“Shit!” Gabriel releases tension on the wheel as we skid across Beach Avenue, coming to a rest in front of Seaview Harbor.

“You okay?” he asks, watching me carefully.

“Yeah, I’m fine,” I answer before I’m fully sure that’s true. “Did it rain?” Confident nothing is broken, I search for signs of a storm, but in the wash of the streetlights, I find the nearby buildings bone-dry.

“It’s the tide,” Gabriel explains, tongue poking through his teeth as he concentrates intently on the road. “And we’re already in it.” I don’t know what he means until the tires squeal a wet, phlegmy cough. The puddle we rode into is now a miniriver, threatening to sweep us away with it.

“It floods down to the harbor all the time. Only gets really bad once or twice a year, though.”

I’m tense, bracing my feet against the floor mat, but Gabriel’s voice calms me as he inches to the other side of the stream.

“Is that why the staff room at Hotel Seaview smells so bad?”

Gabriel laughs as if I were joking. “That and Elaine’s insistence on microwaving fish for lunch.”

His warmth fills the car. Fills me, heating me from within. And then we’re through, the country station impervious to our anxious giggles.

It’s only later that the term managed retreat pops into my mind, but we’re already in Maura’s driveway, coming to a stop dead center of the house.

“Thanks for the ride.”

Gabriel nods, but I can tell something’s on his mind.

“Listen,” he says, turning to me, his expression stormy but his tone kind. “I know it must have been traumatizing with everything with Natalie. You know I get it. We’ve both lost parents. Death is a shitty vortex. I’m not judging you for the sudden obsession with Natalie, considering. Just be careful, okay?”

“Of course.” I ensure that I sound casual, chill, and I offer a wave once I’m out of the car. But then he doesn’t drive off. He’s waiting to see that I get inside, I realize. I make my way up the porch steps at almost a run.

“You’re a real social butterfly,” says a gruff voice. I nearly jump out of my skin. Suzanne moves the vape from her mouth and blows out sweet-smelling smoke. I take a step back. Nasty habit.

“It’s been a whirlwind day,” I reply, hesitating at the front door. Gabriel is still idling in the drive, so I offer a thumbs-up I immediately regret, but the car rumbles away. I take a seat next to Suzanne on the wicker love seat. “Were you waiting up for me?”

“Something like that. After last night, your grandmother wanted to be sure you got home safe.”

“What if I’d shown up at two a.m.?”

“Then you would have found coal in your cereal bowl tomorrow morning.”