“Uh...” Noa glanced over at Liv, who was tapping away on her phone. Getting no help from her, she said, “No. I don’t know enough about it.”
“Mayor Mulligan does,” Olivia offered. “I can ask Janet and let you know what she says.”
He grunted in agreement.
“You have to tell her about it yourself, Fitz. I’m not getting into that shit,” Noa said. “My generosity only extends so far.”
“Fine. Thank you.”
“Are we good?” Olivia checked. “Ren’s ready to talk.”
“Human-mode, activate.” Noa smoothed the front of her overalls and shimmied into some sort of different demeanor.
“Hi, hi!” a cheerful voice floated from Olivia’s phone as she greeted Renata on camera.
“Let’s take this to the studio.” Standing from his chair with a sigh, Elliott set his empty mug on the railing and ushered the women off his porch.
Liv found a jug of glaze to prop her phone against, and they set up for their call. Even though Ren’s fiancé said her original favors were “tacky,” he apparently couldn’t be assed to get on the phone with her to select new ones.
Renata was friendly, a teacher like Olivia, and all kindness, patience, and smiles as they rehashed Elliott’s original order. He’d already knocked out most of the large vases for floral centerpieces and still needed to make flower-shaped oil diffusers (for the ambiance), plus the new favors. But he had time.
“It’s going to be beautiful, thank you,” Ren confirmed, a smile showing off her big teeth.
Bracing his elbows on his worktable, he leaned down so she wasn’t stuck staring at his stomach and asked, “What’re you thinking for the favors?”
Renata presented a few ideas by holding her phone up to her laptop screen. She was most excited about small ceramic chips painted with florals to match the wedding bouquets. Each would be the size of a stamp and mounted on a magnet to hold up the guest’s seat assignment.
“I can knock out your bases—easy—but I’m not a great painter.” He grimaced. “I usually do abstract designs with my glazes.”
“Fern can do the detail work! It’s like her nails,” Olivia suggested, peeking at the phone.
“Yes, Liv! That’s perfect!”
“Works for me,” he said with a business-like nod. Inside, he and his bear rejoiced. He shouldn’t have, but he did. If they were both in their corporeal forms at the same time, they’d probably have held hands and hopped around in a circle.
Renata thanked him, he promised to send over sample photos, and his business on the call came to an end.
“I think we’re going to hit the road,” Liv began, lifting her phone and starting toward the door.
“Don’t go!” He heard Ren shout. “We need to talk about my cake, and I need to talk flowers with Noa.”
“Let me call you back in five minutes?”
With that decided, Renata hung up, and Elliott practically pounced on the women but reined himself in, feigning coolness. “What time’s your appointment, dude?”
“One.”
It was twelve-fifteen. Cool left the room. “Jesus,go. You don’t want to miss it.”
Olivia snorted, and Noa straight out cackled at him. Then they swept through the open doors of his studio and headed toward Liv’s Subaru.
“Wait!”
Four matching dark arches ran across their foreheads as they turned to face him, awaiting his request.
Heat rose to his face, and a cough did nothing to help his anxiety. He couldn’t believe what he was about to admit. But he had to start somewhere. “Can I get her number?”
“Ren’s?” Liv asked with a cheeky tilt of her head.
