“She knows how busy you are,” Abby reassured her. “But I’m sure she’d love to hear from you. Aiden and I are seeing her this week to try to finalize our wedding plans. I’d better get back out to the kitchen and prep before we open. I’ll miss you while you’re at the Cape. You’re coming back Thursday morning, right?”
“Yeah. I’ll try to catch the first ferry.”
The phone rang, and Abby said, “I’ll get it. You get busy tattooing something dirty on Jagger.”
Jagger chuckled as Abby answered the call, and Cait went back to tattooing.
“Sure, hold on.” Abby put the call on hold. “Cait, it’s Mayor Osten for you.”
“Really? I wonder what he wants.” Cait had met the outgoing mayor when he’d announced the winner of the Best of the Island Restaurant Competition, and he’d come into the restaurant a few times since.
Abby shrugged and sat on the edge of the desk. “I’m as curious as you are.”
“I’m sorry, Jagger. Do you mind if I take it real quick?”
“Not at all. Take your time.” Jagger closed his eyes again.
Cait put down her tattoo gun and took the phone. “Hello. This is Cait.”
“Hi, Cait. This is Mayor Osten. How are you?”
“I’m well, thanks. And you?”
“I am fine and dandy today. Do you remember when my wife and I came into the Bistro last month and I mentioned that I was thinking about revitalizing Town Hall?”
“Yes. I remember.” He’d spent a long time talking to her about the mural she’d painted in the Bistro.
“I’m ready to move on that project, and I’d like to know if you’d be interested in painting a mural inside Town Hall.”
“Me?” She couldn’t hide her shock. “I’m flattered, but wouldn’t you rather hire someone with more experience, like Grant Silver?” Grant’s paintings sold for a lot of money.
Abby mouthed, Paint what?
Cait held up one finger as she listened to the mayor.
“Grant is immensely talented, but the committee and I prefer your style for the revitalization project. It’s fresh and youthful, and it’s exactly what we’re looking for. I’m not sure if you’ve seen the inside of the building, but it has an impressive two-story lobby. There’s a walkway around the second floor, and the mural would cover the second-story wall that faces the entrance. It will be the first thing everyone who enters the building will see.”
She was familiar with the impressive historical building, though she hadn’t been inside. “Wow. That sounds like an enormous project.”
“It is. The area for the mural is roughly twelve by twenty, and we can pay by the hour or the square foot. We’ve done a bit of research, and we feel thirty-five dollars per square foot is fair, which comes out to about eight thousand, four hundred dollars.”
Cait’s jaw dropped. “I don’t know what to say.”
“How about that you’d be pleased to meet with me and the committee to discuss the project? We have a few ideas for the mural. If you’re interested, we’d like to talk about it with you and then give you time for your artistic muse to speak to you, and we can go from there.”
Holy cow . . . “What is your timeline for the project? I’m traveling between here and the Cape. My schedule is a bit crazy right now.”
“We assumed as much. We were thinking about having you start after the Bistro is closed for the season. It’s an indoor project, perfectly suited for winter work. If your schedule allows for it, of course.”
Her mind was running in seven different directions. She didn’t even know what next week’s schedule looked like, much less where she’d be in the winter. But now that she was thinking about it, once the Bistro closed for the season, Abby was going to travel with Aiden and do catering when they were in town. She wouldn’t need Cait to work more than a few hours a month to do the accounting. Plus, this sounded like an amazing project. “I’ll definitely have time over the winter.”
“Great, then let’s schedule a meeting with the committee to discuss the particulars. I’ve taken the liberty of trying to coordinate schedules on our end. How is two weeks from Wednesday at four o’clock? If that doesn’t work, I have a few other times available.”
Excitement bubbled up inside her. “I can make that work. Thank you.”
Cait gave the mayor her cell phone number and her email address, and after they hung up, she pushed to her feet, wishing Brant were there so she could tell him. “I can’t believe it! He wants me to paint a mural inside Town Hall! And he said I can do it after the Bistro is closed for the winter.”
“That’s fantastic!” Abby gave her another crushing hug.
Jagger bolted upright. “Congratulations.”
“I can’t believe it. This is huge. Maybe he’s crazy. Is he crazy, Abby? I don’t know if I have enough experience for this big of a project. I painted our mural, but that was for us.” She paced, her nerves pinging.
“The mural you painted is gorgeous, and you have plenty of experience. You create elaborate lifelike tattoos, and look at the pictures you drew for me and Aiden.” Cait had drawn pictures during their courtship, capturing many tender moments, and Abby had framed them and hung them up.
“I don’t know. What if I mess up? I don’t even like to follow other people’s lines on tattoos. That’s why I freehand everything. What if painting someone else’s vision is too confining and I can’t do it? He said they want me to mull over their ideas and see what I come up with, but still.”
Abby took her by the shoulders. “Cait, look at me. Stop selling my sister short. This is no different, and it might be even better, than when a client tells you what they want for a tattoo. This is your moment. It’s a sign. Our mother came to Silver Island to start over, and I started over here, and now it’s your turn.”
A sign. Cait liked that.
“It’s pretty much the definition of kismet,” Jagger added.
“Okay, you’re right. I should at least consider it. I need to call Brant . . . and Tank, and I should let Dee know I’m thinking about it so she doesn’t feel left out.” Her thoughts stumbled as she realized she’d thought of Brant before anyone else, but she didn’t have time to pick that apart. “And I need to finish Jagger’s tattoo! Oh my gosh, you guys. My head is spinning.”
Abby lifted Cait’s hands and pulled off her gloves. “Take a deep breath, wash your hands, put on new gloves, and finish Jag’s tattoo first before his shift starts. Then you can do anything you want. And before I forget, while you have those gloves off, mark your calendar for the last Sunday in August. I scheduled appointments with the bridal shops Daphne referred me to on the Cape, and you know I can’t do that without you.”
“I wouldn’t miss it for the world. Sunday is perfect. I’ll schedule the following Monday and Tuesday at Wicked Ink so I don’t have to go back and forth in between.”
“Look at you girls making all your dreams come true,” Jagger said as he lay back down on the table.
Cait had dreamed of being safe for so long, when she finally had gotten to that place, all she’d hoped for was that it would last. She’d never thought in bigger terms, like about what she wanted and about her career, and certainly not about relationships.