had over the handful of dinners they’d had. They didn’t talk about Jude or Nora’s grandma.
She was surprised by how much she missed it.
On Friday night, she pushed open the door to Lawson’s Lager House and there he was, sitting next to Sawyer at the bar, nursing a beer. Her stupid heart skipped a beat.
She made her way over and sat, leaving a few empty stools between them—she was meeting Maya—but he looked up and right at her.
“Hey, Nora.” Sawyer gestured to the empty stool next to him. “Join us, will you?”
“Thanks.” She slid over a few stools. “If you’re sure I’m not interrupting. I’m waiting for Maya, but I’m early.”
Law ambled over from behind the bar. “These two dudes have been warming those two stools every Friday night for I don’t know how many years, so at this point, they’re practically begging for someone to interrupt them.”
“I don’t know, Law, I’m pretty sure the bromance is a three-way thing.” A young woman had come up behind Sawyer, and she did a thing to his shoulder that was a sort of half hug, half punch.
He grinned. “Clare Bear!” He turned to hug her properly. “Clara, this is Dr. Nora Walsh. Nora, this is my sister, Clara. Clara’s home from school in Toronto. She’s studying electrical engineering.” The pride was positively radiating off him.
“Can’t miss the Anti-Festival.” Clara shook Nora’s hand and went to sit on the other side of Jake. “What’s up, Jake?”
Jake gave a half shrug.
“You don’t say? That’s so interesting.” Clara kissed him on the cheek even as she teased him. Then she leaned up and availed herself of an over-the-bar hug from Law. The two men seemed to have an easy familiarity with Sawyer’s little sister.
The conversation turned to what Clara, who was in her second year at the University of Toronto, was up to at school and why she had taken a taxi from the Greyhound stop instead of calling Sawyer to come and get her.
“Because it’s Friday night!” Clara protested. “It’s bromance night!”
“You know I would have thrown these two over in a heartbeat to come get you,” Sawyer said to his sister.
“But Sawyer, it’s not just Friday night; it’s full-moon Friday!” She turned to Nora. “Do you know what that is?”
“I do! That’s why I’m here. Eve Abbott and Maya Mehta are indoctrinating me in this weirdo tradition you all have. Eve is coming later—she’s checking in some guests at the inn, but I’m meeting Maya here for a drink first.”
“Wait no longer, my friends. Maya is here.” She appeared on Nora’s other side. She made a funny face. “And apparently Maya now talks about herself in the third person.”
“Here we go,” Law muttered.
“I’m sorry, what did you say, Benjamin?” Maya set her elbows on the bar.
Law set a wineglass in front of her and started filling it. “I said, ‘Yay! Full-moon Friday!’”
Maya rolled her eyes—but subtly, so that only Nora could see. It gave Nora a little thrill. Nora had never really had close women friends, which was funny because she’d grown up in a house of women—she, her sister, her mother, and her grandma had outnumbered her dad and brother. But school, and then residency, hadn’t left a lot of time for socializing. Then she’d met Rufus and, without really meaning to, integrated herself into his life.
Living at the Mermaid put her at the center of a certain social circle in town. Pearl, whose bakery was next door, was always poking her head into the inn. Maya lived across the street and seemed to pop up everywhere, often pleading for Nora to illicitly supply her with some of the pizza she couldn’t admit to liking. Both women were usually in attendance at the cocktail hours Eve hosted a few days a week at the Mermaid for guests and friends.
Nora still missed Jake, though. She glanced at him only to find he was already looking at her.
Before she could think how to react—smile? Look away?—Maya was back to needling Law. Nora gathered that it was almost like a hobby of hers. “You should come with us. You could wish for a personality.”
“I would, but Amber quit”—he looked pointedly at Nora and hitched his head at a young man manning the bar on the far side—“and I don’t trust the new guy alone yet.”
Nora winced. “Yeah, sorry about that.”
He grinned. “Nah, I’m just giving you grief. She was only ever planning to be here through school. You said it yourself: she was never going