“I think so.” Julia waved a hand around, indicating the other prep tables. “Where are all the guys? Why didn’t more men sign up for this particular activity?”

“Harry’s here,” Kat pointed out.

“Only because my wife dragged me,” Harry said, grinning sheepishly when the girls turned to look at him. “Sorry, didn’t mean to eavesdrop.”

“Yes, you did, you busybody.” Sally poked him in the ribs with her mixing spoon. “He’s annoyed because I wouldn’t let him join the group taking a boat out on the lake.”

“Ow!” Harry tried to grab the spoon away from his wife. “You can bake anytime you want at home.”

“And you can fish anytime we’re at home.” Sally dodged her husband’s attempts to take the spoon and poked him again. “I wanted this to be special. Something we do together.”

“We could be fishing on the boat together,” Harry countered.

“And end up seasick? Or worse, risk getting attacked by marauding seagulls?” Sally asked. “No, thank you.” She turned to Julia. “We saw what happened to you on the beach the other day, poor dear.”

“Oh, the great bikini air raid?” Julia asked, flushing. “I survived.”

“Now that was some romantic-comedy gold.” Andie grinned.

“Easy for you to say,” Julia grumbled. “You weren’t the one whose top was snatched.”

“Excuse me, that was my top,” Kat reminded her, forming the rolled-out dough into shapes.

“And I got it back for you, didn’t I?” Julia shook her head, recalling the escapade, marveling at how the seagull had followed her and Luke, returning the contraband with docile civility. A strange possibility occurred to her. “You don’t think a bird can be trained to do that, do you?”

“What creepy weirdo would train birds to steal bikini tops?” Kat wondered, still working the dough.

“Actually, that’s genius,” Andie snorted. “If someone thought of a way to do that, my hat’s off to them … or, my top, I should say.”

“You’re hilarious,” Julia observed drolly. “I mean, what if that whole fiasco on the beach was planned?”

“Why would you think so? Because it was so over the top?”

Julia glared at her friend. “Was that another play on the word top?”

“Guilty.” Andie leaned closer, lowering her voice. “But if it was planned, then you better be writing one hell of a kick-ass review of this place, because that is some top-notch service right there.” Andie grinned, clearly pleased with herself for sneaking one last bit of wordplay in.

Julia pounded her ball of dough, trying to punch down the guilt rising in her chest. Preoccupied with Luke, she’d been completely neglecting her responsibilities and had barely spared a thought for the review.

As if reading her mind, Kat asked, “Where is your serenading, seagull-chasing hero, anyway?”