Maya patted her arm. “I totally appreciate the sentiment. But I think you’re wrong. I don’t think any version of ‘The Little Mermaid’ is the right metaphor here. I mean, Ariel suffers so much, even in the Disney version. Clearly, if you’re going to get all deep and metaphorical, Splash is your source material. Tom Hanks swims off to live happily ever after in the underground kingdom with Daryl Hannah.”

“Okay, but if we’re going with Splash, it follows that I don’t stay here,” Eve said. “Sawyer goes back to Toronto with me. And that doesn’t make any sense, because clearly Moonflower Bay is the underwater kingdom. I mean, we have the mermaids and everything.”

“I might concede your point, but if this is The Little Mermaid, what does that make me? That stupid fish sidekick?”

Eve giggled. “No, because I already have a tree named after Flounder.”

Maya raised an eyebrow. “So, what? I’m either a seagull or a crab?”

Eve snuggled into Maya’s shoulder. “Maybe everything doesn’t have to be so aggressively metaphorical.”

“What?” Maya gasped theatrically. “Now you’re just talking crazy. What is life without aggressive metaphors?”

“Regardless, what I need now is a plan. I have to actually talk to the prince. Or Tom Hanks. Or whoever he is. And I have no idea how to do that. Because you know what? This isn’t a story. It’s real life.” She sat up, wincing at the pain in her head. “I also need Advil.”

“Oh, oh!” Maya waved her hands in the air. “You should do it at the parade! Return to the scene of the crime! Reclaim the parade!”

Eve slid off the bed. “I think after the parade is better.” Sawyer would be getting ready for the parade now. In the meantime she needed a hangover breakfast. So she was just going to take herself over to Sadie’s and eat her weight in pancakes.

The river was about to take a big twist, and she couldn’t see around the bend. But she was, amazingly, okay with that.

The first weird thing about the parade was that Sawyer wasn’t driving the squad car, Olivia was.

But what did Eve know about the modern-day Mermaid Parade? Just because Sawyer had driven the mermaid-ified cop car last year didn’t mean he did it every year.

The second weird thing about the parade was that Maya had disappeared. She had come to Sadie’s with Eve, but once there, she’d gotten a text that had sent her running. “Mer-queen duties call,” she’d said. “Good luck with your prince.”