"Hey," Rune addresses the camera. He's standing in front of his vision board, his hair still wet and slicked back from his morning shower. "Today is my birthday. Thank you to all of you who've been sending me best wishes already. I really appreciate it," He flashes a beguilingly charming smile. The camera simply adores him. I'm dazzled, and I'm already in love with him.
"I also want to express my appreciation to everyone who supports the books I narrate. It's been a hard couple of years as I've grieved the loss of my beloved mother during Covid. Being able to continue to work steadily doing audio narration while I get back on my feet emotionally in private has been such a gift.
I'm not just celebrating my bday today," he says as the camera pans back and shows a little more of the corkboard around him and that he's holding a photo in his hand, "I'm celebrating being in love with the first girl I ever had a crush on," he holds up the photo and Kim zooms in. Rune and I happily sitting on Storm Cloud all those years ago. "This is the first day we met. As you can see, I'm already smitten. Shelby was kind but a little more interested in the horse," Rune laughs self-deprecatingly, and I blush watching because it's probably true. The camera pans back further, showing more of the corkboard.
"Fortunately, I've charmed my way into her heart. She's even immortalized me," Rune steps aside so the viewers can see my Howl's Moving Castle illustration behind him, "And she's agreed to work with me on some creative projects I can't wait to tell you about. But first, we'll spend the day celebrating with family and friends. Stay tuned. More coming."
**
"Ruination!" I exclaim, jumping up from the chair and throwing my arms around him, and gasp "Oh my God!" before pressing my mouth to his.
"Not too much?" he asks, lifting his lips from mine for a moment, and then kisses me again.
"It's perfect; everyone gets some love, especially me," I lean into him and have a brief fantasy of our ravishing each other right here right now on this dark orange couch.
"Especially you, my favorite witch," Rune presses in as well, and then an alarm goes off on his phone in his pocket. Earth to Shelby, I think, it's almost party time.
"Shall I send it out?" I ask, stepping away as he checks his phone.
"Yes," he tells me, "But first, this is Naomi with a draft of what she thinks we ought to send out."
Rune reads me the artfully phrased missive from the publicist. She's a fantastic wordsmith. We agree to let her send it out to the entertainment media including the site that posted Jenna's interview with only a few tweaks.
I hold my breath the entire time we're walking back to the house and I'm uploading Rune's video to his Instagram account. I only exhale once I push publish.
It's started. We're not taking things lying down anymore. We weighed the pros and cons of turning off the comments on both of our accounts, as some have gotten pretty nasty. Not most of them. Most of them are so kind and supportive. But wow, the negative comments are crazy bad. The level of vitriol stuns. Who wastes their time this way? Who thinks making personally mean comments about artists is a good use of time?
Of course, all of these people hide who they are behind monikers and avatars, but Rune wants to see how many of them are specifically spouting the same lies that Jenna put forward in her interview. So far, about a dozen people are showing up on both of our accounts doing exactly that.
"Can we decorate the cake now?" Lorelei asks impatiently as she and Butterscotch greet us on the front porch, where there are now three gigantic, gorgeous ferns hanging from baskets that I don't recognize, and even more colorful pillows added to the Adirondack chairs. I hadn't even realized my sister had gone shopping, online or otherwise. Along with my newly freshened-up planters the porch, it looks fantastic. Whici is the point.
While Rune goes upstairs to change for the party, Lorelei and I find Kim on the back porch with everyone else.
"What's going on?" I ask as she, Gunnar, Nils, and Syd maneuver the large wooden table down the stairs. Not far from where Gunnar has the grill set up, two other tables are already covered with the dramatic blue and green tablecloths.
"More people are coming," Nils tells me excitedly, "Uncle Hank and a couple of surprise guests."
"We're going to borrow Rune's couch and coffee table for the seating out here," Kim says.
It's good I didn't persuade Rune to stop on it for some nooky.
"Work on the cake, and we'll worry about all this," Syd calls as they hurry towards our barn, "And put on some more lipstick!"
In the kitchen, also wrapped in a protective apron, Lorelei helps me gently fold fresh strawberries from the garden, plus blueberries and raspberries from the store into the vanilla custard.
Stolen content warning: this tale belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences elsewhere.
Once the first layer of cake makes it successfully onto Uncle Rueben's antique glass stand, we spread the custard and berry mixture onto the layer, carefully places the second layer of cake on top, and add more custard. Once the top is on, we cover the entire thing with fresh cream I just whipped up, and decorate it with more berries, sprigs of mint, and two big blue "three" wax candles.
**
By the time Luna and her family arrive, bringing all kinds of gorgeous flower arrangements, we're just about ready for the party to begin. Gunnar's manning the grill with the salmon, corn, and other veggies. Rune has set up the music; he and Syd are the drink monitors making the limoncello blueberry cocktail, while the kids are helping me put together the various platters of hummus and olive tapenade to set out.
"I said no gifts," Rune jokingly chastises as he hands Luna a cocktail while she hands him a small gift box covered with real flowers and ribbons on top.
"Birthdays are for gifts," she insists, "and it's one you can share."
"Well, okay then," he agrees happily and sets the box down on the small table where we've all put the other gifts. It's starting to overflow. And there's my book with the others. I don't remember finishing wrapping it; Syd must have.
