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The next morning, I threw myself into the shop work. Which wasn’t as easy as it sounded, as we still didn’t have power. But who needed power when there was work that you could do without it?
And, as the school was out because of the lights too, we even had the tiny little beings to use for manual labor. Don’t report me. They didn’t work all that hard at it.
We opened the curtains as wide as they would go, and the bright morning sun helped to provide light. I waffled on opening the shop but the truth was, I just wasn’t up to seeing people. Even being around family was tough right now. Especially ones like Kimberly, who kept giving me that look.
She knew something was wrong with me. Really, really wrong. But, Goddess love her, she wasn’t about to pry until I was ready to talk about it. I wasn’t sure that would ever come to pass.
The kids demanded a break about mid-morning, and I agreed. Looking at the main shop, I allowed myself a brief moment of pride. My shop is never all that dusty, but right now, it shined. And there was that wonderful, clean lemon scent in the air too. We’d have to do this joint-effort cleaning thing more often if it got results like this.
Almost made me want to throw open the shop just so people could see it at its best. Almost.
Unfortunately, the break did something besides just give us a chance to rest before tackling the upstairs. It gave me time to think again. That wasn’t a good thing right now. Not with the thoughts in my head.
I was reaching for my phone to do something I hadn’t done in over five years. I was going to cancel date night. Part of that was the fact that I just didn’t think I could bear to be alone with Orville right now. I’d agreed to give him seven days to clear up this whole murder and omen thing, but that didn’t mean we’d be spending a heck of a lot of time together while he tried to do that.
Personally, after that downed tree, I kind of thought it was a lost cause.
But I didn’t get a chance to make that call. The phone rang in my hand. My daughter, Ruby.
“Hey, Mom!” Her voice was bright and happy. Just what I needed. Maybe the Goddess hadn’t totally turned her back on me after all.
“Good morning, Ruby. How are things in your neck of the woods?”
“Pretty good, actually. Amie and I just brought in a fairly big bounty jumper, and we wanted to celebrate. So we’re inviting the whole family over for dinner tonight. Orville, Kimberly, and the kids too, of course. Amie and I are even cooking! What do you think about that?”
It all sounded good to me. Well, with the possible exception of including Orville. But if we all rode over together, there wouldn’t be a real chance for us to be alone, now would there? And it would keep me from having to break a long-running date night streak too. Not that the streak had much meaning right now with the possible end of it all in sight.
“Can I ask what the menu is?” I knew my daughter and my niece. To say they weren’t at home in the kitchen would be putting it mildly.
“Nope. We’re gonna surprise you. But don’t worry, we’re making more than one thing, so we’re covering our bases.”
“Okay,” I said slowly. Might be worth making a casserole to take along, just in case. “Can I bring anything to help?”
“Hm. Well, we wouldn’t say no to a nice bottle of wine to go with dinner.”
“White or red?”
She laughed. “Does it ever really matter?”
Well, no, not with us it didn’t. But I wasn’t so sure about the Minehearts. They were a whole lot fancier than us. But I’d pick up a bottle of each, just to be safe.
The phone was still in my hand, but it took me more than a minute to make the next call. Orville answered on the first ring.
“Hello, Opal.” He paused for a second. “I’ve been wanting to call you all morning...” His words trailed off.
“Oh? Is something up?”
“No. I was just that worried about you. You, well, you weren’t yourself last night. And for good reason too. I just needed to know that you were okay. You being the one to call me, though, means a lot. Thank you. Unless, of course...” He trailed off again.
“I’ll keep our bargain, Orville. I was calling about date night. There’s been a change of plans.”
Silence.
“Orville?”
“You’re canceling date night?” His voice was more than a little strained. The man was hurting. And all because of me. I didn’t like that.
“Not canceling so much as giving it a change in venue. The girls have invited the whole family over for a family dinner tonight. To celebrate a big bounty bust or something. We’re supposed to bring wine.” I paused. This next part was the part I’d have to sell. “I thought maybe we could all ride together?”
My car was old enough to still have bench seats in the front. It would be cramped, but we could do it.
“That only makes sense, doesn’t it? But can I be the one driving?”
“When have you ever gotten an argument from me on that?”
He chuckled. “I love you, Opal.”
I smiled at the phone even though my heart was still in the process of breaking apart. “I love you too, Orville. That will never change, you know.”
“To the moon and back again, Opal.” There were voices behind him. The station sounded busy. Not that it was ever really all that quiet. “What time should I pick you all up?”
“Dinner’s at six, so say around five? That way, if the girls need any last-minute help, I’ll be there to oblige.”
“See you at five.” He didn’t hang up like he normally did. “And I should warn you that I have a surprise for all of you.”
Then he hung up. Darn the man, anyway. He knew I wasn’t big on surprises.
***
THAT STUPID SURPRISE thing of his was a ploy. I just knew it. He was probably thinking it would give me something else to stew on besides the whole canceling the wedding thing. Not that he was wrong in that. It did.
The only thing that saved me from driving myself batty about it was the fact that he’d said it was a surprise for all of us. Not just me. That made a big difference. I didn’t mind nice surprises for my family so much. And if it was coming from Orville, it would be a nice one. Not a doubt in my mind about that.
Come to find out, it was a very nice surprise indeed. Thinking back to it, he’d kind of given me a hint with the whole ‘what time should I pick you all up’ question. I’d thought it was just a slip of the tongue as we’d be taking my car.
It wasn’t.
Orville pulled onto the drive at the farmhouse at five minutes till five in a van. We all piled out to give it the once over.
It wasn’t new, or anything like new. It had a few years on it, but it didn’t look bad and the engine had a nice, smooth sound to it.
He smiled over at Kimberly. “I got tired of waiting for Opal to upgrade and give you her car, so I decided to beat her to it. The van’s all yours, Kimberly. It’ll seat seven, so we can all go places together in one vehicle. Even invite Gray along, if you want to.”
Kimberly just blinked at him. It was obvious she didn’t know what to say. For once, neither did I. This was an awesome gift, with a lot of meaning behind it. The van said we were a family and were going to be sticking together.
So yeah, I was speechless too. My man had just upped the pressure, and he knew it too. He would not make this any easier on me than he had to. In fact, just the opposite. He was determined to change my mind.
Not that the van was bought with that in mind. Knowing Orville, he’d had the thing for weeks and was just waiting for the first time we needed it to let the cat out of the bag. Just the kind of thing he’d do.
He glanced at me. “I know I said I’d drive, but how about we let Kimberly test out her new wheels?”
I nodded. That was fine with me.
Kimberly walked around the van, making little sounds as she went. When she finally made it back to Orville, she threw her arms around him. “Thank you! I’ve been looking for a new vehicle, and this is perfect. But I’m going to pay you back for this, you know.”
“Nope. I won’t take one red cent. I got it at a steal from an online police auction. People on the force got first dibs, so I took them up on it.” He tapped the hood. “Low mileage, too, only used to run a little home-made moonshine across state lines every other weekend.”
“Moonshine? Oh, I love that!” She eyed the side of the van. “Would you mind if I had Gray take a crack at painting it? Maybe a full moon wolf scene or something?”
He laughed. “It’s yours, so go for it.”
Personally, I thought the wolf moon scene would be especially appropriate for their family vehicle. What with baby Pearl being a high-powered witch and Gray being a werewolf. But then, she didn’t know any of that yet. Not unless Gray had come out to her. And I was betting that he was waiting a bit to do that.
We grabbed our stuff from the house, switched baby Pearl’s car seat base over to the van, and headed out.