“Is it?” I asked, doing another card with a bit of extra force on the fold.
“Sure!” she replied. “It’s hump day, sunny and gorgeous, and we are on the way to get one of the best biscuits in town. It’s perfect!”
I blinked. In the background, Crawford spoke for me, saying, “You’re being weird today.”
“Oh, hush. Can’t a person be happy once in a while?” she asked. To me she said, “The GRAVY Truck is actually right over near you. Can you take a break? I want you to meet Michael Salem.”
“Does he always go by his first and last names?”
“Salem is hismiddlename,” she corrected me, “and I think it’s cute.”
“This the guy from the party last night?” I asked.
“I met him there, yes,” she replied. “But he’s not just a guy from a party, if you know what I mean.”
“Whatdoyou mean?” I asked.
“Just that, you know...” She lowered her voice. “I like him. A lot. Like, very much a lot.”
I was about to tell her she’d only just met him, that it couldn’t possibly be that serious. But I knew the tone of her voice, that buoyant giggle, the sudden glint the world got on a morning after like this. Clearly, epic was going around. Too bad I’d already had my turn.
“That’s great, Jilly,” I said. “I’m so happy for you.”
“Well, I mean, it’s early,” she replied, sounding anything but under-confident. “But he’s just... he’s sonice, Louna. And totally not my type! He had on a hoodie and carried a skateboard the entire time we were together. And he’s a redhead. With freckles!”
I smiled. “I can’t wait to meet him.”
“Then come to the truck. Their chicken biscuits are to die for.”
“I wanted a muffin,” Crawford said.
“Me, too,” said KitKat. “We hate biscuits.”
“Hush up,” Jilly sang out, hardly bothered. “Louna?”
I looked back at the office, where my mom was still on the phone. “I can’t. We’ve got this huge rehearsal dinner and wedding this weekend. There’s tons to do.”
“Oh. Okay.” She sounded disappointed. For about two seconds. “But you will meet him, and soon, okay? We’ll double date, you and the Lumberjack. Hey, how did that go, anyway? You looked like you were having fun.”
“It was fine,” I told her, as Ambrose came back in with thecoffees, then hummed his way past me, giving me a jaunty salute with his free hand. I tried not to grimace, probably failed. “I’ll fill you in later.”
“Do that. Or call if you do get a break. I’m in the car or the truck until at least five. Have a great day!”
“Okay,” I said, not even trying to match her enthusiasm. I put down my phone, then picked up another card, folding it and adding it to the stack. As I reached for another one, a book suddenly dropped onto the table beside me. A slim paperback, the cover featured a line drawing of a field, one crow flying overhead.HARVEST, it said on the cover. I looked at Ambrose, who was taking his seat beside me. “What’s this?”
“A loan from Leo,” he replied, starting in on his own stack of cards. “He said to take your time with it.”
I pulled the book over, flipping it open.A NOVEL BY MCCALLUM MCCLATCHY, said the title page. I turned another page, which had passages highlighted, notes scribbled in the margins, and read the first line.
In a world, in a field, a plow sits. Harvest has come.
“Oh, for God’s sake,” I said out loud, pushing it aside.
Ambrose glanced at me. “Are you okay?”
“I’m fine,” I said, a bit too forcefully. “I just want... to work.”
“Sure.” He folded another card. “Let’s work.”
