On Friday night, she pushed open the door to Lawson’s Lager House and there he was, sitting next to Sawyer at the bar, nursing a beer. Her stupid heart skipped a beat.
She made her way over and sat, leaving a few empty stools between them—she was meeting Maya—but he looked up and right at her.
“Hey, Nora.” Sawyer gestured to the empty stool next to him. “Join us, will you?”
“Thanks.” She slid over a few stools. “If you’re sure I’m not interrupting. I’m waiting for Maya, but I’m early.”
Law ambled over from behind the bar. “These two dudes have been warming those two stools every Friday night for I don’t know how many years, so at this point, they’re practically begging for someone to interrupt them.”
“I don’t know, Law, I’m pretty sure the bromance is a three-way thing.” A young woman had come up behind Sawyer, and she did a thing to his shoulder that was a sort of half hug, half punch.
He grinned. “Clare Bear!” He turned to hug her properly. “Clara, this is Dr. Nora Walsh. Nora, this is my sister, Clara. Clara’s home from school in Toronto. She’s studying electrical engineering.” The pride was positively radiating off him.
“Can’t miss the Anti-Festival.” Clara shook Nora’s hand and went to sit on the other side of Jake. “What’s up, Jake?”
Jake gave a half shrug.
“You don’t say? That’s so interesting.” Clara kissed him on the cheek even as she teased him. Then she leaned up and availed herself of an over-the-bar hug from Law. The two men seemed to have an easy familiarity with Sawyer’s little sister.
The conversation turned to what Clara, who was in her second year at the University of Toronto, was up to at school and why she had taken a taxi from the Greyhound stop instead of calling Sawyer to come and get her.
“Because it’s Friday night!” Clara protested. “It’s bromance night!”
“You know I would have thrown these two over in a heartbeat to come get you,” Sawyer said to his sister.
“But Sawyer, it’s not just Friday night; it’s full-moon Friday!” She turned to Nora. “Do you know what that is?”
“I do! That’s why I’m here. Eve Abbott and Maya Mehta are indoctrinating me in this weirdo tradition you all have. Eve is coming later—she’s checking in some guests at the inn, but I’m meeting Maya here for a drink first.”
“Wait no longer, my friends. Maya is here.” She appeared on Nora’s other side. She made a funny face. “And apparently Maya now talks about herself in the third person.”
“Here we go,” Law muttered.
“I’m sorry, what did you say, Benjamin?” Maya set her elbows on the bar.
Law set a wineglass in front of her and started filling it. “I said, ‘Yay! Full-moon Friday!’”
Maya rolled her eyes—but subtly, so that only Nora could see. It gave Nora a little thrill. Nora had never really had close women friends, which was funny because she’d grown up in a house of women—she, her sister, her mother, and her grandma had outnumbered her dad and brother. But school, and then residency, hadn’t left a lot of time for socializing. Then she’d met Rufus and, without really meaning to, integrated herself into his life.
Living at the Mermaid put her at the center of a certain social circle in town. Pearl, whose bakery was next door, was always poking her head into the inn. Maya lived across the street and seemed to pop up everywhere, often pleading for Nora to illicitly supply her with some of the pizza she couldn’t admit to liking. Both women were usually in attendance at the cocktail hours Eve hosted a few days a week at the Mermaid for guests and friends.
Nora still missed Jake, though. She glanced at him only to find he was already looking at her.
Before she could think how to react—smile? Look away?—Maya was back to needling Law. Nora gathered that it was almost like a hobby of hers. “You should come with us. You could wish for a personality.”
“I would, but Amber quit”—he looked pointedly at Nora and hitched his head at a young man manning the bar on the far side—“and I don’t trust the new guy alone yet.”
Nora winced. “Yeah, sorry about that.”
He grinned. “Nah, I’m just giving you grief. She was only ever planning to be here through school. You said it yourself: she was never going to be a lifer.”
Well, look at her. Not only did Nora have girlfriends, she was enough of a regular that the bartender was teasing her.
After Eve arrived and greeted Clara, Maya hopped up. “Let’s get this show on the road. Everyone who’s coming, drink up and let’s go.”
Nora slid off her stool.
“You’re really not coming, Benjamin?” Maya asked.
“Nope. Some of us have jobs that prevent us from wasting our time on wishes.”
“You wouldn’t know a wish if it bit you in the ass.”
“On the contrary. I just wished that you would leave, and look—it’s coming true.”
“Are they always like this?” Nora whispered to Eve.
“Yeah, it’s kind of their thing.” Eve shrugged. “We’re all so used to it, it doesn’t even register.”
“Let’s go!” Maya called. “Chop-chop!”
Jake swallowed the last of his beer and got off his stool. Everyone stopped talking and swung to face him. He gazed back at them with no particular expression on his face.
Maya cocked her head. “You’re coming, Jake?” He made a vague noise that sounded like assent, and everyone remained quiet. Nora wondered if maybe it wasn’t normal for Jake to join their flower-wishing ritual.
“Well, great!” Maya said with a suspicious amount of enthusiasm. “Come on, everyone.”
A few minutes later, they all were crowding into A Rose by Any Other Name, Maya’s father’s flower shop. The small store was packed with people, some Nora recognized and some she didn’t.
“Hey, Nora, have you met my parents?” Maya introduced her to a smiling fiftysomething couple behind the counter.
“We’re so glad you’re here,” Maya’s mom said, echoing the refrain Nora had been hearing from everyone in town.
“On the house,” her father said, smiling as he set a flower on the counter in front of Nora. Then he slid one over to his daughter and said, “Two dollars.”
“I’m family!” Maya feigned outrage, but there was obvious affection in her expression.
“That’s the friends and family discount.” Her father’s eyes twinkled. Nora could see where Maya got her sense of humor. “They’re four bucks apiece retail. Amaryllises are expensive. Now if you wanted to, say, start working here, you’d get the employee discount.”
“Nice try.” Maya shook her head fondly at her father as she clapped her hands to get everyone’s attention. “Cue up your wishes! We’re heading out!”
Jake hadn’t done this since before Jude was born. Kerrie used to like to come and make wishes every once in a while. He suspected that the last couple of times, she’d been wishing for Jude. She’d wanted to get pregnant so badly. She had just started her law career and had decided that “right now” was the optimal time to have kids, even though they were young. She’d reasoned that it was either that or wait until she made partner. He was game either way—he liked the idea of kids, and Kerrie was smarter than he was. He had trusted her judgment regarding timing.