“Yeah, yeah, thanks.” She found Jake in the small crowd. “It would have been much better with you as Richard, but whatever.”

Evie made quick introductions. “Maya, this is my mom and dad.” Her parents had come for the opening of the Mermaid and had already met everyone else. Evie was using the Anti-Festival as a dry run before the grand opening next week. Last night had been the town sleepover, and tonight her parents would stay as the inn’s first official guests.

They were staying on the first floor, so maybe he and Evie could retreat to her old room two floors up, which was still pink.

But no. No pink room action tonight. Clara was home. He had temporarily forgotten, even though she was right there. Look at him, getting all accustomed to his empty nest.

As Evie led the group—her parents, Pearl, Maya, Jake, Law, and Clara—out of the kitchen, he tried to see the inn through fresh eyes.

It was much less overtly mermaidy than it used to be, but there were little touches here and there, sometimes when you least expected it. The tile on the floor of the entryway, for example, was tiny blue and green scales. The place reminded him of Lucille. But also of Evie: there were plants everywhere, and she had turned one of the second-floor rooms into a library where she was going to run book clubs and story times for the town.

The tour ended on the third floor. “That’s it,” Evie said. “The last room, around that corner, isn’t done yet. Shall we go downstairs?”

Evie was bringing back Lucille’s cocktail hour tradition and had talked Law into making some of his fancy grilled-cheese sandwiches for the first one—and she had commissioned some mermaid pies from Pearl.

“Let me get the food going,” Law said, “and we can meet in the dining room in fifteen minutes. Pearl, you want to come get the pie ready?”

“I’ll show you to your room,” Evie said to her parents.

“Jake and I can do it.” Maya swooped in. “I’m going to run home and change out of my costume before we eat.” She turned to Jake. “And I need you to help me move Richard’s throne off the stage outside. It’s going to rain, and that thing is an actual antique.” She took Eve’s mom’s arm without waiting for an answer from Jake. “I gotta tell you, I’m not sure how I survived in this town before your daughter moved here.”

“This place looks really great, Eve,” Clara said.

Clara. She had arrived midmorning. Jake had picked her up at the bus station because Sawyer had been on duty, so he hadn’t really gotten a chance to see her. He hugged her. Hard.

“Ow, Sawyer!”