“They are. Slowly.”
“You ready to eat?”
“I am. First, I just need a—”
“Lavender wipe?” He held one out to her and she smiled and took it from his hand.
“You are the best fake boyfriend ever.”
“Better than Sven?”
She stood up and tossed the lavender wipe over her shoulder. Who needed aromatherapy when she had Erick’s sex therapy?
“Sven who?”
15
IF BEING ERICK’S girlfriend didn’t feel official before, it certainly did now. Clover stood at the Portland International Airport security exit as she waited for Ruthie to appear. Erick was in the car in short-term parking so Clover and Ruthie would have a few minutes alone to talk.
Funny. Clover had one day left to decide if she wanted to sell to PNW Garden Supply and yet the only thing that made her nervous was facing Ruthie. Erick had said Ruthie was happy for them, “stupid happy” even, but that was a few days ago and while Ruthie was in LA. When Ruthie saw her dad and Clover together it might be more uncomfortable than Ruthie had realized at the time. Clover couldn’t stomach the thought of being happy at the expense of Ruthie’s feelings. She could only hope that Ruthie could handle her father dating her boss, because the only thing that would suck more than losing Erick’s love would be losing Ruthie’s. Clover crossed her fingers, and if she could have, she would have crossed her toes, too. She had on rain boots, however, and they didn’t have enough wiggle room in the toes.
Clover put on a bright smile as Ruthie turned the corner. In one week she’d changed her hair from purple to royal blue. Hello Kitty and My Little Pony stickers covered her rolling suitcase, and she wore black-and-white-striped leggings that made her look a little like Beetlejuice. She was impossible to miss.
Ruthie spied Clover and a bright smile crossed her face. Instead of walking, she jogged down the rest of the exit way to Clover and caught her in a huge hug.
“Mommy!” Ruthie said, squeezing the breath out of Clover.
“Oh, my God, the California sun fried your brain,” Clover croaked.
“I’m just so happy to have a new stepmother.” Ruthie sighed, leaning her head on Clover’s shoulder and fake-weeping in her hopefully-not-fake happiness. “And just in time for Yule. We can celebrate the Goddess Rite together—stepmother-goddess and stepdaughter-goddess.”
“I’m not your stepmother yet. Or a goddess.”
“Ha! You said yet.”
“Do we sacrifice people during the Yule Goddess Rite because I already have someone picked out if we do.”
“No sacrificing. You just have to put on a crown of holly and a robe, say some ancient stuff and light the yule log. Then we b
ake
cookies. But not for Yule. Those are for Christmas. Pops is a square. He won’t let me cast a Yule circle unless we can bake Christmas cookies after.”
“That’s a good compromise. Your father is a wise man.”
Ruthie finally released Clover, who took a full breath since she could again.
“He’s dating you so I have to raise my low expectations of him,” Ruthie said. Clover took the large backpack from Ruthie and they headed toward baggage claim.
“I’m glad you’re not freaking out over us dating,” Clover said. “I can’t believe how fast everything happened.”
“Fast?” Ruthie rolled her eyes and shook her head. “You two have been making gaga eyes at each other for a year. I thought I was going to have to cast love spells on you both to get you to admit it to each other.”
“No love spells required. Just you forgetting your phone. Nice trick.”
“I was pretty proud of that one myself. Took an insane amount of self-sacrifice on my part. I was phoneless for thirty-six hours. Now I know what life in the ’80s was like. No wonder people were this close to nuclear Armageddon.”
“Well, we appreciate your sacrifice on behalf of the cause. But I don’t want you to worry. Your dad and I had a serious talk yesterday and there will be no moving in together or anything of the sort until you’re in college. We don’t want to mess with your routine.”