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“You could pretend it’s Spanish moss,” I say.
He tosses it away.
“You need help?”
“I got it. I used to do a lot of this as a boy. Brett and me both. We’d spend hours doing these models.”
“When was the last time?”
“I got this. It’s like riding a bike.”
“Except you have large hands now,” I say, and not in any way like I think it’s hot.
He just tries to work at it.
“It’s too bad you don’t have somebody with you who has way more recent experience gluing tiny things to tiny surfaces with her slim, womanly hands,” I say. “It’s really a shame that there isn’t anybody like that here.”
He starts on another. Messes it up.
“Dude. Let me help.” I tie Smuckers to a chair.
“You think you’re an expert because of your Etsy dog collar store? This is a little more intricate.”
“I make jewelry of all kinds, not just dog stuff,” I tell him.
“We know,” he says.
“Come on. You make the trunks and shave the branch curlies and I’ll do the gluing. And please, your technique? With the toothpick?”
He looks up finally. “You think you can?”
I consider telling him I’ll only help him if he confesses why it’s so damn important, but it’s getting painful to watch him struggle. “I know I can.”
He cuts another trunk and slides it to me. I shove a toothpick up the trunk, basically reaming out the trunk, and then I make a small pool of glue and dip in the branches with the tweezer, then touch it to the area.
“Oh. That’s more efficient.”
“Was that a compliment?” I brush it off, because the air is humming between us. “Gluing stuff is my jam, baby.” I blow air on it.
He cuts out another trunk. We get up an assembly line. We repair a few buildings. We collaborate on a tiny stop sign.
It’s…nice.
There’s something about making things side-by-side that only crafty girls know about, a kind of sweet, silent bonding that other people don’t experience.
Henry and I are achieving this bond. I like it in spite of myself. Or in spite of himself.
I glue a tiny curlicue to a tiny tree, feeling his eyes on me.
Chapter Fourteen
Henry
Here’s the thing about business—you always make your moves from a place of control.
I never ask a question without knowing the answer first. I never show people what I want unless I’m assured of getting it.
And I never, ever operate from need.
