, she seems to know.”

  Taylor raised his brows. “I don’t need maybes, Clifton. Is there a reason to be concerned for her safety?”

  Cayden stared at him. “Yes. That’s one of the reasons I’ve been hanging around as soon as I know she’s in the water. My father…well, I think he was just shooting off his mouth, but he said he wished he’d killed her all those years ago.”

  Annabel came back through the screen door. Her sapphire eyes went from one man to the other. “You two aren’t arguing again, are you?”

  Taylor laughed. “No. We’ve buried the hatchet and not in each other’s heads.”

  She smiled. “Coffee’s ready. Do you want to bring it out on the porch or drink it inside?”

  Taylor stood. “I’ll put it on a tray and bring it out here.” He needed time to let what Cayden said sink into his head. His father had threatened her?

  ****

  Taylor’s departure left Cayden and Annabel alone together. She pleated the material of her skirt with trembling fingers. He couldn’t take his eyes off the small, nervous movement. He cleared his throat.

  “Are you feeling better today?” he asked stiltedly. God! She was so fragile. He wanted to hold her close and never let her go. But he knew she would hate for him to hover over her like that.

  “Yes, thank you. I—I’m sorry I wasn’t better company last night.”

  “That’s okay.”

  The silence stretched.

  “Would you…?” he began.

  “We can’t…” she began at the same time.

  They both stopped. Cayden motioned to her. “Ladies first.”

  “We can’t keep on like this, Cayden.” Her mouth trembled.

  “You want me to leave?” His gut twisted. Christ, please say no.

  “Yes. No!” She bit her lower lip and swallowed. He could see the pulse beating in the hollow of her throat. “I’m afraid to let you back in my life,” she whispered. “I’m afraid that if you leave me again… it was so hard last time. I—I can’t go through that again.”

  He reached over and took her hand in his. “Unless you tell me to leave, I’m not going anywhere, Bell. I swear that to you. There’s a lot we need to talk about. Things I need to explain.” He stopped and simply stared at her. “May I take you out sailing tomorrow? Could we try to make a new start?”

  She looked at her hand in his and her eyes scanned his face to read his expression. Cayden returned her gaze, hiding nothing from her. Finally, she said firmly. “Yes. Yes, I’d like that.”

  The weight of the world had just lifted off his shoulders. “Great! I have my own boat. She’s not as big as the Revenge.”

  Annabel laughed. “It doesn’t matter. I could pack a lunch.”

  Taylor came out just then carrying the coffee tray. “Making plans?”

  Cayden nodded.

  “That’s good,” Taylor remarked. “I forgot to tell you, Poppy. I have to run into the city tomorrow to get some paperwork completed. You know, I’ll be starting at the firm the first of August, and they want to get some of the insurance and benefits paperwork out of the way so I can hit the ground running.”

  “Cayden’s taking me sailing.” She offered.

  “Great!” Taylor said. “Make a day of it. Are you taking the Revenge?”

  “No. I bought a boat,” Cayden clarified. “She’s a little smaller and older. I’ve been fixing her up as I paid for her.”

  “I’d like to see her sometime. I did that with my first dinghy and really learned a lot. Poppy even helped. Do you remember that summer? You were eleven or twelve, I think.”

  “That was the summer I went back to the city looking like an Appaloosa from all the paint spots.”

  Cayden hated to leave. He enjoyed their company, especially now that Bell was smiling and looking happier, but if he was going to have her on board, he wanted to make sure the Belle was as spotless and neat as she could be. If Annabel were to get around the boat, there could be nothing out of place that might cause her to fall or get hurt. He looked at her as he finished his coffee. She was so damn pretty it made his heart ache and his cock throb just to look at her. He wanted things to be like they were. He wanted to hold her and touch her. He wanted to make love to her until she fell to pieces in his arms.

  He set his cup down with a definite click.

  “I better get going. I’ll pick you up around ten. Is that okay, Bell?”

  “Yes. Good night, Cayden.�
��

  He returned her smile, shook hands with Taylor and then disappeared into the darkness.

  ****

  Annabel couldn’t do anything right the next morning. She spilled her pills in her lap, burned her fingers on the toaster and added too much coffee to the coffeemaker so that their morning brew looked and tasted more like sludge. Taylor just laughed, which made her mad.

