Page 81 of A Light in the Dark
Joel grumbled something under his breath, crossed his arms over his chest, and directed his glare at the pavement, although he shot dirty looks at the cops more than a few times.
“Joel,” Lois warned. “Do not even think about doing anything to Carlen.”
Wait. They knew the cops by name? “Which one is Carlen?”
“The tall one who kept asking about why you were shopping is Carlen, and he is in our flutter,” Meri explained.
Oh. A few possibilities came to mind, and I suspected the cop had been more angling about why I’d been at the furniture store with members of his flutter. “Ah. I understand. I’m an interloping female who is not a luna moth.”
Lois snickered and nodded. “And he was fishing for why you were with us, as there’s nothing on the grapevine about any new members of the flutter, and Joel doesn’t usually gather more than one or two of us at a time with someone who isn’t officially associated with us. He knows better than to ask us while Joel’s here, but I’m sure we’ll have a visitor soon enough.”
“Would inviting him to visit my rose garden help? With his job, he might need a good round with my roses.”
The luna moths all laughed. Joel relaxed, heaved a pained sigh, and headed over to pay a visit to the cops.
“I’ll go with him,” Meri said, and she hurried to catch up.
Lois snickered, shaking her head at the man’s antics. “Meri might be able to keep him contained. Joel’s always like this when something goes wrong, so try not to worry aboutit, Valerie. He’ll be back to normal tomorrow, although you might end up with a luna moth hanging out at your window all night.”
“I already warned him that luna moths who visit after hours are turned into nightlights and kept for release in the morning. Wise luna moths will leave my home before I’m ready for bed, else they’re held hostage until I get up for the day. I sleep in on Saturdays and Sundays. This is a sacred ritual.”
My boss laughed. “Your sacred sleep in ritual will be safe, I promise. After the day you’ve had, we’ll do our overtime for recruitment tomorrow. Hopefully, most companies will be too busy attending the fair to reach out, email, and start the process. My bosses won’t be happy with me for making them work overtime, but if we’re going to grab the good refugees, we need to act quickly. Joel might try to edge in on my action.”
I laughed at the thought of the flutter fighting with each other to hire the best employees. “Honestly, as long as either Joel or our company hires, I’m fine with that. It means they’ll be with good employers either way. But as soon as he stops playing with the cops, I’ll get him to take me home so I can set up my work laptop and go over resumes and unwind before tomorrow. I have to receive my furniture in the afternoon and learn how to make death cobbler in the morning. I’ll be working on the resumes between. At the very least, I can look up their bonus status before I go to bed. After this, I will not be ready to nap. Remember: any luna moths that enter my home tonight do not leave until morning.”
Lois headed in the direction of Joel, Meri, and the cops, waving her hand. “I’ll make sure Joel understands he won’tbe leaving your home tonight. I’ll make him get a move on, else we really will be here all night long.”
I eyed the trashed cars, wondering who owned them and why nobody had come out of the furniture store to claim the vehicles. “If I had heard a huge crash, I would have come running to see if it was my car that was destroyed. Or at least rubberneck.”
My boss shrugged. “They might be at one of the neighboring night stores. They all share this lot, and nobody worries if you park at one and go to the other. They could be at any one of the stores near here. Just don’t screw up your sleep schedule. I know mine’s going to be a mess, but I’m going to try to get as many of these resumes scanned or photographed as possible before heading home and confessing to my wife about my sins.”
“I’ll try my best, but I make no promises. After this? I’m going to be wired, and I’m going to eat my feelings. They’re stressed feelings. But in good news, I survived that asshole’s idiocy. I’m just glad he didn’t start screaming untilafterhe almost hit me.”
“Personally, I wish he hadn’t almost hit you. I thought my soul was going to flee my body for a moment. Do you think I can get away with telling my wife that I bought the chairs to cope with the accident?”
While I doubted it, I replied, “It’s worth a shot. Good luck.”
TWENTY-FOUR
Lucky machine.
While it took an hour,Meri and Lois managed to pull Joel away from the gathering of cops working to resolve the drunk driving incident and handle the wreckage. Tow trucks came, and I wondered how the owners would be notified that an idiot had trashed their property.
In Stonecreek, cars were as much of a status symbol as they were a convenience for their owners.
When Joel pulled up to drop me off, the men I’d spotted loitering the other day had returned, and they didn’t bother to hide their interest in me and my businessman companion. Rather unnerved, I hurried into my home while Joel went to park.
I expected he’d be either knocking or ringing my doorbell within the next ten minutes. That didn’t stop me from engaging the deadbolt and checking out the window to see what the strangers were up to.
They visited each of the businesses on our street before a silver SUV came and picked them up.
How odd.
Joel opted to come over as a human, and he carried a reusable bag with him. I let him in, and he held out the bag. “A gift of shifter luna moth silk for your fiber adventures. This is a mixed lot from my flutter, but it should keep you amused for at least ten minutes.”
I accepted the bag, grinned, and hung it from one of the hooks for me to deal with later. “Thank you. If I play with that right now, I’ll never get any work done, and I need to get some work done tonight or I’ll go mad. In good news, I have books, fiber, and anything else you might need to keep amused. I’ll even let you amuse yourself with my new sewing machine, but you’d have to go get your beloved fibers from Shifters Two and Three.”
After a moment of contemplation, he excused himself, fled to his home, and left me waiting for him, laughing all the while. Five minutes later, he returned hauling a pile of black and white fabric and thread. “I promise I’ll behave and be a good guest if I can play with your new sewing machine.”