Butterscotch is going a little crazy with all of the people and excitement. I'm just about to pick her up to stop her barking when she launches herself off the porch, running towards the front of the house.
"I think our surprise guests are here," I take Rune's hand, and we head after the barking dog.
"Butterscotch, you know me," Vivienne's telling the dog over the stack of gifts in her hands, while a very familiar-looking very handsome man with salt and pepper hair, and a short, neat beard next to her kneels down and lets the dog sniff his hand. Behind them with duffel bag is Rune's Uncle Hank.
Vivienne's brought Tyler Paul to Rune's birthday party. Tyler Paul is crouched down, petting Butterscotch in my front yard, while Uncle Hank is stepping around them to hug Rune.
"Oh wow," Rune's laughing, "This is the best! How did you get here?"
"Tyler flew us to Port Townsend in his plane!" Vivienne gives me a one-armed hug, while Tyler and Rune shake hands and slap backs.
"No one listened about no gifts," Rune tells Vivienne, eyeing the stack of presents she's balancing."
"Oh, these aren't all for you, birthday boy," Vivienne chuckles, handing him what is obviously a bottle of wine, "only this is. Go put this on some ice."
**
While we introduce everyone and Uncle Hank is reunited with his family, Kim is everywhere, taking photos and short videos. We've set our laptops up on the washing machine in the laundry room to upload content and start sharing online.
"We called Naomi," I tell Vivienne as she watches me schedule images to Instagram while Kim returns to join the party, "We're going on the offensive at least for a little bit just to show people what we're really up to."
"I'm so proud of you, Shelby," Vivienne encourages me, wrapping her arms around my shoulders.
"Viv, how in the world did you get Tyler Paul to fly you and Rune's Uncle up here in his plane?" I ask, still amazed.
"I told him last night on our date that I wanted to take some vacation time to come up here to support you. I asked if he had a trick to getting last-minute flights," she tells me, her eyes dancing with delight, "He said he could do one better.
"But how did you connect with Hank?" I ask, delighted at this marvelous serendipity.
"I had Sydney's email from your Uncle Theo's celebration of life, so I sent her a note and asked if there was anyone else we should invite along."
**
"Presents before cake!" Lorelei announces from the foot of the back porch, where she and Nils are standing with a rusty old red child's wagon containing one big rectangular gift box.
Gunnar jumps up from the table where he's seated with his dad and Marguerite and helps Nils carry the box up the steps to the seating area with the couches.
"I'm all for that," Rune agrees, rubbing his hands together eagerly. Come on, Seashell. You can keep track of who I need to thank for what."
We settle on the orange couch, bookended by Nils and Lorelei taking turns playing Santa's elves, handing Rune his gifts. It's still light out, but twilight is coming in the clear, cooling evening. Gunnar turns the tree lights on, and Syd goes around, turning on the tea lights in the glass lanterns hung on the porch railing.
As people pull the Adirondack chairs closer or bring the folding chairs up from the tables on the lawn, I wonder at this marvelous night of family and friends. I wish Theo was here in person with us. He would have loved meeting the handsome, charming Taylor Paul, who regaled us at dinner with funny stories from film and TV shoots he's worked on, including when he once played Rune's father.
I'm here in spirit, dear heart, Theo says very faintly.
I blink away tears and open my notes app. The first gift Lorelei hands Rune is the small, beautifully decorated one from Luna and Tom. Rune carefully removes the flowers and ribbon and hands them to Lorelei before lifting off the lid. He takes out several small brown craft envelopes with a beautifully rendered sketch of butterflies, bees, and moths on the cover.
"It's a selfish baseball mitt gift!" Luna tells him with a laugh.
"Are those the seeds so we can have a meadow in our front yard like you do?" Lorelei claps excitedly.
"Yes," Luna tells her, "There should be enough there to seed your front area, Marquerite's, and Shelby and Syd's house."
"Dad," Gunnar tells Hank dryly, from where the two are standing, "I hope you're prepared to hang out in a hippy compound."
"I was too young to take advantage of all it had to offer the first time around, so sure, why not?" Hank tells him with a shy smile.
"I want to open Shelby's gift next," Rune tells Nils.
"A book, what a surprise," Gunnar says dryly as my gift is handed over
"Don't be obnoxious," Syd warns as she makes the rounds filling people's drinks, but as she refills his glass, he says something low to her that makes her laugh. Well, that's a good sign. Right?
"Seashell, this is so cool!" Rune unwraps the book from the shooting star paper. "It's on theme and everything!" He holds it up for everyone to see.
"I've always wanted one of their beautiful books but could never think of a reason to splurge on one," I tell him, "It's a bit of a baseball mitt gift, too; I hope you don't mind."
"No," Rune laughs, "I'm fond of giving baseball mitt gifts myself."
"Oh, they make such gorgeous editions," Pat, Luna's mother-in-law says happily from where she, Luna, Tom, and Dan are ensconced on the other couch.
"This is a book we both love that my mom introduced us to the last summer we spent here together," Rune tells everyone, "We're going to do a podcast play of the book," Rune says and lightly tugs one of Lorelei's braids, "I bought the rights."