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I turned my screen toward Owen and Sarah. Immediately, Owen let out a pleased gasp, reaching across the table to take the phone from my hand. “Oh wow,” he said, giving Mason a quick side glance before studying the illustration more closely. “This is—this is really, really good.”
Mason shifted in his chair, his eyes widening slightly as his gaze drifted from me to Owen’s hands on my phone. At first I thought his unease might be from all the attention he was receiving, but it occurred to me he might be concerned about something else. If Owen accidentally swiped right—
“Wait, let me see something,” Mason said, holding out his hand to take the phone from Owen. He held it close to his face, squinting to get a closer look. “Yeah, those lines are so sloppy.” And the next thing I knew, he was smoothly passing the phone back to me.
An effortless save.
It'd been a year and a half since Owen Gardner had laid eyes on a nude photo of me, and I would have been mortified if he saw one now. Not only that—he’d know who I’d been sending them to. And Mason understood all of that without me saying a single word. I thanked him with a silent grin from across the table, and he responded with the slightest nod, imperceivable to everyone else.
“Mason, that’s not sloppy at all,” Sarah said, slapping the table. She was craning her neck to see it, so I tilted the screen toward her. “I mean it—you are remarkably talented. The company that didn’t hire you today doesn’t know what they’re missing.”
Owen sat with his arms folded against his chest, turning to Mason. “Could you send that to me?”
Mason turned to him and blinked. “Uh—yeah, I guess?”
“Not to use without your permission or anything. I’d just love to look at it some more, maybe show it to my team.”
“Yeah, sure,” Mason said, sitting up a little straighter. “I’ll email it to you.”
“Good,” Owen said, looking across the table at Sarah. Mason turned and looked at me in the same manner, raising his eyebrows slightly. The room was silent for a moment and the four of us got back to work. That is, until Finley sprang up from beneath the table shouting my name, “Ms. Devin!” On her way up, she hit her head on the edge of the table with a loud thump that made all of us gasp.
The tears came immediately. And since I was closest, she lunged toward my lap and planted her face against my knees, sobbing. “Oh no, sweetie,” I said, rubbing the top of her head. “That sounded like it hurt.”
Mason rose to his feet across the table, but when I pulled Finley up to my lap, he hesitated—waiting to see how this would play out. I hugged Finley against my chest, her crying turning into shaking, silent sobs that were somehow even more pitiful. I frowned at Mason, who was still standing up with his hands on the table. Concerned, but letting me handle it.
Sarah got up and made her way over to the refrigerator, returning with a frozen bag of peas. “I’m sorry, I don’t think we have an actual ice pack,” she said. I accepted the bag of peas, pressing it against the top of Finley’s head.
She sniffled, reaching up to hold the bag in place. “What is that?”
“Frozen peas,” I told her. “Maybe when you’re all better, we can eat them.”
With tears streaming down both of her cheeks, she made a retching sound. “I hate peas.”
I giggled. “Me too.”
Mason slowly lowered himself back to his chair and scooted up to the table. “You going to be alright, Fin?” She nodded in response. “We need to get them a jellyfish ice pack like ours, don’t we?” Another nod.
“You’d think we’d have a real ice pack,” Owen said, “considering our nieces and nephews are always over here knocking their heads together.” He and Sarah turned to each other and laughed, as if they were both remembering some specific incident.
“So—do you guys think you might have kids of your own anytime soon?” Mason asked. Sarah and Owen’s laughter trailed off until the room got quiet, and the energy around us shifted. It was subtle, but I couldn’t help but notice the way Sarah reached for her drink, tipping it back to finish it off—and Owen stared at his hands on the table.
“One day,” he said, glancing up at Sarah. “We’ll have to do a lot of baby-proofing around here first, that’s for sure. Lots of… choking hazards.”
“And stupid tables,” Finley muttered against my chest, unknowingly rescuing us from the awkwardness. We all laughed.
“You are absolutely right. We’ll get rid of this stupid table first,” Owen told her, drumming on the edge of it.
Sarah refilled both of our drinks and the four of us continued to assemble the mason jar lanterns, working into the night. Only now, I had the added challenge of completing the task with a sleepy kid in my arms. Mason asked me to check her pupils to make sure she didn’t have a concussion—and then I let her fall asleep. I had a sinking suspicion she was drooling on my shirt, but I didn’t mind. As I reached for a faux maple leaf, careful not to jostle Finley too much, I glanced across the table at Mason. His eyes were fixed on Finley’s face, nestled against my chest. Unaware I was watching him, the corners of his mouth lifted in a lazy smile as he wrapped fairy lights around the very last mason jar.
When the lanterns were finished, we carefully packed them into boxes—designating Owen as the person who’d bring them up to the school the following afternoon. And, attempting to take a limp Finley from my arms, Mason said, “I need to get her to bed.”
Finley clung to me even tighter as her dad tried to pull her away. I smiled up at him over the top of her head. “Do you want me to carry her out?”
“I’m not sure you have a choice.”
Mason held the front door for me and followed me down the driveway toward his Jeep. I didn’t realize how much I was buzzing until the chilly night air hit my face and I became a little lightheaded. I tightened my grip on Finley, willing myself not to trip and hurt us both. “This kid is sleeping hard,” I told Mason, walking toward his Jeep with my bare feet.
He opened the car door. “She’s going to wake up in her bed and have no idea how she got there,” he said as I bent down to put Finley in her booster seat. Her eyes opened for a couple of seconds, but by the time I was finished buckling her in, she was back to sleep.
