Page 18 of Skalterra By Nightmare
“We’re here.” I looked up at the carved sign that read “Siobhan’s Tavern”. The wooden building jutted out over the marina, and at high tide, it was fun to look down at the crabs scuttling under the water. Now, however, it reeked of exposed seaweed.
“Look, your hair—”
“It’s fine.” I gave Liam an insincere smile and swung the heavy door open.
A cheer went up, and I had half a mind to walk backwards straight into traffic. Not that there was any traffic on a Tuesday in Keel Watch Harbor, but maybe I’d get lucky.
Liam, however, put a hand between my shoulder blades, hovering it there, respectful enough not to touch me, but still barring me from a quick retreat.
“Welcome back, Liam!” A tall woman with a blonde bob forced her way to the front of the crowd. I hadn’t seen Siobhan since I’d last visited three years ago, but she looked just the same. “First year down at Von Leer! What an accomplishment. It’s a great school.”
She winked at me as she said it, and I knew Gams had warned everyone not to congratulate me outright on tentatively moving off the waitlist.
“Liam, sit with us!” A group of kids ran up to Liam to take his hands in theirs and drag him towards the back window. Like the window in Gams’s shop, it stretched clear across the room, providing diners and drinkers as good a view of the harbor as one could get in Keel Watch. The low ceilings kept the atmosphere dark but cozy, even while the sun shined outside.
Gams beamed at me from the center of her gaggle of friends, all with graying hair and long sleeved shirts that the summer weather probably didn’t warrant this late in the day, even with the sea breeze that kept the town cool and comfortable.
“You remembered to put food out for Jonquil, right?” Gams asked as I got closer.
“Of course,” I lied. I’d have to feed her later when Gams wasn’t looking.
“Excellent! And you all remember Wren?” Gams turned to her friends with a proud hand on my shoulder. I always felt like a giant standing next to her. My height had to have come from my biological father, though as searchable as Maxwell Brenton, PhD, was on the internet, his accomplishments weren’t notable enough for his basic body metrics to be readily available online.
“Wren!” The nearest woman pulled me into a hug that smelled of old perfume and hairspray. “It’s about time you visited Keel Watch! I hear we get the whole month with you?”
“Whole summer, actually.” I blushed, and Gams’s friends squealed in delight.
“And was that Liam Glass you walked in with?” The woman next to me gave me an animated nudge with her elbow. “Now that’s a smart match, isn’t it?”
The women erupted into laughter, and Gams shushed them.
“No, no, Sarah. Don’t say that. Wren can’t keep a boyfriend, and I don’t want to lose the best ice-cream scooper in all of Keel Watch when it falls apart.”
“Joke’s on you.” I forced a laugh. “I’m not really the dating type, so who knows if I can keep a boyfriend or not.”
“Not the dating type?” the perfumed woman repeated. “Maybe you’re looking in the wrong places. Siobhan’s got a daughter, and I think you might be her type.”
When Siobhan announced to the room that the burger bar she’d prepared for the occasion was ready, I found a seat by the window, planning to wait out the line. However, when Gams came to join my table, she’d already prepared a burger for me.
“Don’t mind Gladys and Sarah,” she said. “They’re happy you’re here, and Keel Watch gets boring without young blood like yours.”
“They’re okay,” I assured her, and I meant it. Mom and I lived five hours down the coast by car so that Mom could be near her publishing house’s main office. She’d helped build it after all, and Keel Watch Harbor was too remote for that line of business. However, we were also the only family Gams had. Her friends were a lot, sure, but I was thankful she had them.
The city was no place for Gams, anyway. She was spry enough to keep up with the fast pace of a city, and street smart enough to make her way, but I couldn’t imagine her without her shop and her basement where she painted and fired ceramic chickens.
Maybe the city was no place for me either, at least not in the suburbs I grew up in. Not anymore. Not after graduation. Gams lived closer to Von Leer University, anyway. Maybe it would make sense for me to make the move into the guest room a more permanent arrangement.
Or maybe I was getting my hopes up prematurely.
Gams’s friends and favorite neighbors settled into the tables and booth seats, and I got the impression it wouldn’t have mattered if I’d received an email from Von Leer or not. The community gathering seemed familiar to them, like they did this often. The local baker had several cakes ready for the occasion that he couldn’t have whipped up at such a late notice. The children of Von Leer strutted up to the lemonade table, hastily constructed by everyone’s favorite coffeehouse owner, with a confidence that said they’d been looking forward to this.
They carried overflowing cups back to their table where they kept Liam hostage, now also joined by a young woman with the same blonde ringlets as Siobhan.
The two extra seats at my table with Gams were a rotating roulette of vaguely familiar faces, each commenting on how tall I’d grown and how they weren’t surprised Von Leer was interested in me.
“No one from Keel Watch stays on the waitlist,” Gladys said on her third rotation through the seat opposite mine. “If Liam Glass could wiggle his way off it, you’re a no-brainer from what Ethel has told me about you.”
“Liam was waitlisted?” I sat up straighter and looked for him across the room, but Teddy had pulled him aside to talk in a corner.
