Mer Tales 01 - Everblue

let alone survive.” Besides, we aren’t even a matching race .
    He chuckled. “Please. Come meet them. They’ll be cool. I promise.”
    “ They don’t really know me,” I said, still in a panic.
    “ Well then let’s remedy that.”
    We parked out front and my legs turned to mush. My last memory of his dad, though unrelated to drinking, still scared me. Though Fin said he’d already told them about me, I couldn’t imagine them liking me. First off, I wasn’t a mermaid. How could I give them merlings in the future?
    Fin popped out of the Jeep and went around to open my door. I sat quaking in my seat, gripping the leather with white knuckles. This wasn’t how I wanted my date to end—fighting with his parents and them forbidding us from seeing one another again. It had to be a set-up.
    “ It’ll be okay. I promise,” he said and kissed my hand before he led me out.
    Memories of coming here and looking through the window as a child hit me hard. I tried to dig my heels in, but Fin looped his muscular arm around my waist and ushered me inside.
    “ Mom? Dad?” he called out. His voice echoed through the vaulted ceilings of his lavishly decorated home.
    A scuttle from upstairs preceded a “Be right down,” from a female voice.
    “ Fin, let’s go. Come on,” I whispered and pulled his arm with all my might. “They’re busy.”
    He shook his head.
    “ Fin,” a woman said with a smile as she flowed gracefully down the stairway in a white cotton dress. Long, flowing blonde hair covered her shoulders, and eyes bluer than Fin’s sparkled at me behind bronzed skin. She was 100% mermaid material if I’d ever imagined one. “Who’s this beauty beside you?”
    Beauty? Has she looked in the mirror today?
    “ This is her, Mom. My Ashlyn,” he said, pride bursting forth like he’d just won the lottery.
    Fin’s mom took my hands before she enveloped me in the warmest hug. “Welcome to the family, dear.” She pulled back and studied my fingers. “Oh, I see it. It’s coming in lovely.”
    She traced over the spot on my ring finger where a wedding band would go. I studied the spot and noticed raised discolored marks on my skin.
    She took off her own wedding ring to uncover a gorgeous colorful tattoo underneath. “Yours will look like this soon.”
    My mouth fell open. Now my parents were definitely going to kill me. A tattoo? “How—?”
    Fin showed me his hand. He also had faint markings like mine. “They’ll match once they completely fill in, after a month.”
    I blinked. “Holy crawfish.”
    Both Fin and his mom laughed as she hugged me again. “You are too adorable.”
    “ What’s all this laughter happening in my kitchen?” A gruff voice spoke from the stairwell.
    I nearly peed my pants when I turned and shook in Jack’s presence. Standing six foot three with a gnarly beard and broad, naked shoulders, he towered over us. Off-white drawstring pants were all that he wore.
    “ I told you to put on a shirt,” Fin’s mom said and disappeared for a moment. She reappeared and threw one at him.
    I didn’t move, blink or speak as he pulled on this shirt, and inspected me.
    “ Come on, Dad,” Fin finally said.
    “ Aw, love. You’re as pretty as a picture. Come here!” He grabbed me and squeezed the life out of me. I coughed as he pounded me on the back. “Well, this is such a wonderful day. Have you two made official plans yet? What did her parents say?”
    Fin opened his mouth and nothing came out.
    “ Jack, give the boy a chance to see his girl and get reacquainted. There’s a lot to discuss. She is still human after all.”
    The word “still” rang through my head a few different times. I turned to Fin and studied his stoic expression. He’d only told me we bonded, not that I was going to sprout scales in the near future.
    “ We haven’t talked about the details yet,” he said quickly.
    “ You need to start because we can’t stay here forever.”
    My heart thumped wildly. “You can’t stay?” My frantic glance ping-ponged between the three of them.
    “ No,” Fin said, looking hard at his father and then softer towards me. “We’ve got time to work everything out. We aren’t going anywhere. Don’t worry.”
    I couldn’t stop from breathing faster. He was my world. He couldn’t leave without me.
    “ I’m famished,” Jack said, unfazed by the invisible grenade he’d launched in the room. He moved towards the fridge. “You kids hungry?”
    I felt unstable, my