Serious Moonlight(108)

“This wasn’t my intention, asking to meet with you. I wasn’t trying to beg for a job.”

She smiled. “I know you weren’t. I wasn’t intending to offer you one. But sometimes you get a gut feeling about someone.”

My own gut was getting the same feeling.

“Can I start in three weeks?” I needed time to give notice.

She stuck out her hand, and I shook it. “Call me in a few days to set up a date to come in. I’ll introduce you, and we can start your paperwork. Sound like a good plan?”

It sounded like the best plan in the world.

“See you soon, Birdie. I’ve got a good feeling about this for both of us.” She scooted out of her seat, and after I thanked her profusely, left the diner, heading out to another appointment.

Had that actually happened? I think it had! I resisted the urge to count my fingers for a few seconds and then gave in: one, two, three, four, five—all there!

I barely had time to do any internal squealing before I spotted a familiar dark-haired silhouette lugging something past the window. The diner door flew open, and Daniel walked inside backward, breathing hard as he carried one end of something heavy and wrapped in dark plastic. Jiji, wearing a bright purple-and-yellow Hawaiian shirt, was holding the opposite end. When they got it inside, they set it on the floor and both shook rain off their heads.

“You made it,” I said to both of them.

“Told you we would,” Jiji said, smiling.

“Hello, beautiful girlfriend,” Daniel said, planting a kiss on my forehead. “Are you done with your meeting? How did it go?”

“She offered me a job.”

“A job?” Jiji said.

“Full-time receptionist.”

“Shut up!” Daniel said with a grin, knocking his shoulder against mine. “That is fantastic.”

I quickly told them the gist of it, and they were both happy. “Better commute to Beacon Hill than downtown,” Jiji noted.

For the time being I was splitting my time between living with Grandpa on the island and shacking up with Daniel in Green Gables. Roman and Dottie had decided to move in with their daughter and help her through the first year of raising her new baby, so we were house-sitting for them until they were ready to come back.

Daniel’s mom, Cherry, was the one who actually suggested it. And after Grandpa met Daniel and his family, he gave me his approval—which was sort of a miracle. I think it was heavily influenced by Mona, who had become fast friends with Cherry over the last few months. Anyway, it was sort of nice to have Daniel’s family close by. Also, I volunteered to weed part of the cohousing’s garden in exchange for pink and purple zinnia blooms for my hair. Not a bad trade.

Don’t get me wrong: I didn’t want to live there forever. For one, the creepy forest mural in Green Gables was not something I wanted to see every day, and I missed cable television. Also, we’d already had a few minor family squabbles about privacy and freedom. But no one had chopped anyone’s head off. Yet. And it gave me and Daniel time to get used to living together before we decided if we were ready to take the next step of getting our own apartment.

A boisterous group of people entered the diner, and I recognized a few of them as artist friends of Mona. They glanced at the handmade sign flanked in balloons—RIVERA BABY SHOWER—and followed the arrow to the private room in back while one of Ms. Patty’s new servers gathered teacups and cleaned up the booth where I was sitting.

“Okay,” I said to Daniel, poking the wrapping on the object they’d carted into the diner. “Let’s see this artistic masterpiece.”

Daniel pulled back the plastic, and I bent down to see inside. It was a wooden bassinet. A small, very simple one with slatted sides and a silvery, metallic stain. He’d spent a week making it in wood school, after class. On the top of the railing at the foot of the bassinet was a thin plaque, intricately cut with a scroll saw and painted with silver glitter. The first line was the name Aunt Mona had chosen for her baby, Paloma—“dove” in Spanish. Below that it said: DARING DAME AND GUTSY GAL.

“It’s beautiful,” I said, unexpectedly emotional.

“Are you sure?” he asked, almost shy.

I knuckled away a stray tear. “All this glitter? She’s going to go crazy for it. Best baby gift ever.”

Jiji patted his grandson on the shoulder, a big smile on his face. “Told you. You’re a wood genius. That school will be paying for itself in no time.”

Daniel rolled his eyes, but I could tell he was pleased. He’d quit his job at the Cascadia two months ago to focus on school. Though he joked that by enrolling, he was fully embracing his Jesus persona (carpenter, long hair), he enjoyed his classes. He wasn’t sure that he wanted a long-term career in carpentry, but Jiji convinced him it was a skill to fall back on. And as long as he was in school, Cherry agreed that he could do street magic at the market on the weekends. Sometimes he even worked in the magic shop for a few hours. Last week he saw Raymond Darke there, but he didn’t speak to him. The two of them had lunch once, a couple of weeks after the debacle at the opera. I think Darke was trying to make an effort to get to know his son, but Daniel thinks he was trying to feel him out and see if Daniel wanted money from him. Either way, they didn’t strike up a fast friendship or bond in any way. Daniel says he’s okay with that, and he doesn’t regret tracking him down.