The next email was Kerry filling me on what to expect Monday: farmers and orchardists who needed help harvesting bumper crops of perishable vegetables and fruits and concerned citizens with questions about a proposed public set-up for islanders to do bulk canning. I had long supported that idea, but we weren’t the agency to tackle the necessary inspections. Our purview was the farms and organic farming practices.
My belly gurgled. I picked up my phone to read a text from Thatcher.
“OMW”
“What do I feed Jasper?”
“NVM”
The jangle and clank of a full tray sounded down the hall and stopped. My door knob turned very slowly, released, and turned again.
“Jasper, push,” said Thatcher. He and the cat stumbled into the room. “Sorry for the delay, Mom. Everybody’s getting a slow start today. Sallie needed Jasper’s help.” He balanced the tray on my desk chair, after placing a book across the dip in the seat cushion. “But I called Shamaha, and she explained this stage of the withdrawal process. Sallie’s purging the poison, and she needs to soak.” He sat on the edge of the bed and patted the quilt bunched at my feet. Jasper hopped next to him and rubbed his head under Thatcher’s chin. “Is it okay if she uses your bathtub?”
“Of course,” I said. I was going to ask if Shamaha had anything else to say about caring for Sallie when one of my phone’s alerts went off. I handed the phone to Thatch. “Can you answer this? I have no idea what icon to tap.”
Thatch had that know-it-all teenager smirk happening as he thumbed the front of my phone and put it to his ear. “Hullo?” He nodded. “Sure thing.” He handed the phone to me. “I think it’s Tanner, but the connection’s really bad.”
Thatcher shouldered Jasper, to the cat’s obvious delight, and left my bedroom, closing the door behind.
“Hello? Tanner?” I pressed the phone tight to my ear.
“Calli.”
“Where are you?”
“I’m at a portal hub, and there’s a bit of traffic jam.”
“Are you at the one in Seattle?” I asked. Show me a place once, and I was an expert.
“No, Montreal,” he answered. And paused, his breath catching on an inhale, “How did you even think to ask?”
“Because I landed at the one in Seattle last night. Twice”
“Calli, I have so many questions and not nearly enough time to ask them. I’m waiting in line for the portal back to France.”
Back to France?
“I have questions too,” I said, and because today was the day for me to get shit done, I pushed. “The other night, you left without saying anything. Wes had to go to the hospital with me because I was so upset, and when we got there, it was too late to see Abi and Cliff. By the time I got back to the hospital the next day, they had been discharged into Jessamyne’s care and taken Goddess knows where.”
“I know,” he said. Though the phone connection wavered, those two words came through crystal clear. In my upset with Tanner, I stood too fast and sloshed tea all over my sheets.
“What do you mean, you ‘know’?”
“I followed Jessamyne to France.”
France. I had never been to France. And now I wanted to tear the country apart until I found my friends and saw with my own eyes they were safe. “But couldn’t you have stopped her? I mean, how could she transport two elderly people all by herself?”
“She used her magic and the portals, and brought Cliff and Abi to her mother, Ni’eve. And I couldn’t stop her because I was stuck in my wolf.” Tanner blew a long breath out of his nose. “Calliope, change of plans. I’m coming to you first. Cliff and Abi are with my teacher. They’re getting extraordinary care, better than anything any of us could provide. And it’s going to take some time before the other druids I contacted for help to get back to me.”
I wanted Cliff and Abi home, in their own beds, in familiar surroundings. I wasn’t so sure today was the day to hash out relationship parameters with Tanner. “I’ve got a class at noon and a houseful of people.”
“I’ll keep myself busy until we can talk,” he said. “Please, give me a—”
Our call was cut off. I was staring at my phone’s blank screen when a shout of, “Tanner!” came from the back yard. I swung my legs off the bed, stripped it of tea-stained sheets, and stuffed them into the washing machine. I even managed to whip a fresh bottom sheet onto my mattress. I left the top sheet for later.
That was fast. Proper incentive was everything.
I ducked into the bathroom to brush my teeth and pee and walked out of the house and into the chaos of men, building materials, and flat-ship boxes from Ikea. Tanner was at the crabapple tree, embracing Wes, with Thatcher waiting his turn and Christoph waving from the back of the truck.
Tanner’s gaze met mine. There was nothing wishy-washy about the message.
I was next in line for a hug. I kept it brief. Both of us, barefoot on the ground, connected our bodies in a familiar way, but I wasn’t ready to tug on the desire flickering between us.
“Breakfast over?” he asked.
“Nothing made or served yet,” said Christoph. “If I can get an extra hand or two, I’ll put on the apron and we’ll see what an old bird can rustle up.”
“Would you like to shower?” Tanner’s usual scent was masked by all the other scents he’d picked up on his travels, and my nose wasn’t happy.
“Yeah. And I need clean clothes.” He plucked at a shirt I’d never seen him wearing, sniffed, grimaced, and pulled it over his head. “And what’s all this?” he asked,
