“Me too,” Jude agreed. “We’ve had the turf, now we need the surf.” Jude rubbed his hands together. “I want to spend this vacation eating my weight in lobster dripping with melted butter.”
“Me too,” Fitz agreed. “I made a reservation at Moby Dick’s for tomorrow night at six,” Fitz said.
“What’s a mobydick?” Everly asked. “Is that when they curve to the side like those wonky cucumbers in that commercial?”
“What?” Ten asked, looking appalled. “No! Where the hell did you seethatcommercial?” His gaze was on Ronan.
“Not it!” Ronan shivered in the warm room. “Those commercials make me nauseous.”
“Is that because you’ve got a bend in yours?” Jude asked, his face turning red, as he burst out laughing.
“Ewww.” Everly shook her head and pushed back from the table. “First Bigfoot and now this. I’m out.”
“Wait! Bigfoot? Who was talking about Bigfoot?” Jude asked, finally getting himself back under control.
“Daddy said he wished he’d borrowed Uncle Cope’s fur coat so Dad could play Bigfoot. Then Dad roared like a hungry pterodactyl. I didn’t know my fathers put on plays at night after I go to bed.”
“If Ten is playing Bigfoot, who is Ronan playing?” Jude asked.
“Long Dong Silver,” Everly said with a shrug. “I’ve never seen his movies before, but I think he’s that bald guy inDie Hard.”
“Long Dong Silver?” Jude asked. “What the hell goes on in your house at night?”
“Beats me.” Everly set her plate and silverware in the dishwasher.
“Never mind that,” Ronan said, waggling his eyebrows. “Moby Dick was the name of a whale in a famous book. The restaurant is named after him.”
“Oh, was he a cute whale?” Aurora asked. “We love cute whales, right Everly?”
“Right!” Everly agreed, looking as if she were over her Moby Dick confusion.
“I’m not sure if he was a cute whale. Captain Ahab didn’t think he was, that’s for sure.” Ronan had no idea what standards Everly and Aurora judged whales by.
“I know Captain Ahab!” Everly squealed.
“You do?” Ronan asked. Who the hell had told Everly about Ahab? It sure as hell wasn’t him.
“Uncle Fitz told us all about him when we watchedJaws. Mr. Quint was based on Ahab. He was obsessed with Jaws the same way Ahab was with the white whale.”
“I didn’t realize you were a literary genius, Fitz.” Ronan couldn’t care less that Fitz schooled Everly on classic literature, he was just happy he wasn’t the one in the dog house for letting her watchJaws.
“What you don’t know about me could fill Davy Jones’ locker.”
“You mean that cutie from The Monkeys?” Everly asked. “Why does he have a locker?”
Ronan snorted. “Notthe cutie from The Monkeys.”
“Phew,” Everly said. “We’re gonna go watch a movie now.”
“Hold on, guys. Just an FYI, we’re gonna spend part of tomorrow morning on the beach and then we’re going on our shark watch.”
“Me love ‘harks!” Ezra half-shouted, climbing out of his booster.
“’Harks!” Lizzie echoed.
“Okay, bye!” Everly went to run into the living room, but Ronan reached out and grabbed her around the middle.”
“Daddy!” Everly shrieked. She wrapped her arms around his neck and let herself be pulled onto Ronan’s lap.
