“Splendid work.”
“Thank you.” I could feel my cheeks heat. I wasn’t used to being on display. I usually worked alone during the in between times of other people’s lives.
“I can’t wait to sit in here and read with a cuppa,” she said with a mild accent. “For now I have to go feed my animals.” She lifted the boxes. “Four boys—bottomless pits, they are.”
Courtney and I both watched her leave, then glanced at each other and shuddered.
“Absolutely not,” Courtney said and adjusted her bag on her shoulder.
“Oh, c’mon. Four sounds easy.”
She wrinkled her nose. “Do you want kids, Phoebe?”
“You know, I really don’t know. I practically raised Liberty since my mom was always at hockey games.” I attached another line of pages to the ceiling. “My biological clock certainly isn’t ticking at the moment.”
“Same.” She walked around Daisy, my scaffolding set up, then over to the mural. “The store is more than enough.” She touched the mantle where I’d texturized the wood. “Incredible.”
The warm glow grew.
It wasn’t like I hadn’t heard people talk about my work before, but it was different to be standing right beside it in progress. “Thanks.”
“I definitely want you to do it at my place.”
“I’ve got it down pat now.”
“I’ll email you to set it up. I’m actually having the new release wall repainted. Maybe we can come up with something more exciting than just shelves.”
“I’d love that.”
Courtney’s place stayed open a bit later than most of the shops on Destiny Street. She actually used that to her advantage for the subset of people who didn’t have a bedtime of eight o’clock. I’d spent more than a few evenings thumbing through the books on her shelves.
She had the prime location right beside the café which was the jelly to her peanut butter if you asked me.
“Wine and Crime night?”
“Guilty.” She walked back to me to peer up at my progress. “Now I gotta go through my illustrated novels and see which ones I can sacrifice to the gods of art.”
I laughed. “Can’t wait to see what you come up with.”
“Did I hear you have a new neighbor?”
That was Haven. Gossip could outrun any superhero speed. “Yeah, he moved in during the snowstorm.”
“Did you meet him?”
I shrugged. “Kind of.”
My natural inclination was to share a good story, but something inside of me wanted to keep it close. “He’s not overly friendly. The animal distribution system finally hit me though.”
“Animal? I thought it was only cats.”
I laughed. “Yeah, well mine is a dog. I think it still counts.”
“Sure it’s not a missing dog?”
“I suppose I should check in with Doc Jess and make sure he’s not chipped.” The thought of it made me sad that he could be someone else’s. He already felt mine, even if he was obsessed with Dutch.
“What’s he look like?”
