A car pulled into the spot next to them and beeped.

“Oh, look, it’s Benjamin and your boyfriend,” Maya teased.

“Shh! He’s not my boyfriend! We’re friends.” Or not not-friends. Whatever.

Maya snorted. “Okay, then, time for a friendly boat ride.”

It was a friendly boat ride. It turned out that when you were not not-friends with a guy, you could find yourself on a boat with him, cruising down the Miskwimin River on a gorgeous Friday afternoon and have a surprising amount of fun.

There was a group of late-twenties and early-thirties Moonflower Bayers who hung out socially, and Maya was their ringleader. Today, she had sweet-talked everyone into playing hooky in favor of a cruise on Law’s boat.

Also in attendance were Olivia, the deputy chief of police, and Jenna and Jordan Riley, siblings who owned, respectively, Jenna’s General Store and Moonflower Motors.

And Sawyer. Sawyer was here.

Which was fine, because they were not not-friends.

The only person missing was Jake, who had protested that since his job had him on a boat all the time, he had no desire to also socialize on one.

“I’m not sure that’s true, though,” Maya said—they’d been talking about how she couldn’t convince Jake to come. “He doesn’t really fish anymore, and besides, he and Kerrie used to kayak all the time back when he was fishing full-time.”

“But that was before,” Law said.

“Before what?” Eve asked. “I’ve been wondering what happened to Kerrie.”

“She moved to Guelph,” Maya said after a few beats of uncomfortable silence. “She was commuting there for work the last several years she and Jake were married, so I think it just made more sense for her to move there once she…didn’t have anything keeping her here.”

“So they got divorced?” Eve asked. She was met with more silence. “Sorry. None of my business.”

“No need to apologize,” Sawyer said. “It’s not like it’s a secret.”

“It’s just so tragic,” Jenna said. “It’s almost like the town has an unspoken agreement not to talk about it, even when Jake isn’t around.”

“Jake and Kerrie had a baby,” Jordan said.

“Four years ago now,” Jenna said when Jordan didn’t elaborate. “He died when he was almost one—the flu. Like those cases you read about in the paper. The one-in-a-million person who dies from the flu.”

Tears sprang to Eve’s eyes. “That’s terrible.”

“Jake and Kerrie’s marriage didn’t survive,” Maya said softly. “And Jenna’s right. No one really talks about any of it.”

“Jake never got over it,” Law said. “Not really.”

“Well, I don’t know how you would,” Eve said. “Is that why he’s so quiet all the time?” She looked at Sawyer. “We didn’t hang out with him that much in the summers, but you guys were friends, right?”