AllFreeNovel
Share Us
mason
As the evening went on and the sun dipped below the horizon, the festival crowd appeared to triple in size. Kendall’s fear that half of Woodvale would be in attendance was coming true. I found my dad and Finley in the midst of the insanity and reminded him to keep a good eye on her. “Don’t let her out of your sight.” We established a meeting place—the merry-go-round—just in case she got separated from him.
Which was likely, considering he was having a hard time keeping up with her.
I joined them in the games area for a while and wasted eighteen dollars to win Finley a jellyfish plushie at a ring toss. Her excitement when it was handed to her made it all worth it, though. Her day was made.
“You won that for me, right?” Owen came up behind us and pretended to take the jellyfish from Finley, who scowled at him and clung onto it even tighter.
“There’s our family celebrity,” my dad said, clamping his hand on Owen’s shoulder. The man actually smiled for the first time that day. “I heard you funded this whole thing.”
Owen put his hands in his pockets and looked down at the rock he was lazily kicking between his feet on the pavement. “No, just the rides. There are other donors who—”
“How’s that second book coming along?”
Owen gave me a side glance before answering. “It’s getting there. Wedding plans are taking precedence right now, though.”
“I imagine. This is a big year for you, huh?” Already, my dad was having a longer conversation with his favorite nephew than he’d had with me since I’d moved back home. He continued to ask Owen questions about his business, praising him with every other statement. He was completely oblivious to the way Owen kept attempting to steer the conversation a different direction.
As they spoke, I absentmindedly twirled Finley (and her jellyfish) around while scanning the crowd for Kendall. The last time I’d seen her, she was manning the hot cocoa booth so the vendor could take a bathroom break—and that was a half hour ago.
“Grandpa, I’m bored,” Finley whined, letting go of my hand to tug on her grandpa’s arm instead. “Can we ride the merry-go-round again?”
My dad sighed, pulling his eyes away from Owen to acknowledge her. “We’ve already been on it four times, sweetheart. Why don’t I just watch you ride it this time?”
“No, you have to ride the blue horsey again! He misses you!”
“That’s a pretty compelling argument, Uncle Mitch,” Owen said as Finley began to pull her grandpa away. My dad groaned, but he gave in to her anyway—just like usual.
I shook my head, watching them get in line for the ride. “She’s going to sleep good tonight.”
Owen chuckled. “That’s a plus. Hey—before I forget.” He pulled out his phone and glanced down at the screen. “My team is loving your little illustration.”
“Oh, are they?”
“Yeah. I forwarded it to them earlier. My PA’s trying to convince me to use it in some of our marketing.” I nodded, trying not to fixate on his choice of words. What did he mean they were trying to “convince” him? Did that mean he needed convincing? It bothered me that it wasn’t the other way around—why wasn’t he the one convincing them? “So are you going to let me buy it from you?”
I looked up at his face. Maybe he was interested. “I’m sure we could work something out.”
“And we could discuss having you draw a whole crew of characters. Maybe a… raccoon with a microscope,” he said with a grin. I wanted to believe he wasn’t being disingenuous, and that he really wanted to hire me to do some custom illustrations for him, but it sounded so silly. I was grateful my dad wasn’t around to overhear this conversation.
“Yeah, I could come up with some ideas for you,” I said, surprised he didn’t already have an employee for this kind of thing. “So how many people do you have working for you, anyway?”
“Five, right now.”
“What all do they do for you?”
Owen furrowed his brows in concentration. “Uh, bookkeeping, producing, social media, curriculum development, and a general personal assistant of sorts. Why?”
With a shrug, I answered, “I was just curious.” I couldn’t help but notice some untapped opportunities there, especially on the creative end of things. Maybe if this character illustration gig worked out, I could make Owen one of my regular clients. The wheels in my brain started to turn, but before I could offer up another idea to him, I spotted Kendall through the crowd. She was standing by the book drive table talking to Abigail as she pulled on a yellow cardigan. I half-listened to Owen talk while watching her—and the second she stepped away from Abigail, I saw an opportunity. “Sorry,” I interrupted Owen. “I have something I need to take care of.”
I offered no explanation. I just walked away, knowing he’d probably understand once he saw me approach Kendall. I was about 90% sure he was onto us, anyway.
Kendall was walking fast—I had to sprint to catch up to her. I waited until we were walking shoulder-to-shoulder to get her attention. “Hey, you.”
She put her hand over her heart and came to an abrupt halt, turning to me with wide eyes. “Oh my god, you scared me.”
I chuckled. “Sorry. Where you headed?”
