Moonshell Beach: A Shelter Bay Novel by Joann Ross Page B

pirate, who’d accessorized his costume with a red bandanna with fake braids attached, a plastic cutlass, tall leather boots, and eyeliner.
    She entered the Sea Mist restaurant, and wove her way through the restaurant out to the harbor-front patio where Sedona Sullivan, Maddy Chaffee, and Charity Tiernan were seated. It was their once-a-week lunch, and since so far things were peaceful, Kara had decided she could risk the hour off duty they’d spend catching up.
    “Refresh my memory,” she said, as she joined them at the round table. “Were there any Johnny Depp–type pirates in Mary Joyce’s selkie movies?”
    “Believe me,” Sedona said, “I’d remember if there had been. The man’s been mine since
21 Jump Street
.”
    “I had him first,” Kara said. “And a guy who looked a lot like a low-rent Captain Jack Sparrow was outside hitting on a mermaid when I arrived.”
    “Maybe he decided that dressing up like a merman with a fish tail wouldn’t exactly make him a babe magnet,” Maddy suggested.
    “That’s undoubtedly the case. Though I’ve got to tell you, very few men in this world can make eyeliner work. The guy on the sidewalk is not one of them.”
    The server arrived to take their orders. Sedona opted for the Dungeness crab Caesar salad, Maddy the fish taco, and Charity the shrimp and crab Louis, while Kara ordered crab cakes, coleslaw, and smoked corn chowder. With a side of fried clam strips.
    “I’m eating for two,” she said, hearing the defensiveness come out in her tone. “And we can share the clam strips.”
    “Did we say a thing?” Sedona asked.
    “No. But it’s embarrassing. I had morning sickness for months with Trey. But with this one”—she placed her hand over her stomach, which, while not sporting a true baby bump yet, had begun to press against the front of her khaki shirt—“I’m famished all the time.”
    “Admittedly, I’ve never been pregnant, but famished has to be better than throwing up,” Sedona said. “And perhaps it’s a sign that you’re going to have a boy.”
    Preferring to be surprised, Kara and Sax had opted against learning the gender of their baby ahead of time.
    “Is that some New Age thing you learned growing up on the commune?” Kara plucked a cheesemuffin from the basket the server had left on the table. Not that she believed in woo-woo stuff. Then again, there were those who’d think that the way she’d once talked with her murdered husband wasn’t exactly mainstream.
    “No, merely logic and observation,” Sedona said. “It makes a certain sense that a boy would take after his father. And Sax has always appeared to be a man of hefty appetites.”
    The double entendre, which was, indeed, true, had Charity nearly spitting out the drink of ice water she’d just taken. Maddy grinned wickedly, while Kara felt her cheeks turn hot.
    “So,” she said, deliberately changing the subject, “the reason I didn’t cancel on this week’s lunch, although I should probably be out patrolling our soon-to-be very crowded streets, is because I have news.” She paused a beat. “I’m getting married.”
    “Well, of course you are,” Maddy said as their server arrived back at the table with the clam strips appetizer and four small plates. “That’s what that ring on your finger is all about.”
    “No, I mean like I’m actually, officially getting married.”
    Charity, who was reaching for a strip, paused, her hand over the basket. “You’ve set a date?”
    “I have.”
    “It’s about time,” Sedona said. “Sax must be over the moon.”
    “He’s definitely pleased.” That was an understatement, since he’d been pushing for marriage even before she learned she was pregnant. More often since.
    “When?” Maddy asked.
    “That’s the thing. It’s this week.”
    “During the festival?” Sedona asked.
    “I know the timing’s insane, especially what with all I have to do, but my mom called, and I did what you advised me to do a few