Liz swallowed hard. “Exactly.”
Their eyes met. Held.
Regina smiled crookedly. “Dylan takes after his mother in almost exactly the same way.”
“His mother,” Liz repeated, afraid to guess. To hope.
“His mother was the sea witch Atargatis.”
Liz stared blankly.
“Selkie, merfolk, whatever you call them. The children of the sea.”
A wave of gratitude and disbelief swept over Liz, making her dizzy. There were others. She wasn‟t alone.
Regina‟s arm slipped under hers, warm and supportive. “Here, you look like you need to sit down.”
She led her to a bench beside some play equipment, fortunately deserted.
“I‟m fine.” Liz raised her head, a bubble of panic rising in her blood. “Em.”
“Right over there with Nick,” Regina reassured her. “That‟s my son, Nick.”
A dark-haired boy launched himself from the top of the fort, arms and legs wrapped around a pole. He looked so normal, so
much like Zack at his age, Liz‟s chest ached.
“Is he . . .” She stopped. She was a doctor, trained to ask the right questions, to find the right answers, to respond quickly
and decisively in a crisis. But Morgan‟s revelation had left her floundering.
“Dylan is Nick‟s stepdad,” Regina said.
Liz nodded, feeling like a bobble head doll.
Regina sat beside her on the bench. “How long have you known?”
“I didn‟t. I guessed. Honestly, I‟m not trying to pry into your personal life, I just—”
“About Morgan,” Regina interrupted. “When did you find out?”
“This afternoon. He took me out on a boat.”
Regina nodded, her eyes sympathetic.
“I thought he was crazy.” Liz drew a deep breath. “Or I was.”
“Not crazy. In shock maybe.”
“Not seeing things?” She‟d meant to sound ironic, but there was a wobble in her voice that shamed her.
“If you are, then half the island is hallucinating along with you.”
“Half the island?” Her voice rose.
One of the other mothers glanced over curiously.
“Okay, slight exaggeration. Listen, we can‟t talk here.” Regina stood. “Come to my house. The kids can play video games
while we talk.”
“Talk,” Liz said.
She hadn‟t had a close girlfriend since Allyson ditched her for Gunthar sixteen years and a lifetime ago. She‟d been too
busy, too immersed in her studies, her work, her children. Her grief.
Connections, she reminded herself. She‟d moved to the island in search of a community where she and her children would
belong.
She‟d never needed a friend more than now. Never imagined she‟d bond with another woman over their lovers from the
sea.
Regina shrugged. “Talk, open a bottle of wine. Frankly, you look like you could use a drink.”
“So, the sea witch Atargatis had three children with her human husband.” Regina counted them off on her fingers.
“Caleb—he‟s our police chief. He‟s human. Dylan, my husband, who‟s selkie. And Lucy.”
They sat at her kitchen table, sturdy oak with a blue bowl of ripening peaches and tomatoes in the center. Liz was
comforted by the child‟s artwork on the refrigerator, the framed handprints on the wall. Bits of sea glass wrapped in fishing
line and silver wire caught the light in the wide apartment windows. She looked around the eclectic, comfortable, normal home
and felt like Alice after she‟d tumbled down the rabbit hole.
She set down her half-full glass of wine, a good red Italian Montepulciano. “I‟m sorry. Did you say selkie?”
“Seal in the water, sheds his pelt on land to take human form,” Regina explained.