In the afternoon, after the endless meetings and discussions, she stopped being Liana the Boss. For an hour or two, she went back to being Liana the Coder, typing away on her keyboard with only the ocean for company as she came up with new events and game mechanics.
She needed that time. It felt good to realize that nothing had changed—that at her heart, she was still simply Liana, the geeky girl with a fondness for dressing up virtual dragons.
“Are you done for today?” Timothy’s voice called out from the door.
He’d been in a conference call since noon—and now it seemed he’d finally managed to escape.
“All done,” Liana called back, making sure to save her work before she closed her laptop.
“The werewolves invited us over for a drink,” Timothy said when she came closer.
“That sounds great. Do you think I need to change?”
She was wearing her favorite sundress—it was made of white lace and a soft, turquoise cotton printed with cheerful sunflowers.
It was perfect for beach walks with Timothy, but not exactly what she’d call formal.
But then, their werewolf neighbors were the opposite of formal...
“You look stunning,” Timothy murmured as he watched her with obvious appreciation.
Liana felt her cheeks heat a little. Against her skin, the gorgeous pearl they’d found together pulsed with warmth. She wore it on a simple chain of gold around her neck.
She hadn’t taken it off since the day they’d found it. Even when she was deep in a frustrating discussion with her game’s development team, it filled her with the deep, calm confidence of the ocean.
“Then let’s head out.” She smiled at him as she took his hand.
They’d spent the day on the large deck that rested on wooden stakes right above the water of the ocean, at the back of the house. And while that gave them an incredible view of the ocean stretching endlessly before them, it meant that they couldn’t see what was happening on the beach in front of their house.
Of course, as Wing Island was a privately owned peninsula, usually there was nothing going on there.
But today, as soon as they stepped out of the door at the front, they were greeted by loud cheers.
A large crowd had gathered.
Overwhelmed, Liana tried to take it all in. There was the old werewolf couple, James and John—and there the chameleon shifter family who ran the coffee shop, together with coyote shifter Aimee who’d become a good friend.
Everyone was there. The entire community of Wing Island had gathered in front of their house.
Many people were holding flowers—and as Liana stared in amazement, a banner was unrolled, held up by two excited seal shifter kids.
“Congratulations, Liana & Timothy,” it read.
“Did you know about this?” Liana asked, utterly overwhelmed as she turned to Timothy.
Timothy was beaming, but he shook his head.
“I was promising them that we’d have a real celebration—once we’d had time to settle in and I’d found a free weekend in your sister’s busy schedule, but—”
“Liana!” a familiar voice shouted.
When Liana looked up again, she found her sister standing right next to the seal shifter kids.
Clairice didn’t look like she’d escaped her job only for an hour or two, ready to head back as soon as possible—which was usually how holidays with her went.
Which Liana had never begrudged her, because she knew just how hard her sister’d had to work to get to where she was.
She’d never imagined that one day she’d get to see Clairice in a long skirt and a bikini top, with a pink flower in her hair and what looked like a cocktail served in an actual coconut in her hand, complete with a little paper umbrella. And Clairice didn’t look harried. She looked completely relaxed for once.