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“My people skills might be remedial,” Kate said dryly. “But somehow, I have a hard time imagining Mariah McKenna succumbing to food poisoning in the middle of the street.”

There was nothing to do but laugh at that, because their friend was polished and elegant no matter where she was. Even if it was here, in the dark of winter.

“Does Templeton know that you pretend to be less capable of human interaction than you really are?” Bethan asked as they approached the new version of the Water’s Edge Café, after the old version had been burned down last summer. Bethan had personally helped rebuild it with the rest of the community.

“Only when it suits him,” Kate said, biting back a grin. But that cop’s cool gaze landed on Bethan then. “But I’m not the only one around here who pretends to be a little bit less than human. It’s not the act that matters half so much as why.”

Bethan stared back at her, willing her face blank. “I don’t know what you’re talking about.”

“Of course you don’t,” Kate agreed. “But I bet it was a really fun dance all the same.”

Inside Caradine’s new café, which was brighter than before and far more open and welcoming—and she would include the owner in that, despite the fact she still clattered her pans around, threatened tourists, and issued lifetime bans for minor infractions at least three times a week. Bethan found Mariah and Everly hunched over their laptops at their preferred table, as usual. As if Grizzly Harbor were a big city with coffeehouses people liked to use as their offices.

And she told herself it was because she found herself missing her sister and all her sister’s manic, alien, and somehow endearing friends, but Bethan didn’t feel truly back home until she sank down at a table and tried to place an order with Caradine that was ignored with a rude gesture, because Caradine served what she wanted.

Later, as the light began to change outside, she and Everly walked through town, up the hill, then followed the trail out to the hot springs. The town had long ago built a few cabins around the naturally occurring springs so that they could keep some lockers there—cubbies, more like— so no one had to carry wet bathing suits or soaked towels around in the worst of the winter weather. Tonight it was the women-only hour when they arrived, so they nodded around at the familiar faces there and sank down into their corner of the large, hot pool.

“How does she know she’s pregnant again?” Nellie Oberlin, who worked in the Fairweather, Grizzly Harbor’s dive bar and greasy grill, was asking.

“She claims she knew upon conception,” Madeleine Yazzie, who could usually be found at the front desk of the Blue Bear Inn, confided, her red beehive rising from above the water like a shark’s fin. “Don’t get caught up on that. Get caught up on this: once again, no one knows who the father is.”

Bethan and Everly exchanged a look.

“The continuing adventures of Maria and her hipster boyfriend plus Luz with her fisherman husband,” Everly murmured almost reverently, her eyes sparkling. “Why can’t I get enough of it?”

Bethan shook her head as the hot water bubbled around her. “At a certain point, isn’t it time to accept that everyone is sleeping with everyone and stop pretending that there are two separate couples?”

“But then you can’t stand around in the middle of a public festival, intensely discussing your sex lives.” Everly grinned. “Where’s the fun in that?”

Maria and Luz, who had both been pregnant at the same time once already—and apparently unable to determine paternity—were the closest thing Grizzly Harbor had to a soap opera. Especially because the two of them and their apparently interchangeable men seemed determined not to drift off into quiet obscurity or part from one another. They lived off the grid halfway up the mountain and were apparently still swapping partners, and more babies were on the way.

Bethan had no idea why that made her feel so cheery.

Afterward, soaked so warm that she half thought she was back in California, she and Everly walked back down to the docks to catch a ride back to Fool’s Cove. Because someone was always heading one way or the other.

“I’m glad you enjoyed the wedding,” Everly said as they waited for Benedict and Blue to load up the boat. “I know this might not be a popular opinion these days, while everybody’s wandering around canceling everybody else, but I think family can be a good thing. That it’s worth building bridges if you can. I don’t think we’re supposed to go through life with people who agree with everything we say and do and are always easy to get along with.”

“It was nice to be pleasantly surprised,” Bethan agreed.

When they landed back at Fool’s Cove, she headed back to her cabin.

Once inside, she stripped out of her utilitarian clothes a lot more quickly than she normally did. She’d gotten too used to dresses and sandals, clearly. She’d become far too accustomed to her hair down.

It was April, and certainly not as cold as it could be, but after a week in California she felt chilled anyway. She stoked the fire, so the cabin would be extra toasty. She started the fire out on her private deck to heat up her hot tub, thinking she might enjoy another long soak, this time with only the stars as company. Then she padded around, changing into her coziest, most luxurious pair of pajamas. They had been a Christmas present from Ellen one year, in a creamy cashmere. The bottoms rode low on her hips and the sweet little top tended to droop over one shoulder. But they felt like a hug, and Bethan opted not to think too much about why she might need one.

She was thinking about making herself a cup of tea when there was a knock on her cabin door.

For moment, she stared at the door, because no one came here. She had never encouraged visitors once, not as long as she’d been here.

She glanced at her phone, because surely the only reason someone would actually come and physically seek her out was if she’d missed an important call. But there was nothing on the screen. She was tempted to grab one of her weapons, but she knew better. No one turned up in Fool’s Cove unannounced, so whoever was on the other side of the door had to be friendly.

But that didn’t mean she had to be.

She went over and cracked open the door, already scowling.

Something that didn’t change when she saw who was standing there. Jonas.

And something in her... cracked. Shattered, maybe.