Surfacing - Book One in the Swans Landing Series

Chapter 24

Chapter Twenty-Four

“Pass me the gravy, Sailor,” Miss Gale said, prodding her granddaughter’s arm. Sailor hefted the blue porcelain bowl, full of thick gravy, toward Miss Gale with a scowl.

After she’d added more gravy on top of her own mashed potatoes as well as the fried chicken and oyster stuffing in her plate, Miss Gale offered the bowl to me. “Would you like some more gravy, sugar?”

I shook my head. “No, thank you. I have plenty.”

Miss Gale shook her head, as if she didn’t believe me. “You ain’t never going to get any meat on your bones eating like you do.”

Sailor glared at me across the table, as she had been doing for the entire meal up until this point. She had not been thrilled in the least when she opened the door earlier to find Lake and me on the front porch of her home. Dinner together had been Miss Gale’s idea, one she’d surprised me with when I had stopped by the Variety Store on my way home from Pirate’s Cove.

I was certain that she knew about my argument with Lake. Miss Gale seemed to know everything that went on around this island. Dinner was probably her way of trying to oversee the mending of Lake’s and my relationship.

The thing she didn’t understand was, Lake and I had never had a relationship of any kind, so there was nothing that could be mended. Not even fried chicken and gravy would help what we had.

Lake sat at the end of the table opposite Miss Gale, pushing food around on his plate without saying much. Miss Gale had gone all out with the meal. The table was laden with large helpings of golden fried chicken, oyster stuffing, mashed potatoes and gravy, okra and tomatoes, and a cucumber salad. Everything was heavily doused with salt, to suit the tastes of four finfolk.

“Well,” Miss Gale said, the only one of our grumpy dinner party that made an attempt at conversation, “ain’t this nice? I’m so glad that we can talk freely about everything now and there are no more secrets. Mara knows about the finfolk and now we can enjoy quiet nights like these together, can’t we?”

The light of the small flickering candles Miss Gale had set in the center of the table cast shadows on Sailor’s stormy expression. “It would be nice,” she grumbled, “if it were a private supper.” She glared pointedly at me.

“Be nice,” Miss Gale told her through clenched teeth, her smile never leaving her face. “So, Mara, have you thought any about helping your daddy out with his crab business? I’m sure he could use an extra hand to pull in the pots.” Her gaze slid to Lake and she stared at him until he looked up from his plate.

“Oh, yeah,” he said. “I could use some help. If you want to.”

“I don’t know anything about crabbing,” I said.

Sailor rolled her eyes. “You get in the water, pull up the pots, throw them in the boat, get the crabs out, bait the pots, and then throw them back in. It doesn’t take a genius to figure that out.”

“Not everyone can be as naturally talented at attracting crabs as you are,” I said, shooting her a fake smile.

The rest of the dinner went by at an excruciatingly slow pace. Miss Gale tried to get a pleasant conversation going, but none of us were in the mood for talking.

Finally, the plates were cleared away and Miss Gale ushered us into the living area. I sank into one of the plush blue-green couches in front of a roaring fire in the fireplace. Sailor curled herself into a large wicker chair with a high back. It made her look like a queen, sitting in her throne.