Page 30 of Captain's Orders
Bea had not stopped working on the mermaid's hair, which was now spilling off the cupcake and the plate. She placed a sugar pearl at what was presumably the mermaid's hairline and looked up. "I saw a mermaid."
"No, you didn't," Emma said. "Mermaids aren't real."
"They ARE. I SAW one in the water. At the beach."
Emma made a disbelieving noise that Dani had only ever heard from women three times her age. Jack, who had been quietly pressing googly eyes onto Steve, looked up with sudden interest.
"What did she look like?"
"She had green hair. And a shiny tail."
Emma put her face in her hands. "Bea, you didn't see a mermaid."
"Grace." Bea wheeled round on her one ally at the table. "Grace. Tell Emma."
Grace, who had been careful to stay out of it, lifted her head from her own cupcake. She looked at Bea, at Emma. "It's possible," she said, "that what Bea saw was something that looked like a mermaid."
"AHA," Bea said.
"That isn't the same thing," Emma protested.
"Grace SAID it was POSSIBLE."
Emma turned to Dani. "Dani, are mermaids real?"
Dani looked away for a beat. The pressure. Oh, the pressure. "Well," she said, "the ocean is very big and there are a lot of things in it, and some of them haven't been named yet."
Bea broke into a triumphant grin. "SEE."
"That isn't what she?—"
"DANI SAID. Dani said there's mermaids." Bea slammed her fist on the table.
Steve fell over.
Steve had been leaning at his fifteen-degree angle for the entire debate, and at the moment Bea declared her victory the whole tower gave up. The marshmallows went first, the icing followed.
Jack's face crumpled. His bottom lip pushed out, his fists clenched on the table, and tears were already welling. "BEA BROKE HIM. She did it on PURPOSE." Jack pointed at her, hisfinger trembling with eight-year-old fury. "And now I'm gonna break yours."
Bea's hands flew to her mermaid in a protective gesture, eyes wide while Jack lunged across the table and grabbed a fistful of the mermaid's pink hair, ripping it clean off the plate.
Bea's scream was the kind of sound that brought adults running. She pounded the table with both fists, her face turning crimson. "MY MERMAID! MY MERMAID'S HAIR! GRACE!"
Dani blew out her cheeks as she exchanged a glance with Grace. This was, technically, above her pay grade.She got up to refill the lemonade, leaving Grace to handle the crisis.
20
JORDAN
"Hey, Captain." Jordan had just come out of the shower when Dani walked in. "I made you something."
The cupcake was a blue mound topped with two googly eyes on either side of a small white anchor. Above the eyes was a white fondant captain's hat with a tiny gold sprinkle on the front.
"Well… Thank you." Jordan chuckled. "Is that supposed to be me?"
"Yes. You were on my mind while I was making cupcakes with the kids." She grinned, lifting the paper plate. "Okay, that sounds totally inappropriate but go on. Try it."
Jordan didn't normally eat processed foods but then again, she would currently eat anything Dani Ellis told her to, including the paper plate. She picked up the cupcake and took a bite. The icing was rich and sweet, and the cupcake was light and fluffy. Some of the icing had caught on her lower lip and she was about to lift her hand to wipe it away when Dani grabbed her wrist and leaned in to kiss it off her.
