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“It’s been an equally long time for you. Does that seem fair?”
“No,” I say. “But I can’t do anything about it.”
“If you can’t, I won’t either.”
“Sometimes you make no sense to me,” she says.
“Back at you.”
Chapter Sixty
Maggie
Everyone is crammedinto the apartment, the whole family - and what feels like a small army of Secret Service agents.
Before the party gets started, everyone is taking turns painting the mural in the nursery. Ethan and Zadie came by a few weeks ago and Brooklyn and Kip helped last weekend. We want everyone to do a little bit and then they are all signing the back of the closet door.
“James, look at the canvas again. The red needs to go here.” I point at my canvas. He comes closer and studies it and then goes back to the wall and paints a section of one of the hot air balloons.
Celeste looks up from painting one of the clouds and says, “You’re enjoying bossing him around, aren’t you?”
I give her a sly smile and say, “It’s not every day that you get to tell the President of the United States what to do. I won’t lie. It’s going to my head a little bit.”
Elizabeth is quietly painting in a corner. She’s hardly said a word since she arrived. She looks tired – which is to be expected, but I’ve never seen her this quiet.
Declan walks into the nursery with Eli. “Wow, it’s almost finished.”
I nod my head toward a bin of paint brushes for Eli to grab one.
“Juno and Keene said they can come tomorrow to help finish it up,” I say.
Eli picks up a brush, and I hand him a little palette with paint I’ve just mixed.
“The waterfall needs some highlights,” I say, pointing to the forest scene. I show him on my canvas, and he goes to work.
Declan puts his hand on the back of the glider – not touching me but nearly touching me. He leans down and says just to me, “You aren’t overdoing it, are you?”
