Page 65 of Where Are You Now
“Think I could learn before I go home?” Ava asked.
“As quickly as you pick things up, definitely.”
“Want to get started right now then?”
Her mother held up a finger. “The woman askedme to choose the fabric for the bags and to make an array of different ones. Maybe I could get your opinion, and then, while I make one of hers, you could help.”
“I’d love to.”
She beckoned Ava into the office and opened the old wooden trunk that sat along the wall by the sewing machine. She lifted the lid, revealing rows of fabric in every color. Ava leaned over to view them.
“I usually make my bags with two or three complementing shades,” Martha said. “Choose your favorites.”
Ava perused the light and dark blues, the olive greens, and the fall orange shades before deciding on a midnight blue and a deep purple.
“Oh, those will be pretty together,” her mom said. “I know the perfect print interior.” She dug around in the layers of fabric until she pulled out a pattern set in a deep cream with purple and navy paisley designs and laid it over the two solid shades Ava had picked out.
“That’s stunning,” Ava said as her mother gathered up more of the fabric.
“These blues are lake colors to me. Let’s work on it outside under the string lights. The sun won’t be going down quite yet.”
“You’re thinking like a marketer,” Ava noted, opening the back door for her mother.
“What do you mean?”
“Lake colors. Assigning a particular style to a color. You could call this bagEvening on the Lake.”
Her mother smiled. “I like that.” She tugged one of the chairs over to another so they were side by side. “What would be a good name for your bag then? Wait, let me think.” She pursed her lips. “Mauve. Pink. Cream.Summer Sunrise.”
“Good one! I like that.”
Her mother sat down in the chair and set the supplies inher lap. “I kind of enjoy giving each bag a name. It makes them unique. I think I want to do one in burnt oranges and mustard yellow and call itAutumn Trees.”
Ava grinned. Maybe she’d gotten her interest in marketing from her mom. She’d always wondered where it had come from. She was willing to bet there was a lot more to her mom she didn’t know, and she couldn’t wait to spend more time with her to find out.
They continued chatting throughout the evening, and the conversation moved to Lucas.
“I hope Lucas takes your experience to heart and stops blaming himself for the death of his patient,” Martha said as she sat in an armchair, her feet propped on the ottoman.
“He seemed receptive to it. And I’m pretty sure he’ll take it to heart.” Ava sipped the hot cocoa she and her mother had made before starting a fire in the living room’s stone fireplace. A strange mixture of happiness for Lucas and disappointment for herself washed over her.
Martha seemed to notice. “What is it?”
“I mentioned to him that I thought it was important to give more effort to building relationships with those around him, and he listened. He contacted his ex-fiancée, and she wants to see him again.”
“Well, there’s a step toward his future. Maybe he’ll be able to mend all the areas of his life.” But her mother’s bright eyes fell into a look of curiosity as she took in Ava’s face.
“Oh, honey.”
Were her feelings that obvious? Ava tried on an artificial smile. “I want what’s best for Lucas.”
“You two have been apart longer than you were together. I know you loved him as a girl, but you’re not kids anymore. You’ve both built other lives.”
“I suppose you’re right,” Ava said, but her admissiondidn’t make the fact that Lucas was trying to work things out with Elise any easier.
Perhaps she was clinging to him because he was a tie to happier times. He’d been there when her dad was around, and being with him again might evoke the same calm she’d felt back then. There was no other reason to feel what she had been feeling for Lucas. But her heart didn’t want to believe her reason. One thing she had learned over the years, however, was that her heart didn’t get to decide.
Chapter Twenty-One
