Her mother’s eyes were shining.
Corin stifled a curse. She raised her eyebrows. “Another problem?”
“My mother wants me to come up to the house and sort out something to do with the Dans,” he said, almost managing to sound like he wasn’t grumbling. “Something about more stolen treasure.”
“Don’t tell me they mislaid some of the treasure they took from the vault for Tomás?”
He stared at her. “How did you guess?”
“I don’t know. Must be magic. Or long, painful experience.” She smiled and nudged him. “Go on. I can handle this.”
She told her mom about the change in plans and suggested they walk along the beach. “That way, when we head inside to the warm, we’ll appreciate it more.”
“I’m glad to have some time alone with you.” Her mom hesitated, then looped her arm around Maya’s, her other hand still in Tomás’s. “Your life here seems so busy.”
Because she’d scheduled every minute her mom had been around, to stop her seeing anything she shouldn’t. Maya winced internally. “A few days ago I would have said I’m far less busy than I was before I moved here, but there’s been a lot going on this week.”
“And I’ve interrupted in the middle of it. I should have let you know about my change of plans, but…” Gabriela shrugged awkwardly. “It started to feel as though I was relying onnotgetting through to you on the phone, so that I wouldn’t have to talk to you about—”
“Morning, Maya! Hey, kiddo!” someone called from across the street.
“Oh—hi, Jules! Sorry, Mom, what were you saying?”
Gabriela paused, pursing her lips. “You know my friend Lori from my spin class did all that research into her family history online? And she found so much old gossip, oh my goodness.”
“Why would you golookingfor family gossip?” Maya wondered out loud, doing a quick scan of the street. It was a quiet morning and, apart from the woman who’d called out to her, everyone seemed busy with their own conversations or concentrating on getting out of the cold. The change in the weather had the added benefit of nobody wanting to be out in animal form, too, she decided. That was good.
She winced silently, caught between relief and guilt. Relief because this was her mom, the woman who’d brought her up alone, and made so many sacrifices to ensure Maya had a good life. Guilt because Maya had practically ghosted her since she moved to Hideaway Cove, even after her mom had helped so much with moving stuff from her own apartment, because after all her mom’s sacrifices, here she was, a single mom as well and without even a dead ex-husband to give her the gloss of respectability all her church friends thought was necessary, and because, oh yeah, the reason for the ghosting was she’d never actually told her mom that her baby could turn into a dragon…
She told Corin she needed time to come up with a plan, but she hadn’t even started. And every moment she delayed, the wall between them seemed to get higher.
They approached the concrete steps that led down to the beach.
“Well,” her mom said slowly, at the same time as she said, “Mom, I think—”
And Tomás shouted, “Tally!”
Too late, Maya caught sight of Jacqueline and her kids playing down on the beach. Jacqueline was bundled up in her winter coat as the wind whipped icy spray from the waves. The three children with her—Kenna, Dylan, and little Tally—didn’t seem bothered by the cold.
They were eating ice creams as happily as though it was a hot midsummer day.
Tally heard Tomás shout and looked up. Her ice cream fell to the ground and her expression of delight vanished.
“No!” she shouted tragically. “My ice eem!”
“It’s okay!” Jacqueline said at once. She waved up at Maya. “Hi! Nice day for it, huh? Oh, no, Tally, don’t do that!”
Maya watched in horror as Tally transformed into a tiny, spotted baby seal and dived face-first into her fallen ice cream in one action.
Oh god.
She didn’t dare look at her mom. Had she seen?
“Sweetheart,” her mother said carefully. “This thing I wanted to talk to you about…”
“Let’s go get something warm to drink at Tess’s,” Maya said wildly, grabbing up Tomás and swinging them both around to face the ice cream parlor. “Or go back to my place! I think I forgot something.”
She only made it a few steps before a car squealed up beside them.
