He shook his head. “We’ll always have to watch.”
For usurpers, for invaders, for the ultimate evil descending upon us and stealing our souls. All of the above. I didn’t want to know.
I changed the subject. “Someday you have to tell me about Coronado. I want you to tell me where you came from and how you got here. The whole story. No dodging.”
“All right. I will, someday.”
Then he produced a copy of the book, which he’d been hiding behind his back. He gave me a gotcha look. “Can I get mine signed, too?”
Happily I took it and wrote with the most flourishing handwriting I could manage: To Rick: Always look on the sunny side of life. Love, Kitty.
Then Ben and I got this great idea. Well, I had the idea—borrowed it from Ahmed, the werewolf I’d met in Washington, D.C., who didn’t hold with packs and fighting. But Ben made it happen. Found the place and did the paperwork to set up the business.
He let me tell Shaun about it.
I picked up Shaun after he got off work and took him to the storefront on the east side of downtown. It had been a bar and grill until a few months ago, and would be again, or something like it, maybe, with luck. Shaun knew the place. He gave me a startled look when I pulled out the keys for the front door.
“It’s yours?” Shaun asked.
“Ben and I picked up the lease.” I led Shaun inside.
The fixtures had been gutted, which was fine, because I hoped we could redo it all. The bar and shelves behind it were intact, but everything else was a wide open expanse of hardwood floor. Potential incarnate.
I told him about D.C. “There’s this place run by a wolf named Ahmed. It isn’t anybody’s territory. Anyone’s welcome there, as long as they keep the peace. Wolves, foxes, jaguars, lions, anybody. People come there to talk, visit, drink, play music, relax. No pressure, no danger. You understand?”
He nodded, donning a slow smile. “Rick’s Café.”
I shook my head. “No, it’s got nothing to do—”
His grin broke full force. “Not that Rick. Casablanca.”
Oh, that Rick. “Yes. Exactly. Ahmed subsidized his place with a restaurant, but this has to be a real business. It has to support itself, and there aren’t enough lycanthropes around here to do that. So it has to be real, open to the public, everything, and still be a haven for people like us. And we need someone to run it. Do you think you can handle it?”
“Totally,” he said, not even a spot of hesitation, which gave me confidence. “Absolutely. There—that’s where the stage goes, for live music.” He marched to a corner and turned, sweeping a circle with his arms. His eyes lit up with plans. “And no TVs. I hate TVs in bars. And maybe we can have a private room in back for the pack.”
His enthusiasm was infectious. This was going to be good, I could feel it.
He said, “You know what you want to call the place?”
“I’ve had some ideas. Do you have any suggestions?”
He was still looking around, gazing in every corner, studying every wall. “New Moon,” he said.
I could already hear Billie Holiday playing on the sound system. I could smell beer and fresh appetizers, hear an espresso machine hissing away in the corner. Sense the press of bodies around me, all of them smiling. Nobody fighting.
“I like it,” I said.
“We’ll stay open all
night,” he continued. “Feed the nightclub crowd on weekends. We’ll need a liquor license, and—”
He kept going, spinning out plans, and I happily basked in the knowledge that I had chosen my minion well.
In the end, Mom was right. She’d been right the whole time, every single phone call she made to me when I was on the road, asking me when I was going to come home, making all those pleas. She knew, and I should have known, that I’d come back eventually.
For Mom’s birthday, we had a big party at their house. The spirit of celebration was headier than usual. After facing the possibility that one of these birthdays we wouldn’t have her anymore, we were determined to make a production of it. Cheryl had decorated the living room with streamers and balloons—which the kids couldn’t keep their hands off. Then Jeffy started crying when Nicky popped one in his face, and well . . . Cheryl stuffed all the balloons in a closet after that, and Dad distracted the kids with wrapping paper and boxes, the best toys ever. I’d brought a huge ice cream cake. The whole family was there, relatives I hadn’t seen in years stopped by, and with all the cake, snacks, and sodas, the whole place smelled like too much sugar.
The medical gurus decided Mom’s cancer was Stage II. The prognosis was still good, as she kept saying. She was recovering from her second chemotherapy treatment. We’d tried to schedule the party so she’d be mostly over the effects, and the plan seemed to have worked. She was up, well, and smiling. She still had her hair, but not her appetite. We’d filled the house with her favorite foods, and she couldn’t eat any of it. But she didn’t complain. She was determined to put on a good show for our guests.