Catching Rainbows

20

The next morning my aunt got up with Hailie so I could sleep in for once. Mornings were easier for my cousin without the gluten in her system, which made it easier for her mother to parent her. It was amazing that a food reaction could contribute so heavily to sensory problems and behavior and anxiety.

I felt better for having slept all night, and to top it off my aunt took Hailie to her therapy at eleven. Nathaniel was at school and that meant I had the house to myself for a change.

I hummed as I turned up the water heater and then straightened the living room around Hailie's various ongoing projects, happier than I'd been at any time in the last crappy year. Part of my mind was working on the blackmail problem, but the majority of it was filled with replays of my time with her the night before.

And while I knew there was no way to magically turn our rundown little home into a castle, I do have a sense of pride and wanted things to look as nice as possible just in case she ended up bringing Joey over to play. She'd already texted me good morning from her post at The Splash Zone ticket window, saying she would call me when her shift was over at noon.

I dragged out the old cumbersome vacuum and danced a little while pushing it around. The part that held the roller in was cracked so it knocked against the guard and made a ton of noise; Hailie hated it. I tried to do it when she wasn't home, but as I was usually the one to take her places, that didn't leave me much opportunity.

Finally the water was hot enough and I took a shower without anyone needing anything, which was rare, then spent twenty minutes putting on my makeup. I got the dishes out of the way next, then turned my attention to the front yard.

The lawn desperately needed mowing and I did that first, picking and blowing all the dandelion wishes rather than destroy them. I am aware this creates more dandelions; call me sentimental. I swept off the walkway and watered the flowers that were dying in front of the book store entrance. The empty parking lot of the closed cafe next to us giving me a sinking feeling whenever I looked at it.

When it had been open daily, about half of their weekend traffic had browsed through the bookstore, which had greatly raised our sales. If only we had the means to buy it somehow, I knew I could turn it back into a popular place. I had a dozen recipes that would sell like crazy. But it was just a dumb dream; we could barely pay the bills we had and were in debt over fifty thousand dollars.

I shook off the thoughts, knowing my time alone was rapidly diminishing, and went in to mix up some dark chocolate cupcakes in rainbow wrappers. 

They were just going into the oven when Chloe called. "Hey," I tried to say casually, as if I wasn't thinking almost exclusively of kissing her on the roof.

"Hi," she said. "How are you?"

I felt a stupid grin take over my face at the sound of her voice, which was lilting, velvety, enticing. Maybe when we were married she would read to me. "I'm good, how are you, and have I mentioned I love your voice?"

"Pfff," she answered, but I could hear the smile in it. "I'm good. Just got done dealing with the sweaty public, always a good time. What are you doing?"

"I'm alone in a quiet house for a change; Hailie's at occupational therapy and her own mother actually took her." I poured some coffee into a damp Avengers mug, adding milk and sugar and too much Hershey's syrup. "She'll take a nap when she gets back, God willing, but do you want to hang out later still with the kids?" Please say yes please say yes please say yes.

"Yes," she came back with immediately, and I did a little happy dance in the kitchen. "If it's still good for you?"

"Um, yes," I said as if she was crazy. "Yes, babe, it is definitely good for me." Oops, the babe just slipped out, but it worked. I sipped my coffee, which was perfect, and squirted some whipped cream on top.

"Yay! Do I hear whipped cream?" The dinging of her open car door began in the background.

I bit back the first two or three responses I had to that. Inappropriate, Luna. Focus. "Making a mocha," I finally decided on, my face warming a little at the thought of me and her and whipped cream mixed together.

"Yum. So what do you want to do?"  

I looked around at the still-messy house and asked anyway. "You guys want to come here in a couple hours?" If Hailie did take a nap I would have two more hours to do more of a deep, frantic, company's-coming-clean, which I hadn't gotten around to in three weeks. At least.

"Sure, if that works, I'd love to. Can I bring anything?"

"Just yourself," I assured her. Excitement ran through me at the thought of seeing her again. "And Joey probably. Hey, I never realized your names rhymed."

"I begged them not to call him Joseph," she said dryly, only partially joking. "But they did anyway."

"At least you have a normal name to rhyme with," I mock-admonished. "Try Luna Tuna, or Luna the Big Kahuna."

She laughed. "Luna is a beautiful name, and totally suits you," she answered firmly. I sensed her hesitation and waited. "You're okay about last night?"

"I am so okay about it," I told her, with feeling. Lots of feelings.

"I mean, I know things are complicated but it was honestly kind of killing me, waiting to kiss you," she confessed in a half-whisper.

"Mood," I said, grinning so damn foolishly I was so glad no one could see me. "And we're not complicated. There are no complications with us. As for that one little problem, we'll take care of it, don't worry."

"My happiness is outweighing the worry, trust me," she assured me, and how cute was that.

I heard the van pull in and prayed Hailie wasn't coming in screaming. "Oof, they just got home. I'll text you when she gets up from her nap?"

"Yes, we'll be ready. Good luck!"

"Thanks. Can't wait to see you," I added. "Which you probably know."

"Same," she said, and I could hear the smile in her voice.