catchier version of that that I have yet to think of.”
“We can decorate the information table, too,” Eve said. “I have lots of paint left over from the renovation of the inn. Maybe we could make a big, colorful sign.”
“Of mermaids getting shots!” Maya exclaimed.
“Yes!” Pearl said.
“Flu shots, on the other hand,” Nora said, thinking out loud about this whole festival-vaccine connection that everyone seemed to be running with, “I can just give to people if I take down some info from them. Jake Ramsey told me there’s this town-only festival in early October? It’s a bit early, but I can see if I can order some vaccines in time for it.”
Suddenly Pearl and Maya, who had been yammering about vaccine-and-mermaid-related decor, went dead silent.
After an uncomfortable moment, Maya finally spoke. “Jake told you about the Anti-Festival?”
Law had arrived with her pizza—well, with Maya’s pizza—and he paused, holding it over the bar, his eyebrows raised.
“Yeah. Was he not supposed to? It’s some kind of inside joke, I gather?” Maybe she was too new to take part in it?
“No, no,” Eve said. “It’s not a secret—at least not from you. It’s just that Jake doesn’t…talk a lot.”
“I was actually thinking Jake could probably help me with a flu-shot clinic.”
“He’s the wrong person for that,” Sawyer said quickly.
“On the contrary, he’s the perfect person. There’s an argument to be made that when you know someone whose life has been affected by flu-related complications or deaths, you’re more likely to…” She trailed off, realizing that everyone was looking at her with some degree of shock. “What?”
“How did you know about Jake’s son?” Eve asked.
Why was she getting the feeling that she was treading on forbidden ground here? “He told me,” she said warily.
“He told you about Jude?” Sawyer’s tone was a combination of skeptical and defensive. Nora glanced at Maya, who was openly gaping.
“Uh, yeah?”
“He just came out and told you?” Pearl asked. She seemed less gobsmacked than the others, but she was looking at Nora with an intense curiosity that made Nora nervous.
Why did Nora feel like saying yes was somehow a betrayal of Jake? She didn’t have to answer, though, because Pearl got up. “I’m having an epiphany. I gotta go.”
Eve turned to Nora. “Sorry we’re being weird. Jake is kind of famous for being antisocial, so we were just a little surprised.”
“Antisocial?” Maya said. “Try mute.”
That didn’t accord with Nora’s impression of him. Yes, he didn’t seem like the kind of person who wasted words, or who hurried to interject himself into things—witness his silently watching over both the birth on the green and her confrontation with Rufus. But they had spoken easily, and, between the topics of his son and her loser ex-boyfriend, rather intimately.
“Anyway.” Eve was clearly trying to move the conversation beyond Jake and what he had or had not told Nora, which Nora appreciated. “I heard you like baseball.”
“You did?”
She smirked. “Pro tip: Do not utter a word anywhere in this town—or wear a Tigers T-shirt to Curl Up and Dye—that you don’t want getting out.”
“There’s a group of town elders who have their noses in everything,” Sawyer said. “They tend to congregate at the hardware store.”
“Right,” Maya said. “Except they don’t really congregate at the hardware store so much as plot there. So beware of the following individuals: Karl Andersen, who owns Lakeside Hardware. Pearl Brunetta”—she pointed at Pearl’s abandoned drink. “Eiko Anzai, who’s the editor of the town newspaper. And, to a lesser extent, Art Ramsey, Jake’s dad.”
“What does that have to do with the salon, then?” Nora asked.
“I think Carol sort of reports to them,” Eve said. “Last time I got my hair done, I thought I was making idle conversation about maybe starting a little vegetable garden, but the next day Karl was on my case about it.”
“Basically, if you want your business to stay private, be very, very careful what you say in front of the elders of Moonflower Bay, regardless of location,” Maya advised.
“Anyway, baseball,” Eve said, apparently correctly intuiting that Nora’s head was spinning with all these names. “There’s a town softball league—that was my point.”
“Oh, thanks, but I’m more of an eat-nachos-while-watching-other-people-exert-themselves sort of person than I am an athlete.” Actually, though, that was another thing she was hoping to change while she was here. She needed to find a way to get some exercise into her routine.
“What about theater?” Maya asked.
“Like watching it? Sure.”
“No. Like being in it. I’m putting on a gender-swapped Death of a Salesman—so