Art Ramsey—Jake’s dad—was kind of a father figure to Sawyer. Before he retired from fishing, he used to bring Sawyer a cooler full of cleaned and filleted fish every month or so. Sawyer and Clara had had a lot of fish dinners over the years. He appreciated that the town had looked after him and his sister both before and after they struck out on their own—things would have been pretty grim otherwise—but it made his job today a little tricky. When you had to bust your father figure for public fornication, things got awkward.

“Hello, Chief.” Jamila’s voice was a little too singsongy. “We were just moon…”—she looked around, belatedly realizing that the moon was mostly obscured by the shed—“gazing,” she finished lamely.

No one had known what to make of it when Art, a widower, had started dating Jamila, a teacher at the high school. She was almost twenty years younger than Art, so the narrative that had initially settled around their romance was that she was a gold digger after his money. Or, more accurately, his late wife’s money. But then Pearl and Karl and company had gotten involved—or, knowing them, they’d probably been involved from the beginning—and that was the end of that rumor. A year later, Jamila and Art were married and lived simply, squeezed into Art’s small house in town.

“May I suggest you take your moon gazing inside?” Sawyer smiled, but only because it was dark and they couldn’t see.

“Yes, of course.” Art made his way down the ladder—Sawyer couldn’t help but note that his second marriage had put a literal spring in his step—and reached up to guide his wife down. He was happy Art was so happy—the Ramseys had had more than their share of tragedy in recent years.

Sawyer glanced around. Miraculously, Maya and Evie had waited for him and were just setting off again for the pier. “They are adorable!” Maya said, loudly enough that he inferred she was talking to him.

“You wouldn’t say that if you caught them going at it everywhere you turned.”

“That was Art Ramsey—Jake’s dad—and his new wife,” Maya explained to Evie. “Though not that new anymore, I guess.”

“What happened to Jake’s mom?” Evie asked.

“She died. Breast cancer.”

“Oh no.”