  “It’s just Cayden, Poppy!” Taylor teased.

  “I know you’re a guy, but have you looked at him?” she demanded. “He’s gorgeous! And even though I keep telling myself that it’s Cayden, the boy I loved seven years ago, he’s different!”

  “How?” Taylor demanded as he helped her through some motion exercises.

  “He’s bigger and older.”

  “Poppy—you’re older too, even if you aren’t much bigger.”

  “He’s harder.”

  “What do you mean ‘harder’?” Taylor drawled, pausing in manipulating her leg.

  Annabel rolled her eyes. “Not that way…tougher. He’s changed. There used to be something so sweet about him.”

  Her brother held her leg up carefully flexing and extending her foot. “He’s had to be tough, Poppy. There are things…well, he needs to tell you. But I think the Cayden you knew and loved is still there. You just have to find him.”

  Annabel turned her face away and stared at the picture that was sitting on her bedside table. It was a shot of Taylor and her taken the day they competed in the regatta that summer she was fourteen. Her mouth twisted. Those days were gone.

  Taylor paused in the act of picking up her other leg. “What is it, Poppy? Something’s still bothering you.”

  She looked at him knowing she could do nothing to hide the uncertainty and defensiveness in her eyes. “Why?” she whispered. “He could have anyone, Taylor. Why would he want me,” she gestured at her legs, “like this?”

  He set her leg down and sat on the edge of the bed. With one arm braced by her head, he leaned closer to her. “Because I keep telling you, kiddo, you’re beautiful and sexy. He wanted you seven years ago, and he still does. ‘Love is not love which alters when it alteration finds.’ Shakespeare—Sonnet 116. If I thought for a minute that he loved you any less because of ‘this’ as you keep saying, I would never have let him back through the door.”

  He stroked her hair off her face. “I have to go so I can get into the city. Keep an open mind, Poppy. Trust him.”

  She grimaced. “That is not an easy task, Taylor. I’ve had damn little to trust in for most of my life.”

  She worked on packing a lunch in the big cooler Taylor had brought out of the pantry for her. In an odd way, it helped to calm her, so that when she heard Cayden’s knock she was able to smile fairly normally as she went to the door. He was dressed in long khaki slacks, a light blue polo shirt and deck shoes.

  She giggled.

  “What’s so funny?” Cayden asked looking down, obviously wondering if he had spilled something on himself.

  “You have shoes on. I don’t think I’ve ever seen you with shoes.”

  Cayden grinned and then looked at her sundress and sandals and the thick braid of her hair. “You look beautiful, Bell,” he told her. “Are you ready?”

  She swallowed. “Will I need my chair? I thought if we were just going sailing, I could leave it and use the crutches.”

  “I wanted to take you to your cove. I thought we could swim and eat lunch there.”

  She tilted her head quizzically. “My cove?”

  Cayden flushed a little bit. “It’s how I always think of it…Bell’s Cove.”

  “Then I’ll use the crutches. If you’ll take the cooler and my backpack, I’ll follow you down.” She hoped that if he was in front of her, he wouldn’t have as much time to notice how ungainly she was. No matter how she went about it, there was simply no getting around the fact that for her walking was work, and not very pretty work at that.

  He took the backpack from her, slung it over one shoulder and then hefted the cooler.

  “I’ll meet you down at the bottom.” She watched him easily negotiate what was a struggle for her each and every time she wanted to get to the water.

  ****

  Cayden knew what she was up to, and did his best to allow her some privacy. But he also knew that if they were going to make a relationship work, the issue of her paralysis would have to be dealt with head on. There could be no hiding. He would not spend his entire life walking in front of her so she could save face. He wanted her beside him. Once on board the Belle, he stowed the cooler and backpack and busied himself with getting out lifejackets and checking the wind.

  Cayden turned just in time to lift her over the gunwale and set her in the stern. Remembering the conversation he’d overheard when she was out with Taylor, he handed her a lifejacket and put on his own. He was rewarded with a smile that almost made him forget what he was doing. He blinked and hopped up onto the dock to untie before jumping down next to her.

  “Ready?”

