Page 212 of Safe With You

Mila stepped back to admire her work, apparently satisfied now that her contribution to Chapter & Charm had been properly displayed.

I was still looking at the picture.

Her favorite place.

What I wasn’t expecting was to be in it.

Or Luna.

To Mila, those were simply the people who belonged in the place she wanted to draw.

I looked over at Luna, crouched beside my daughter and listening like whatever she was saying was the most important thing happening in the store.

Somewhere along the way, Mila had made room for her.

And I realized I had too.

By the time Naomi asked me for the third time where I put the extra name cards, I was starting to regret ever agreeing to another Open Mic Night.

“They’re in the drawer.”

“What drawer?”

“The same drawer they were in last time.”

She looked toward the counter. “There are six drawers over there.”

“And somehow I believe in you.”

“That’s not helpful.”

“It wasn’t supposed to be.”

Naomi gave me a look before heading back toward the register, and I turned my attention to the rows of chairs filling the event space.

The setup was almost identical to the first time we did this. Same small stage near the front. Same microphone we borrowed from the community center. Same little tables pushed along the wall with water, coffee, and enough snacks to keep people from wandering out halfway through somebody’s poem.

But tonight felt different.

Maybe because I wasn’t checking my phone every five minutes waiting for something to go wrong. Maybe because we’d done this once before and survived it.

Or maybe it had something to do with the man standing on the other side of the room adjusting the lens on his camera like he hadn’t spent the better part of the last week finding reasons to make me smile.

I caught myself looking and turned back to the stack of programs in my hands.

That didn’t last long.

When I glanced up again, Ellis was already looking at me.

He lowered the camera slightly and lifted his eyebrows.

I shook my head.

His mouth curved.

I looked back down at the programs before he could make whatever this was worse.

It had been like that since breakfast.