“Youdo?”
“I don’t know. I’m just assuming. Based on the way your face looked when you heard ‘Day After Day.’”
She laughed again, delightedly. “Okay, what else?”
“Um... okay, you know what gets me? That Blue Room song that was everywhere a few years ago?” He crooned, “‘Hey, Lily Anne, I’ve never been so glad to be a man’... what? What’s wrong?”
Eden’s face had gone as blank as a jukebox with the cord yanked. It was the expression of someone who patently does not want someone else to know what they’re actually thinking.
“What is it? Is my singingthatbad? Not a Jasper Townes fan? Or is it because I can’t hit the high notes the way he can?”
“No,” she said, after a little hesitation. “I actually like your interpretation better than his.”
“No accounting for taste, I guess.”
She laughed at that, and light and expression flooded her face again, as if someone had flipped a switch. That was a relief.
“I’d probably get booed offstage at open mic nights at the Misty Cat, wouldn’t I?” he said, faux glumly.
The clock on her dash showed two minutes to three. Gabe pivoted a quarter turn. The big double doors of the main school building had just been thrown open by Carl the janitor.
And then the final school bell rang. A sound that punctuated his days.
Whoosh! The colorful tide of kids began pouring out and running toward the cars parked for their moms or dads to ferry them home again. He could see Annelise in the crowd. Her goldy blond, pink-streaked hair flashing.
“Well, as you said, there’s no accounting for taste,” Eden said. “But my dad might give you the hook. He’s a man of strong, distinctive opinions when it comes to music, and he has great taste.”
“Yeah, I’ve met Glenn. A straight shooter, your dad. He’s not stingy with opinions. So are you more like your—”
And just like that, Annelise was running up to the car, face lit up with the sheer pleasure of seeing her mom, backpack thumping on her narrow back, two pigtails flying.
“Hi, Mr. Caldera. Why are you here? Am I in trouble?” She sounded more curious than concerned. She was a pip, Annelise Harwood.
“Did you eat your leftover broccoli that your Uncle Mac gave you?”
“I totally did!”
“Then not today.”
Annelise fell all over herself with giggles as she hurled herself into the car.
“Give me a smooch,” Eden ordered.
Gabe actually took a half step forward before it fully registered that she was talking to her daughter.
Annelise pulled herself forward from the backseat and kissed her mom noisily on the cheek, then sank backward again.
“Mom, we’re doing a report on ecosystems! Do you know what an ecosystem is?”
“I’m familiar with the concept, yes, child.”
“We’re gonna need some glitter.”
“Glitter? Where is this ecosystem, the Land of Oz?”
“Noooooo!” This was hilarious, apparently. “I just wanted the flowers to be really shiny! Flowers are important!”
“Word, girlfriend.” Eden held her hand back to be high-fived by Annelise. “She likes everything to be shinier,” Eden explained to Gabe.