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With his back to her, Gideon shouldn’t have been able to hear the door open over the boys’ shouts and laughter. Yet his shoulders stiffened, and even before he’d turned to face her, his smile was gone, and shadows filled his eyes. Clearly, he was back to being on guard with her, just as he had been for the past nine months.
Only, yesterday at Ari’s wedding, she had changed. Rosie was no longer satisfied with Gideon’s one-word responses and expressionless glances. She wanted the smiles he gave the boys. She wanted the happiness that glowed in his eyes when he looked at them. She wanted Gideon to share all that with her too.
At the very least, she wanted to know that she was his friend, no matter what.
“Everything’s ready,” she called. “We can head out now.”
Gideon helped Jorge and Noah scramble down from the tire swing, then the boys raced across the small lawn to her.
“What’s the surprise, Rosie?” Noah asked. “Jorge says you have something awesome planned for today. He wouldn’t tell us, but you could if you wanted to.”
She smiled at him. “It’s not a surprise if I tell you.”
“Do you know, Uncle Gideon?” Noah asked.
“All I know is that Rosie knows how to have fun. So I’m sure the surprise will be great.”
It was one of the nicest things he’d said about her. Rosie was practically glowing as they drove toward her surprise destination. Okay, so maybe they weren’t officially in the friend zone yet—and they certainly weren’t beyond the friend zone, not by any stretch of the imagination—but it was a step in the right direction.
In the backseat, the boys chattered, talking about Noah’s video call that morning with Ari and Matt in Iceland, asking what they were going to eat for lunch, pointing out landmarks, plastering themselves to the passenger side window when they passed the Flintstone House along Highway 280. The home, made of free-form domes, had been a landmark as long as Rosie could remember. Previously adobe-colored, it was now painted deep purple and burnt orange and rusty red.
“It’s got dinosaurs,” Jorge exclaimed from the backseat as he gazed at the huge metal sculptures filling the backyard.
“Look!” Rosie exclaimed. “That’s Charlie’s T-Rex.” She’d almost forgotten Charlie had sold it to the owners of the iconic house. “Doesn’t it look amazing?” Everyone agreed that it most certainly did.
Once they were in the city, she told Gideon where to turn, and as soon as they entered Lincoln Park, Jorge started to bounce in the back. “Mom, can I tell them now?”
She grinned at him in the rearview mirror. “Yup, now would be good.”
They crested the hill, and a gorgeous classical structure appeared. “The Legion of Honor. It’s a museum,” Jorge explained, “with all these really cool paintings. Mom and I come here all the time, just like she used to come here with her parents. And we go to the de Young Museum too.”
“Why don’t you tell Noah and Gideon about the special activity we do at the museum?” Rosie suggested.
“We paint!” So excited, he sat on the edge of his seat, straining against his seat belt. “There’s this one room where they let us set up easels and copy the paintings. Then Mom and I compare our pictures. It’s so much fun,” he told Noah and Gideon. “You’re going to love it just like we do!”
“Are you really allowed to copy famous paintings?” Noah asked.
“Yeah. But it’s not like stealing or anything. It’s just to mess around and pretend to be a famous painter. Although Mommy doesn’t need to pretend, because her paintings are so awesome that she really could be famous if she wanted to.”
As Gideon parked in the last vacant spot in the roundabout, he finally spoke. “I didn’t know you liked to paint.”
“It’s just a hobby.” Once, long ago, she’d dreamed of her paintings hanging in galleries. Back when painting was all she thought about, all she yearned to do. Until she got pregnant, and everything changed. Still, Jorge’s faith in her artistic ability was touching.
“While I was doing my accounting courses in college—” Accounting was what paid the bills. “—I also took as many painting technique and art history classes as I could squeeze into my schedule.” She was ecstatic that Jorge loved art as much as she did. “Jorge’s drawings are amazing. Next time you’re over at the cottage, I’ll show them to you.” She would have done so today, but she hadn’t wanted to accidentally give away their secret destination or the fact that she planned for them all to paint today.
“Are me and Gideon just going to watch you guys paint?” Noah asked, his mouth drooping, clearly not liking that idea.
“No way,” she told Noah. “We’re all going to.” She smiled at Gideon, trying not to betray her nerves about his reaction. There was more than a fifty-fifty chance he’d totally regret agreeing to their playdate, especially when she added, “Even you, Gideon.”
As expected, he looked more than a little shell-shocked. Despite her jangling nerves, she acted cool and calm as she climbed out of the SUV and opened the back. Gideon’s needle was definitely leaning toward regret.
“Our easels. Yay!” Jorge jumped in the air, and Noah naturally jumped with him. They were true pals; whatever excited one excited the other.
Only Gideon remained silent as he helped her pull out the sketch pads and easels, which folded down to the size of backpacks.
Once they’d gathered up everything, including paint palettes and brushes, they crossed the road and climbed the long, wide path through the central columns and on to Rodin’s famous sculpture, The Thinker. Rosie took a dozen pictures of the boys mimicking the pose and then in front of the mini Louvre pyramid in the middle of the courtyard. Throughout, Gideon hung back a couple of feet, his needle edging ever higher in the regret direction.
As they walked through the ticket booth, her favorite docent waved. “Hey, Cherise,” Rosie called.
