AllFreeNovel
Share Us
“Hi.I’m Kristy Kuhlmann.The mom.”
I grip her hand and shake.“Liv Fielding.The coworker.”
“Ah,” she says, her gaze now drifting to Jonesy.“At…?”
“At Verdant,” he says quickly.
Kristy tilts her head a few degrees to the left, clearly not believing that a mere coworker would be hanging out at Jonesy’s place like this, but she doesn’t press.
“Can I have a cookie?”one of the little ones screeches, and Jonesy looks at his mom with a raised brow.
“One each,” she says.“And Tristan, you need to bring in the presents for your brother.This was your idea.”
The oldest boy scrambles out to the van and returns with an oversized bag.“Here, Holly!One of them’s a sweater,” he says proudly as he dumps the bag out onto the couch and four wrapped packages tumble out in a profusion of red and green and silver.
Kristy groans.“Tristan Parker Kuhlmann!What have we talked about?”
“Sorry!”he yells as he charges to the kitchen to choose his cookie.“It’s s’posed to be a surprise!”
There’s a period of relative silence as the kids descend on the baked goods, which lets Kristy give me a once-over.
“So, Liv, how long have you and Hollis worked together?”
I glance at him and see the tips of his ears turning red, but I hide my elation at his mom casually spilling all his secrets.
“Not long.Three weeks, maybe?I’m only in town for a little bit before I leave for a new job.”
Kristy bends down to swing the littlest girl up onto her hip, not even flinching when a crumby, chocolatey hand tangles in her hair.“And what do you do?”
“She creates ad campaigns,” Jonesy says.“She’s crazy talented.”His smile is warm as he says it.
The kids come tumbling back to surround us.
“Art?”Drea flicks her hair back from her face, interest replacing suspicion in her dark eyes.
“You know those melting ice cream ads?”he asks, and Drea nods.“Liv did those paintings.”
The older girls look at me in awe.“Oh my god,” Becks squeals.“I always wanted to try the chai spice flavor!”
Drea scoffs.“Like we can afford that ice cream.”Then her eyes slip over to me.“But can you, like, give me art pointers?”
“Well.”I glance around for help, but Kristy’s pulled Jonesy aside for a whispered conversation, so they’re no use.“Sure.Let me just get some paper.”
I grab my purse where I dropped it near the door, grateful that I always carry a notebook with me.“Let’s go to the kitchen.”
Before I know it, the four oldest kids have settled around the table.Tristan clearly knows his way around Jonesy’s house and fetches pens from a drawer to distribute to everyone as I tear pages out of my notebook.
“Okay, let’s draw a… a lion.”
I’m obviously not going to show them how to draw the sexy lions that I’ve been sketching in my free time recently, but I can teach them the friendly Disney version.
“Everybody start with a big circle for the head,” I instruct, drawing mine and holding it up to show them.The kids dutifully follow my directions.One of the boys has a tongue poked through his teeth, and Becks glances at Drea’s paper before she starts on her own.
A tug on my skirt has me glancing down.It’s the youngest girl, standing with her arms raised in the universal “pick me up” position.I comply and lift her onto my lap.She’s a warm little weight against my chest as she settles in.
“What’s your name?”I ask.
“Sophia.”She burrows her head into my solar plexus.“You smell nice.”
