Page 35 of A Light in the Dark
THIRTY-FIVE
That’s sneaky. I like it.
Somehow, everyone survived the surprise birthday party for Coraline. The parrots stole the show, especially after demonstrating they had a solid vocabulary, an interest in classical music, and knowledge about their favorite composers. Someone had found some bananas for them, and Coraline issued out rewards of their beloved food whenever they managed to teach someone something new.
The party may as well have been hosted for the birds. The baby bunnies came a close second. Whenever Coraline was left unattended for even a minute, she had them out of their cage, cuddling with her new furry children. Each time Calden took the bunnies away from her, she pouted.
I suspected the man loved making the woman pout at him, as he used the excuse of containing the vicious killer rabbits in their cage, else they might slaughter someone. That Coraline accepted the potential hazards of the vicious killer rabbits would amuse me for a long time to come .
When everyone finally left, cleaning up after themselves as promised, I put some serious thought into sleeping at my table. Joel tended to my roses outside, and I observed him through the window, wondering what he might do if he found me passed out in my kitchen. Before I could put my fledgling plan into motion, he came inside to wash his hands.
“It appears you are finished for today,” he commented while drying off. “I’d ask if you wanted me to help with the cleanup, but the invaders did a pretty good job handling all the chores. They even cleaned the bathrooms. I think the only thing they didn’t touch was the explosion of silk taking over two different rooms upstairs.”
The room with my sewing machine had my first shift silk in it along with the rest of the silk I’d produced before being forced back to human form. My office had Joel’s silk, and it had taken over everything. I would, with a little work, be able to reach my laptops. “The volume is horrifying, Joel. I knew I was pretty bad because of my first shift, but you have crammed an entire room with your silk.”
“Sick luna moths with strong magical capabilities are worth a fortune.”
“I mailed over two hundred pounds of your silk to Yolana. Is sick luna moth silk as good as healthy silk?”
“Usually, there’s no real difference. First shift silk is the special stuff, but it’s mostly special because it’s your first shift silk. I recommend you hire Yolana to spin it into cloth for you. Most luna moth women use their first shift silk for special occasions. If she’s not yet married, she’ll have her wedding dress either made from her partner’s first shift silk or hers, and the groom’s suit will be first shift silk as well. Mine has already been spun into cloth, and it’s magically preserved.”
“White?”
“Half of mine is white, half is black. I produced almost eight hundred pounds of silk. You produced a lot more than I expect from a first shifter, so I think you should have your magical aptitude officially tested. You might have some form of buried ability. And if you’re someone who can work shoring, I pay temporary contractors quite well.”
I considered the man, aware my father had made an excellent point regarding my general inability to indicate that I would like to try to have a relationship beyond friendship. As nothing ventured meant nothing gained, and that I would recover from any heartache that might result, I asked, “But do you pay while naked and sharing my bed?”
He raised a brow at my question. “While that’s not how I normally pay contractors, if you would like some bonuses issued while I’m naked and sharing your bed, I feel that’s something we could discuss—preferably while naked and sharing a bed. I’m honestly not picky if it’s yours or mine.”
“Mine’s here. Yours is not,” I replied, doing my best to remain dignified.
“Unless you have a stash of birth control hidden around here, we’ll have to venture forth. Luna moths are quite careful about sharing the wares, as we have some biological considerations.”
I joined him in raising a brow. “Biological considerations? I mean, beyond the risk of having children.”
“When luna moths neglect to use protection, procreation is a guarantee. The risk level is a hundred percent. We actually have a special birth control we use, both men and women, because otherwise, we’d have a child every ten months like clockwork. The problem is, both men and women have to be on the birth control for at least three months for it to work. So, we will need to go to the pharmacy for some prevention aids, you will need an appointment with Meri or Lois to get the prescription for your birth control, and you’ll have to go through some education on how we share certain traits with luna moths when we have children. There are no mistakes with luna moths, only guarantees. But in good news, we have an excellent survival rate for the little ones, and luna moth shifters enjoy perfect maternity survival rates. But we have biologically mastered reproduction, and it can be a problem.”
I stared at him with wide eyes. “Are you seriously telling me that luna moths are the fountain of youth and a living, breathing fertility clinic?”
He bowed his head and laughed. “I guess I am. Just be glad my parents haven’t assumed we’re interested in each other yet. If they determined we hadn’t had this discussion, I would be locked in their basement, you would be treated like a princess while getting this talk, and you’d be ruling the entire town within a week.”
“I already rule the entire town, Joel. I’m currently the mayor.”
He let out another laugh. “May I ask how long you’ve been interested?”
“The trip to visit your family definitely did a good job of convincing me I should be convincing you to live here,” I confessed. “Everything else has supported my initial thought quite nicely. We could turn your house into a guest house. I like my house, and I have excellent roses.”
“Keeping my house and turning it into a guest house and a place to park our cars is good idea, but I’m afraid I’m going to insist on you getting a car, much like Calden is with Coraline. You need the freedom to come and go as you please, and I need my SUV for work. However, unlike Calden, I’m not going to insist you drive to work. That’s ridiculous.”
“Working right up the street does factor into that. I’d spend more time trying to park. I also like the walk. It’s good exercise.”
