Page 133 of Skalterra By Nightmare
“No, it’s just freezing out here.” I clenched my jaw to keep my teeth from chattering.
“I thought it felt nice.” Gams furrowed her brow at me. “If you aren’t feeling well, maybe you should wait inside until the memorial starts.”
I stepped aside as one of Riley’s friends from the cove hurried by with the poster of Riley and an easel to rest it on. He wiped sweat from his brow, nodded hello, and then went back the way he came to continue helping set up.
“I’m fine,” I insisted. “I want to help.”
Olive stood up and brushed off the skirt of her dress.
“Would you try calling Liam?” she asked. “He won’t answer me. I know how he feels about the memorial, but Riley would want him here.”
“Of course.” I nodded. “But if his phone is off—”
Olive pulled keys from her purse and pressed them into my hand.
“Check at home. Riley’s truck was still there this morning, so if he went somewhere, he didn’t go far and might be back by now.”
Gams took my arm to walk with me back down the dock.
“If you can’t find him, that’s okay,” she said once Olive was out of earshot. “The memorial will help Riley’s parents, but skipping it might be what Liam needs.”
“I don’t think he’d skip it.” Gams knew Liam far better than I did, but I couldn’t imagine Liam, so selfless and so kind, missing Riley’s memorial and upsetting his aunt and uncle.
“Are you talking about the Glass boy?” Sarah sat on a bench with Gladys, both too old to help carry chairs but obviously wanting to be in the center of the action anyway. “Is he missing now too?”
“Hush, you,” Gams snapped and tried to pull me past the old women.
“People disappear in Keel Watch Harbor,” Sarah called after us. “It might save time and effort if we printed out his pretty picture really quick and stuck it next to Riley’s.”
“He’s been gone one morning. That’s hardly missing.” Gladys pulled her black shawl tight around her shoulders. “Don’t listen to Sarah, Wren. She’s miserable.”
“What you call miserable, I call practical,” Sarah sniffed.
“Liam’s okay,” I said. “He’s just running late.”
“Riley was running late too,” Sarah sang.
“Sarah, if I didn’t think it would poison the fish, I’d shove you in the harbor. Come on, Wren.” Gams tugged on my arm to keep me walking. “Youarefreezing. Have you felt your arms?”
“Maybe if you didn’t constantly run the AC, I wouldn’t get so cold,” I suggested.
“Nonsense. Jonquil is all fluff. She’d overheat.”
“I promise you, the cat is fine.” I suppressed another shiver. “Sarah has to be wrong, right? Because Liam—”
“Sarah is jealousshehasn’t disappeared yet. She’d love to be the talk of the town.” Gams scowled. We’d come to the end of the dock, and she reached up to feel my forehead again. “You don’t feel feverish.”
“I told you. I’m fine. Turn the heat up in the shop, and I’ll be okay.”
She studied me, and I watched her eyes go back and forth as she scanned my face for other signs of malady.
“You’ve been pulling at your eyelashes again.”
I rolled my eyes and looked away.
“I have to go find Liam.”
Gams hummed in disapproval.
