Page 32 of Enemies in Earnest

“Sweetheart,” I tried again. “Look at me. Please.”

Reluctantly those hydrangea hued eyes met mine, and my heart sank. There was a storm of emotions gathering, and none of those emotions were pleasant.

“I want nothing more than for you to have the very best party you’ve ever thrown. I want the whole town here, plus all the famous literary greats. In fact, we’ll reschedule and the whole town will shout it from the rooftops to ensure Hemingway gets a proper one hundred and twenty fifth celebration. But right now? Today? No one is coming. They issued an evacuation alert an hour ago. The storm is two hours away.”

A giant clap of thunder drew surprised squeaks from both Marley and Felicity.

“Did you hear that?” I asked her. Though she’d have to have been deaf to miss it. It’s too dangerous for anyone to be out there right now. The news channels are all saying if people haven’t evacuated by now, they’ll need to shelter in place now until it passes.”

“Are we really going to be okay?” Marley asked, with that glassy eyed look that usually meant she was on the verge of tears.

“It’s going to be fine, princess.” Her husband cradled her against his chest. “It’s just a little rain. Look, even if it does get upgraded to a Category One hurricane, the videos on YouTube just show some wind blowing trees around and some shingles falling off. We’ve had worse than that in Chicago, right?”

That appeared to ease the worst of her anxiety.

“What do you say we break into some of this food?” Asher suggested. “It’s all been heated now so it can’t be refrozen, so it will go to waste. We may as well all enjoy a nice dinner while we wait out the storm.”

* * *

Tropical Storm Alphaslammed into the Keys with a vengeance. The storm sirens had been going off for the better part of an hour, grating everyone’s nerves raw. According to the National Weather Service, the storm had just begun to encroach on the Keys but already they were concerned that with all the warm water in the ocean, the storm would grow as it made landfall.

The rain felt as if it hit the bar sideways in rapid, machine gun bursts of moisture that rattled the glass and ping ponged off the steel roof. The effects were so loud it deafened one's ears and almost tilted your equilibrium.

We still had service on our phones, and thankfully enough of the staff had backup chargers they left at work that all of us were fully powered for now. Eventually, the power would go out. It was just the nature of these storms. We had our backup flashlights and lanterns at the ready. Acacia and her team had moved everyone into one of the larger storage closets.

“It sounds really bad out there,” Felicity said to Klaus.

“Temperance was built with steel,” I explained. “It sounds bad because the whole structure is metal. It pings. But better to ping and make noise than to quietly get torn apart.”

The wind gusts got stronger, and we heard something hit the side of the building. While there were boats in some of the marinas further up the inlet, my guess was it was something smaller that had been light enough to get tossed by the storm. Perhaps a grill, or a fiberglass boat cover.

“Bear, I’m really scared.” Marley pressed herself into her husband, accepting the comfort of his arms.

“It’s going to be okay, Marley,” Asher assured her. “Why don’t you tell me more about your mom. I want to know everything about Joy while you were growing up.”

That drew an excited smile from her, and she dove in enthusiastically chatting to Asher about her life in a tiny town called North Pole, New York—where incidentally theyalsocelebrated Christmas all year round. Felicity and Klaus hung on their every word, making quiet plans to go up and stay at Marley’s bed and breakfast.

The alarms rang out again, screeching their warning that the first band of Tropical Storm Alpha was passing overhead. Acacia had been puttering back and forth in the storage room, making sure everyone had supplies within reach. When the new alarm sounded, she jumped, practically falling into my arms.

“They always threaten that tropical storms and hurricanes are imminent, but this is the first time they were actually right.”

I felt her tremble. Every instinct told me to protect but there was nothing I could do against the fear of the unknown and nature. But I could be her source of comfort.

“Remember two summers ago, there was that huge thunderstorm right before the Fourth of July? And you were out in the rain, stomping around in galoshes and a rain jacket, crawling underneath the docks looking for Six-Toed Joe?”

Everyone else in the room was listening to Bear and Marley discuss the year they met each other in North Pole. The two of them were such complete opposites yet watching them smile at one another made me desperate to have what they did.

“He’d somehow slipped out the back door,” Acacia laughed. “And I was worried he’d get spooked by all the thunder and end up lost or swept out to sea.”

“How did you come by Six-Toed Joe?” Asher asked, bouncing his focus between the two conversations.

“He found me.” Acacia shrugged, pulling the cat into her lap and nuzzling into his scruff. “The day I got the keys for the bar I was sitting there, wondering what the hell I’d done to myself buying this place and mulishly convincing myself I could handle it. I’d been looking under the bar, trying to figure out how to turn on the main water valve, and there he was –a little black and white fluff ball curled up in the back corner of the cabinet. When I saw his mitten paws…” she held up his front paws to show off his extra ‘thumbs,’ “I thought it had to be a sign. Someone who came to Candy Cane Key to open a Hemingway bar finds a cat with mitten paws? What are the odds? Six-Toed Joe became the official mascot of Temperance. He even has his own Instagram page and a merchandise line.”

That surprised me. She truly did have great business instincts. And naturally an adorable cat with mittens for paws and a mustache that made him look like his name should be Mario—he probably didn’t just have a just page on the internet. He more than likely dominated the social media platform. He was a cute cat. Even me, the non-cat person, had a soft spot for him.

Something heavy and fragile crashed against the side of the building, the sound of shattering glass and splintering wood ricocheted all around us just as the power dropped us into the pitch black. Marley screamed, Felicity started to cry, but Acacia set about crawling around by our feet, turning each of our emergency lamps on one by one.

Even with the three lamps combined, they cast a weak glow around us.

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