“That hill is no joke. When I first realized you walk to work, it horrified me. Then I realized you have a really good health plan in action. You’re going to stay in shape if you’re walking up that hill daily.”
I nodded. “Exactly. And if I really need to take it easy, I bet I could ask my handsome neighbor if he’d drive me up the hill to work.”
“Am I going to stay your neighbor the whole time?”
“Well, when you’re here, you’re obviously a hostage, and it seems like a shame to lose an opportunity to screw around with everyone. How long will it take them to realize my handsome neighbor is actually living with me?”
“We could pull the ruse off for quite a while, actually, especially if we use my place as a crafting storage location in addition to a guest house. I also have to take care of my courtyard and garden.”
“I’m sure such caretaking will go quickly with both of us working together to get everything done.” I rubbed my hands together, went on a hunt for my purse and shoes, and escorted myself to the door to wait for Joel to take the hint. “ You can’t disappoint Elenora, Joel. You must do your duty for the peace and happiness of the entire street.”
Snickering all the way, Joel gathered his things, including the keys needed for his garage and SUV. “I’ll text Lois on the way, as she’ll surely want to investigate if we’re in good health following your first shift. As I’m an excellent custodian of our flutter, she won’t suspect you’re getting your birth control so you can indulge with me at your leisure. She’ll just assume I gave you the same exact talk I give every new member of the flutter.”
“That’s sneaky. I like it. How long do you think we can trick the entire flutter?”
“With how many babysitters we’re going to be having in the next few weeks? Not nearly as long as I would like. Oh, well. It’s a small price to pay. They’ll be over every chance they can get because you are the undisputed local queen of roses now. Your garden is a masterpiece of roses. I’d be jealous, but I’m a happy hostage with unlimited rose visitation rights.”
“You can even help me pick patio furniture and my new barbecue. Those are the only things that haven’t gotten done yet.”
“I am sure I can help you with both of those pursuits. I feel I should contribute to half of the bill, because if I am going to be a hostage here, I will be making use of that barbecue often.”
I considered him, and after a moment, I nodded. “I can accept allowing my hostage to contribute to the barbecue and patio furniture fund.”
“Then it’s a plan. I’ll see if Lois is available to confirm we’re healthy, we’ll go to the pharmacy to pick up everything we need, and we’ll swing by the store to select and order the patio furniture and the barbecue, that way nobody is suspicious about our activities. We can hide our purchases among other things as long as we don’t have chaperones in the pharmacy.”
“I’ll just get a variety and tell them if I’m going to have a bunch of randy luna moths at my house, I will have appropriate protection in all of my bathrooms,” I replied, snickering at the thought of people misusing my guest beds. “Are luna moths like wolf shifters?”
“We partner for life, yes. Should our partner die, we will eventually find new partners. My parents are both on their second partners, although Dad didn’t become a luna moth until meeting my mother. My mother’s first husband died in a car accident. My father’s first wife died from heart disease. She died pretty young. My mom was on her own for a while before meeting Dad, and she met Dad while he was grieving for his wife.”
“Oh. I’m sorry.” I winced at the thought of his parents having loved and then lost. “That sounds so hard.”
“They found each other, so don’t feel too sorry for them. Dad took his time picking up Mom’s genetics, and I suspect Dad picked up Mom’s genetics due to desperation to have a kid. Mom refused until Dad was shifting.”
I grinned at the thought of his mother handling his father in such a fashion. “And I just spontaneously decided I really wanted to be a luna moth. I’m blaming the ready access to silk beyond what I can obtain through coercion.”
Joel laughed at me. “That I can believe. Anyway, while luna moths do partner for life, we socially determine life to begin at marriage, so we can explore our personal compatibility for a while before we take the dive. But over time, luna moths hate being separated, so it’s as much magical as it is social.”
“I do get annoyed when my hostage wanders off for long,” I replied. “You can wander to work, but you need to come home promptly. I did not find keeping you company in the hospital to be at all tiresome.”
“Now that’s a ringing endorsement. I mean, it bodes well for tolerating each other, though.” Joel waited for me to lock the door and figure out how to engage my new alarm system before walking me to his house. “Are you going to be okay with being the mayor?”
“I’ll have to be. After seeing the border situation, there’s no way I’m just letting that disaster fester for the next sucker in line.”
He sighed. “You realize if you sweep in and fix everything that they’ll want you to remain the mayor, right? And if you eradicate corruption in the government, a lot of people are going to like you.”
“Except the corrupt.”
“I’m hoping the corrupt will be in prison.”
“I’ll worry about crossing that bridge when I get to it. For now, I’ll put out the fires I can, make certain the refugees are protected, and do what I can in the three hours a day I’m willing to spend on it—and I won’t be working weekends. They’re just going to have to learn to deal with no mayor for the weekends unless it’s an actual emergency. I’m going to be a great deal happier about handling my job as the mayor if I have a handsome neighbor serving my every need at home, though.”
“After we handle our evening errands, I look forward to discussing my duties. It seems only fair that I should volunteer to sacrifice my body for the sake of our city-state.”
“Please hold that thought,” I requested.
“By the time tomorrow comes, I am hopeful to be holding a great deal more than mere thoughts.”