Page 96 of Just Like Starting Over
“One more,” he cedes. “How about over there?”
I get out of the car and let the door slam, watching them turn to me. “Looks like you’ve been busy.”
Sierra leaps off the ladder and runs toward me. “Mom! It is more perfect even than we knew. Lila says she can’t wait to visit. Come see!” She seizes my hand, tugging me toward the door to the trailer.
Toward Mike, who is standing and smiling at me, making my heart go thump just by being here. He folds his arms across his chest as I approach, which just makes him look more solid and reliable.
Irresistible.
“Hey,” he murmurs, his voice low and his gaze hot.
“Hey,” I reply, then reach to touch his shoulder. “Thank you.”
He glances around, surveying what they’ve done. “It was fun. How’d the drawing go today?”
We could be a couple, exchanging greetings after our respective days. There’s nothing routine about the simmer between us though, about the tingle of awareness that is warming me to my toes. “Better. I feel like I’m getting it back.”
“Good.” His smile is warm enough to bask in and I have to look away. “I doubt you ever lost it, Sylvia. You’ve always had such talent.” He looks down. “And more than that. Your paintings are always little stories. I don’t know how to explain it but they’re fascinating. They tempt you to look deeper, figure it out.” He looks into my eyes, smiling slightly. “A riddle to be solved.”
Are we just talking about my art?
I’m warm all over from his praise, from his conviction in my abilities. “Where did these chairs come from?” I ask Sierra who has reappeared with another strand of lights.
“Mike took us to Canadian Tire, to get the fairy lights.”
“They’re not fairy lights.”
“We needed the chairs, though. They’re on the vision board, Mom.”
“Una insisted on buying them, given the vision board situation,” Mike says solemnly. “I just put them together.”
“They were on sale,” Sierra says. “Made locally of recycled plastic. It was kismet.”
I bite back a smile and glance at Mike. There’s a glimmer of amusement in his eyes, too and we just look at each other for a million years or so.
This man.
Meanwhile, Sierra darts into the trailer.
“You have to see, Mom,” she calls from inside. “I already moved our stuff.”
“Just be warned that I’m not sure many of your things have made the transition yet,” Mike murmurs and I laugh, because I didn’t expect anything different. “Thanks for today,” he says softly. “She’s a great kid.” He smiles crookedly at me and our gazes lock for a sizzling moment before he abruptly looks away. “You two have a lot to talk about so I’ll go.” He hesitates a moment, just long enough to make me hope, then turns and strides back to his truck. He waves to Una, watching from her porch, and she shouts her own thanks.
Then I feel Sierra wrap herself around me from behind. She’s on the step to the trailer, even taller than me than usual. We wave to Mike as he backs out and she sighs contentment.
“You should marry him, Mom,” she says.
“So you’ve said.”
Sierra tightens her grip. “I can’t help it that you’re not getting it.”
I turn around and hug her, because Iamgetting it. “You just don’t want to give back my date bra,” I say instead.
“Not true. It has chocolate on it. You can have it back anytime.”
“What? How did you get chocolate on a bra?”
“Come see!” She laughs and retreats into the trailer and I know she’s forgotten my poor bra.
