of a better way to end this day.
Well, he could, but that would come later.
“Can we get a minute alone?” he said as they all approached the float.
“Nope,” Karl said. “The rest of the parade is ready to go, and the route is lined with people.”
“The Mermaid Parade waits for no one,” Pearl said.
“Yeah, but it usually starts a bit after the play.” Maya turned to Law. “I usually have an hour to shift gears.”
“Not this year!” Pearl trilled, winking at Eiko.
“But…,” Maya protested.
“Maya and I need to talk,” Law said decisively.
“You can talk the rest of your life.” Eiko tried to hand him the trident. “Hell, you can talk on the float.”
Huh? “I’m not getting on the float.”
“I don’t see why not,” Karl said. “You were elected king.”
Oh, for God’s sake. “I was not.”
“You were, though,” Karl said.
“Children.” Pearl gestured at both him and Maya. “I say this with love, but you two are kind of dumb. The whole town saw where this was going, if not years ago certainly earlier this summer. You were both elected in a landslide. The people have spoken.”
He looked at Maya, who shrugged and made a why-not face. Eiko opened his hand like he was a doll and stuck the trident in it, and Karl moved a step stool to the edge of the float.
“We don’t have the right outfits,” he tried, though he wasn’t really sure why he was objecting. If Maya wanted to be mermaid queen, he was good to go.
“Your costumes are fine,” Pearl said. “We can make an exception this year.”
“Maya and I are applying for the grant jointly,” Law said, remembering suddenly that they did have something to surprise the old meddlers with. Ha. If these people thought they pulled all the strings in this town, they had another thing coming.
“Of course you are,” said Eiko, patting his arm briefly before snapping her fingers and pointing at the steps. “Get up there.”
“We’ve been wondering when you would land on that strategy,” Pearl said.
All right. He was defeated. Law followed Maya up to the matching clamshell thrones. He grabbed her hand before they sat, and the crowd cheered. All their friends were there. He made eye contact with Sawyer and Jake, who both grinned.
He suddenly thought back to his last boat ride with the guys. “Did you tell Eve that you liked me? Like a week or so ago?”
“No!” Maya sounded appalled. “Did you tell Sawyer you liked me?”
“I did not. In fact, I actively denied it.”
She cracked up. “We got played, didn’t we?”
“We did indeed.”
“Rohan was in on it, too, I’m pretty sure.” She pointed to her family as she sat on her throne. They were all waving enthusiastically at her.
“I guess the meddling spanned the generations this time,” he said, spotting his own parents and waving at them sheepishly.
“The trident is mine,” Maya said once the float started moving. She grabbed one end of it, but he held on to the other, resulting in a little tug-of-war. “I got possession of it last year, and I’m not giving it up.”
“Oh, so I get nothing?” he countered, though he let her have it. “How is anyone supposed to be able to tell that I’m the mer-king?”
“You could take your shirt off. Usually the mer-king doesn’t wear a shirt. Unless it’s Karl, in which case he wears that T-shirt with fake muscles on it.”
“I’m not taking my shirt off.”
“Suit yourself.” She shrugged. “I mean, it’s not like I’m a theater director or anything. It’s not like I have professional training and years of experience in what makes for a good visual—”
“Peace. I will stop your—”
“No!” Maya said. “I strongly suggest you don’t come over here. Don’t even stand up. It’s too easy to lose your balance.”
“Aww, you loooove me.”
“No, I just don’t want you to fall to your death and know I could have prevented it. I’d do that for anyone. I don’t want blood on my hands.”
“Close enough,” he said. “I guess that means I’ll have to stop your mouth later.”
“Yeah, okay.” She smiled. “And I guess that means for now you’ll just have to listen to me talk.”
He was extremely okay with that.
“Actually, I have some notes for you.”
“Notes?”
“It’s a theater term. The director gives notes to the actors after a show—things that can be improved or done differently. Because I assume your whole swoop-in-and-save-the-play move wasn’t a one-time-only thing? There’s still a show tomorrow.”
Right. This was the flaw in his plan. Even though he was the