Page 55 of Song of Lorelei

The glacial stare Lila leveled on her in-law was positively lethal. “You don’t remember anything about crashing the cookout at Killian’s?” Each ice-cold word pricked goosebumps along Lorelei’s skin, and she wasn’t even the object of ire. “Why my parents and I haven’t replied to your texts?”

Not all of Carrie’s memory had been sung away. Just the mermaidy bits. Everything else, Lorelei left intact. There was no supernatural reason why Carrie wouldn’t remember barging into the family BBQ, yelling, getting into peoples’ faces, all while reaching for the gun she had concealed under her clothes. Out of line, out of control, and on the dangerous path toward escalation, and Carrie had the audacity to say she hated guns. And she should remember, should learn from such a fuck-up, so she could get help and never pull shit like that ever again.

“What cookout…” A dark, panicked look crossed Carrie’s face. “I’ve lost some time recently. I swear I’m not drinking, but it’s like a brown out, I get snippets of memory, but with the insomnia and the nightmares, I just thought it was just a dream, a terrible, terrible dream.”

Watching Carrie’s face turn sheet white as she put it all together, pieces of a fractured mind meeting to form a horrifying puzzle, was painful. Had she truly not realized? Was she this unaware of the harm she’d done—and what more she could’ve done, if left unchecked?

“Oh my God,” she whispered, cupping her hands over her mouth, as tears refilled her eyes. “Oh my God.”

Lifting a finger, Lila opened her mouth to say something more, then shook her head. “Mm, nope, not dealing with this.” And without another word, she stormed out of the room.

Will’s face was inscrutable when he asked, “You seeing a therapist again?”

“Yes.” Carrie collapsed into the nearest chair, drawing her knees up to her chest. “And I promise I’ll talk to her about this.”

“Good.”

“I’m so, so sorry, Will.” Her face crumpled. The tears fell heavier now, words tumbling out in choked sobs. “Please believe me. I’ve not been myself. This isn’t who I want to be.”

With a heavy sigh, he crouched down, getting on eye-level with her. “Getting help’s the first step. Focus on that, okay?”

The advice was firmly given—no nonsense or room for argument—but it was the closest thing to tender Lorelei had ever seen between the two of them.

Whisking her box of belongings off her desk, Lorelei edged toward the door, meaning to give the cousins space. “The office is yours,” she said quietly.

Carrie nodded dimly.

Chapter Thirty

KILLIAN

The staring was bad.

People crossing the street to avoid them on the sidewalk was much worse. Though his beautiful woman held her head high, Killian wrapped a protective arm across her shoulders, and glared right back.

They’d just wanted to get lunch in town.

Mermaid. Siren. Witch from the Sea.

Dangerous.

Lorelei’s old boss had been running his mouth and the town listened. The only people who’d brushed the claims off were his crew. After seeing what they had at sea, they couldn’t even fathom that the rumors might be true. Perhaps that was for the best. He might lose them if they believed.

“Still good with getting lunch, or would you like me to take you home?”

“I have nothing to be ashamed of,” she replied fiercely.

And that was answer enough for him. “Your pick then.”

She steered them into a sit-down restaurant with a moose head sign, not an unusual motif in these parts, even though the animals mostly lived more inland.

Though the waiter inside the restaurant gave them funny looks, he took their orders for sandwiches and lobster bisque, and was professionally polite enough. But notably, no one was seated at nearby tables. It made Killian angry, but he kept his cool for Lorelei.

It didn’t matter that she’d brushed shoulders with the town’s residents many times before, and no harm befell them. People feared what they did not understand.

While they waited for their food to arrive, Lorelei checked her phone. Nose scrunched, she murmured, “I just got a LinkedIn message.”

“Someone you know?”

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