Page 48 of The Stars in the Sky
I had no idea why I had tears in my eyes at the end of it.
He looked at me and gave me a half smile. "You can figure out why I like this song. My dad was like that. Spent a lot of time with me. These kids don't have it like that. But we can give them our time, at least for a week."
I nodded.
Will had a generous heart, no question about it. We continued working and cleaned the house up.
Later on that afternoon, I set up a tie-dye station for the kids.
The first group of kids came over, which included kids who were enthusiastic, and James, the sweary one, who most certainly was not.
"Would you like to do tie-dye?" I asked him.
James stared at me, scandalized. "No."
I smiled, enthusiastic. "Oh, try it. It's fun!" I said.
He scowled and looked up at the sky. "Only fun for hippies like you. It's not cool where I'm from."
Just then Will came by on his way from the corrals. He gave me a chin lift and walked over to the picnic tables where the kids were gathered. "Whatcha doin'?" he asked.
"Making a shirt," said one of the girls. "I'm going to give it to my sister."
Will looked over at James. "You're not gonna make one?"
"No." James wasn't as sullen with Will as he was with me.
"Why not?" Will seemed genuinely perplexed.
"Won't wear it."
"Neither would I, not my thing, but it looks like it might be good to make one for my girl here. Do you have someone you can give it to?" Without waiting for an answer, Will continued, "Here, I'll make one with you." Now he gave James a chin lift. And without any fuss, he went over to the pile of white t-shirts, pulled out two, handed one to James and called over to me, "Marie, how the hell do you do this?" Once I was next to him, he lowered his mouth to my ear and continued, under his breath, "You're making me into a fucking hippie."
"Never," I whispered back.
I showed Will and James how to bunch up the t-shirt and add the rubber bands and how to dye it. When they pulled off the rubber bands after dying the shirts to expose the design, James actually looked pleased with what he’d made. It looked professional. The bright red, green, and yellow dye made it look like it could be sold in a groovy shop and I told him so, getting a small smile in return.
Progress.
Will's shirt was cool, too, black and dark blue. "I dare you to wear that shirt, cowboy," I whispered in Will's ear.
"Rather see you wear it, with nothing underneath," he whispered back, then he hung up the shirt on the makeshift clothes line I’d set up, and took off.
Later that night, when everyone was asleep, I walked over to Will's. I knocked on the door and he let me in, saying, "You can just walk in, Marie."
I countered, "When I did that the first time, I interrupted you in the shower and you were scary pissed."
He gave me a full smile. "Wouldn't mind if you did it again," he said, raising an eyebrow.
Who was this guy and what had he done with Will? I took a step back, feeling uncertain and confused. "Why have you been so nice to me all day? It's like you changed personalities, Will."
He looked down at me. "Figure I don't need to be an asshole to you, even if I am one."
Okay. That sounded good. But I still wasn't sure.
"And I want those knockout legs wrapped around me again. Tonight."