  Annabel watched him as they cut through the water toward the cove. He was a good sailor, more cautious than Taylor had ever been. She wondered if some of that was because she was on board. It reassured her, comforted her. She liked the way the wind ruffled his dark hair, and the way his eyes crinkled as he looked up at the sail. He turned once and caught her looking at him. She blushed. He smiled.

  A thousand things still needed to be said, but she had no idea where to even begin. When he grinned, she saw a shadow, a memory of the Cayden she had known seven years ago, but they had both changed so much and she just didn’t know how they would find their way back to what they had shared, or if they even could. Seven years was a long time. Things changed. People changed. They weren’t kids any longer, and she knew that opened up a whole new area in their relationship. But they had been such close friends then.

  Annabel turned her face into the wind and smiled as she remembered how they played together that summer when she was fourteen to his seventeen. She had spotted him on the beach the morning after a storm and thought he was dead, but she’d found out pretty quickly he was anything but!

  Poppy ran forward and knelt down next to a boy who appeared to be about her Cousin Taylor’s age. He was beautiful. Her hands shook as she reached out to touch him, half afraid she would feel that same coolness and lifelessness she had felt with her mother. His skin was cool, but it still had the resilience of living flesh, and she blushed at having touched his bare skin.

  “Hey!” she called again, more softly this time. “Are you okay?”

  That was stupid. Of course he wasn’t. She saw the scrapes on his forehead, his shoulder, and his legs. He must have been caught in the storm. Had he been on a boat? She searched the shore but saw no wreckage. She shook him slightly. His wet hair was long, thick, and straight. Although olive tinted, his skin was still pale.

  As she looked at him, she saw nothing obviously broken. His arms and legs were long and straight. She swallowed again and felt her face heat with a blush she couldn’t control. He wore only a pair of cutoffs. Like hers, they hung low on his hips. She stared at the smooth skin of his stomach and chest. Just a faint line of dark hair arrowed down his chest. His muscles were well defined. Probably a jock, she thought, and that put him way out of her league. She was so not the cheerleader type.

  When her gaze returned to his face, she found him looking at her out of velvety brown eyes, thickly lashed and somewhat dazed. Poppy jerked back so quickly she overbalanced and plopped onto her bottom on the wet sand. Great! That was sure to make a good impression. Somehow, her klutziness hadn’t turned him off.

  They were nearly inseparable until Aunt Helen spread her poison. She’d dropped hints to Annabel’s father that people were talking about how much time she spent with Cay. Just the thing guaranteed to grate with a father already concerned that Cayden was too old for her. Annabel now knew just how much from his journal entry the night of their argument. Her father had taken her into the city to
try to get her away from Cayden.

  Dear Em,

  I wish you were here. Our little girl is growing up too fast for me. She’s been hanging around a boy. A young man, really. They spend all their time together. Helen says something’s going on, and tonight, while we were at the apartment, Poppy admitted kissing him. She swears nothing else has happened.

  But what if she’s lying? Just the thought of him touching her…my baby. God. You would know how to handle this, Em, but I just feel like a boat adrift at sea. The look on her face when I asked her if she’d had sex with him!

  I don’t see any other way than to simply forbid him to see her again…

  As she looked at Cayden’s hands on the wheel, she remembered the way he had held her and comforted her, and her lips parted. Her father might have forbidden them to see each other, but that hadn’t kept them apart. They’d snuck out at night. Annabel shook her head. Cay could have taken advantage of that. She had suffered from such a crush back then, but he had always been so careful. That attraction still had the power to heat her blood and make her heart pound, and that scared her more than anything else.

  He turned his head and caught her look. There was an instant answering flare of heat in his dark gaze, and she began to wonder exactly how the day would end. She vividly remembered her last trip with him here. His mother had packed a hamper for him. He had snuck her out at night after her father was asleep and they’d sailed here. Her eyes drifted to the beach as she remembered biting into the peach she’d found in the basket.

  It was incredibly tender and juicy. Some of the juice ran down her chin and dripped onto her fingers. She laughed as she demolished the rest of it, but when her eyes met Cayden’s, his velvety gaze was intent, staring at her mouth. He leaned toward her and softly kissed her lips, and then he did something that nearly made her faint. His tongue darted out to lick the juice from her chin. He captured her hand in his wrist and sucked the juice from her fingers.