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“I did,” I said, which was only the truth. I’d made a decent living reading Tarot and sometimes using my pendulum to provide counsel to a variety of West Los Angeles types, a lot of whom worked in the film and TV industry, even if they weren’t the forward-facing kind of people that anyone would have heard of. “But when I came here, I thought I’d make a fresh start, and that meant focusing on running the shop rather than being an actual psychic. I still do readings for myself and occasionally for friends if it’s something they feel is important enough, but trying to read cards as part of the business would have been too much. Until I got pregnant, this was pretty much a one-person operation.”
Chloe seemed to absorb all this information, her expression thoughtful. “I suppose I can see that,” she said after a pause. “But maybe once you come back from leave….”
She left the sentence hanging, and yet I thought I could guess what she was trying to say. While she was minding the store during my absence, she’d have to focus on being a shopkeeper. In the long run, though…if it turned out that she wanted to stay on…then maybe we could expand the business to having her conduct readings while I was out front working with customers, or vice versa.
“You like reading Tarot for people?” I asked, and she nodded.
“I started doing it in high school for my friends,” she said. “And then in college, I worked at a couple of psychic fairs and did readings there.”
An impressive resume for someone her age, since the fairs I’d attended before deciding I had a hard time focusing in crowds had been very careful about who they invited to be guest readers. Once again, I pondered whether I should ask if her parents had a problem with her attending those sorts of events — I loved my psychic community back in L.A., but even I’d known that the fairs could attract some fairly fringe people — and then I decided it wasn’t any of my business. From what I’d been able to tell, Chloe had genuine talent, and it seemed clear enough to me that her parents hadn’t wanted to stand in her way.
“Well, it’s something we can talk about when the time comes,” I said, and she seemed to get the hint that I wasn’t about to start making promises, not with a baby due any day now.
Olivia came in around three-thirty and I introduced the two girls. They seemed to hit it off right away, which was a relief, especially since I’d wondered if Olivia would worry that I planned to let her go now that I had Chloe here to help out. However, I had no intention of doing such a thing, figuring that it would be easier for both of them to have someone else here for at least part of the day. Besides, I knew Olivia had been counting on the money she was saving from her part-time job to help her get situated in her new apartment, and it wouldn’t have been fair to cut her off with no warning.
With everything that had been going on, I was kind of blindsided when my phone rang at four — a call from my mother, who’d been expected in town that afternoon, even though she hadn’t known for sure exactly when she and Tom would arrive at their home at the east end of Globe.
As soon as I saw her number, an uneasy sensation went through my stomach that had nothing to do with the baby I was carrying. How in the world was she going to react to finding out that my sister was not only here, but had already been welcomed into my life?
It’s fine, I reassured myself. It’s not as if she’s been harboring some kind of undying love for Jordan Fairfield all these years. And she never said you couldn’t look up your half-siblings, only that she didn’t know whether it would be a very good idea.
Even though my inner voice sounded particularly no-nonsense, I wasn’t sure whether I could believe it. After all, I’d never dealt with a situation like this before.
“Hi, Mom,” I said as I touched the screen to answer the phone. Luckily, Chloe and Olivia were over by the bookcases, maybe talking about the shelving system I used. But whatever they were doing, they didn’t seem to be paying any attention to me, thank the Goddess. “How are you?”
“I should be asking you that question,” she said with a laugh.
“Oh, I’m fine,” I told her. “Are you here in town?”
“Yes,” she replied. “We got to the house about fifteen minutes ago. I thought I’d open up some windows and air out the place a little bit before I gave you a call.”
My mother always had been a fresh-air fiend. If it was truly hot, then of course she’d close up everything and turn on the A/C, but she always preferred to have breezes blowing through open windows, and I couldn’t really blame her for that since I was the same way.
“That’s good,” I said, then paused. There wasn’t any way to tell her what was going on without just blurting it out, so that’s what I did. “Mom, Chloe Fairfield showed up in Globe yesterday. She’s a great girl, and I’m having her help me here at the store.”
A pause. Then my mother said, almost blankly, “Jordan’s Chloe?”
“Yes,” I replied. “I know it’s kind of a shock, but — ”
“It’s fine,” my mother cut in. “I’m actually glad to hear that she reached out to you. How old is she now?”
“Twenty-one, I think,” I said, feeling somewhat surreal. I supposed if I’d stopped to think about it, I should have known my mother would take the situation in stride. There wasn’t a whole lot that fazed her…except maybe a demon infestation that had turned out to be fake in the end. Then again, at the time none of us had guessed that the terrible manifestations in the historic house she and Tom had bought were a huge lie and not actual imps from Hell. “She’s staying at Hazel’s Airbnb for now.”
“Well, she’s certainly welcome at the house if Hazel needs her rental back,” my mother said. “We’ve got tons of space.”
True enough, since the massive Victorian was more than four thousand square feet in size and had six bedrooms. All the same, I was touched that my mother had made the offer. A lot of people would have found it just a little awkward to stay under the same roof as the child of their long-ago one-night stand.
“I’ll let her know,” I responded, and figured I’d better leave it at that for now. “Anyway, I know we all planned to meet for dinner tonight — is it okay if I bring Chloe along? She’s started to meet a few people in town, but she’s definitely not at the point where she’d be getting together with friends for meals yet.”
“Oh, it’s fine,” my mother said at once. “It’ll give us a chance to all get acquainted. Tom already made reservations at the Gold Dust, but we’ll just call and let them know we’ll be a party of five instead of four.”
“Thanks, Mom,” I said, knowing I was thanking her for a whole lot more than merely changing the dinner reservations to accommodate our new guest.
“Not a problem.” She paused there, then added, her tone changing subtly, “I think it’s wonderful that your baby’s aunt will be here when he or she comes into the world. I know Calvin has plenty of family who’re awaiting the big day, but….”
“But it’ll be nice to have someone else from my side of the family,” I finished softly.
“Exactly. Well, we’ll see you at the Gold Dust at six-thirty.”
