Page 9 of Reckless Single Daddy

The sight of it takes me aback. It’s one of the prints that I sold, and I certainly didn’t produce merchandise from it. “Oh, wow… how did you get this?” I ask.

The girl looks down at it. “The internet.”

She shrugs as any teenager would, but something feels strange about someone selling my work, printed on merchandise. But no one seems to mind purchasing reprints of theMona Lisa,TheScream, or even Warhol’s multi-coloration of Marilyn Monroe. It just makes me wonder that if DaVinci, Munch, or Warhol were still around, would they care?

“Who should I make it out to?” I ask, allowing my thoughts to drift away. I should be grateful to see my success resonate with someone so young, especially one who admires me enough to buy a binder that features my work.

“‘To Kelly, a girl with inspirations bigger than this small town, who will make it as an artist across the stratosphere,’” she says proudly as I look at her, perplexed. Are all art nerds in highschool like this now? I bite my bottom lip and look down at the binder.

“How about I just write, “To Kelly, may all your dreams be as artistically profound as you,” I say as I write it down, not even giving her a second thought to come up with something remotely better.

Kelly squeals and nods. “Yes, good! Love that!”

I smile as I finish and hand it back to her. She smiles widely and then remembers what she was doing before she went starstruck. “Oh, anyway, I’m the president of our Art Teens Enthusiasts, where we talk about all things art as well as critique our own work so it helps us improve as artists.” She hands me a flyer. It’s messy, but the art has potential. It looks as if the designs were drawn digitally, which seems to be the way we’re heading in the art world.

I look up curiously. “You’re called ATE?” I ask.

Kelly frowns and looks at her feet. “Our sponsor wanted us to seem, in his words, “hip,” so once he considered “ATE,” he went with it,” she replies. “But yeah, we’re looking for donations for additional supplies so we can take them to the shelter to help any displaced kids have an outlet in their time of need.”

I nod, knowing there is no way I can pass up a cause like this. I clear my throat and scan the QR code on the flyer. I suddenlyfeel a presence behind me, though not a threatening one. I finish my donation, and then Kelly walks over to her table to produce a raffle ticket.

“This is weird, but the raffle ticket is for the original copy ofStop to Grin,” she says, grinning as she hands me the ticket.

Okay, now things have gotten weirder.Stop to Grinwas one of the first paintings I did. I was in high school, and I made it for the state art fair, where I got second. I left it here when my art teacher, Mr. Mathers, wanted to showcase it.

“Did Mr. Mathers retire or something, because I didn’t authorize it to be given away,” I say. I feel the same about the reprinting of my work, but I sold it, so that’s out of my hands.

“Oh my goodness!” Kelly exclaims. “I didn’t realize you didn’t know! You should sue.”

I inwardly roll my eyes at her lack of awareness as I hear a voice say, “You technically could, but…”

I turn around at the voice behind me immediately.

“…but think of the children.”

Cade’s smug grin meets my annoyed one, but as annoying as he is, he isn’t wrong. I will let it go because at least the art supplies will go to a charity.

I turn back to Kelly. “I hope you get more donations,” I reply as Cade plucks the flyer out of my hand and scans the code as well. After completing his own donation, Kelly rushes to retrieve his raffle.

“I hope I win a Sloane Bennett original,” he jokes. He smirks before leaning near me. “Want to walk with me?”

Do I? Yes. Should I? Probably not. Granted, we’d have to be really brave to hop into the nearest porta-potty, so I don’t think we’ll get a repeat of last time.

I look up at him and finally see in his eyes that I may finally get the answers I’ve been looking for.

Here’s hoping, anyway.

Chapter five

Cade

It’s impossible to concentrate at work after my run-in with Sloane at the festival. All these thoughts I’ve been trying to repress after our encounter at the bookstore started returning full force. I want to believe they’re just spurred by the anger of her being gone so long, but I have to remind myself to dial it back. What do I really have to be angry at her for? She’s been gone for a decade, but who cares? She isn’t my sister, though she has been a huge part of my life since she was born.

Mike and I met when we were in grade school. Immediately, we clung to each other like two magnets. We loved a lot of the same things, and we just understood one another. At the time,it was just Mike and Mia and their parents, Ann and Peter. They welcomed me over all the time, and things were pretty great.

One day, though, I get to school and Mike tells me that his parents are having another kid. We’re ten at this point, so all we focused on was how old his parents must be, but he wasn’t exactly thrilled to know he was going to be a big brother for the second time. As he put it, “If it’s a boy, he’s going to want to come with us and be annoying. If it’s a girl and anything like Mia, she will just be annoying.”

I still chuckle at the memory, but when Sloane was finally born, it was like a switch flipped for Mike. Those feelings no longer mattered, and all that did was protecting her. He loved Sloane with every ounce he had, and Sloane clung to him like superglue. Don’t get me wrong, their relationship never got to the point where I was jealous or worried I’d take a backseat, but Mike and Sloane were different than Mia and Mike. It’s like he knew that Sloane would need a little more TLC.

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