Chapter 6His house sat neatly tucked away round a corner or two from the village center, a step or two uphill, walking distance to just about everyplace; snug and tight, two-story and compact, it expressed interest in welcoming a merman who’d made its inhabitant happy. Peter patted the doorframe absentmindedly, swinging wood wide; it soothed him with painted-plank texture.
Nerein came in behind him, wearing land-legs, barefoot. The rain had begun falling, light as feathers, shy as a first kiss. It momentarily silhouetted his shape in the doorway.
“So this is me,” Peter explained, one hand waving at a homemade bookshelf, a blanket knitted by an uncle, the small neat rooms of his life, “I’ll get the fire lit, shall I—” and went and did that while trying to regain composure.
His merman. Hi
