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“Yeah, she does.”
Jonesy’s there at my back, watching me and his sister with an unreadable expression on his face.
“T-thanks,” I say, flustered at being surrounded by Jonesy’s big, loud family.I wrap my left arm around Sophia to cuddle her a little closer and return to the drawing lesson.“Okay, let’s do a longer oval for the body.Like this.”
I draw mine and show it to them to copy, then walk them through the ears, the legs, the tail, and the mane, going over each step in detail as the sketches come to life under their fingers.Jonesy and Kristy circle the table, murmuring encouragement, and ten minutes later, the five of us have sketched an entire pride and they’re all sharing the ice cream flavors they’d love to try.
“What about you?”I ask Drea.
She sighs.“The pistachio horchata.The drawing in that video made it look, like,perfect.”She ducks behind her hair as she says, “Your drawing, I guess.”
“Yep,” I say, leaning forward to tap on her paper.“And your drawing is fantastic.Look at the detail on this front paw!I want to pet him.”
“That’s so dumb,” she scoffs, but her cheeks turn pink and she can’t quite hide her smile.
That’s one tough little nut cracked, at least a tiny bit.
“Okay.Last step,” I announce, “is to sign your masterpiece.”I scrawl a big loopingOlivia Fieldingon the bottom of mine, and the kids all follow suit.
“These are so great!”Kristy exclaims.“Look at how well you did, Kai!”
The younger boy pumps his fist and shoots out of the chair to run a lap around the living room.“Will you hang it on the fridge?”he shouts.Sophia wriggles free and joins him in his victory lap.
“Obviously,” Kristy says, collecting the papers into a neat pile.When she passes my chair, she whispers, “Thank you so much.It’s the quietest they’ve been in at least a calendar year.”
She reaches for my drawing too, but Jonesy snatches it up.“No way.This stays here.”He walks to the fridge and secures my lion front and center with a magnet.
I’m not sure what’s happening in my chest as I watch him put my rough, rushed drawing in a place of honor on his fridge, but it’s big and hot and threatens to burst through my skin.Without even meaning to, I’m on my feet and drifting over to stand next to him.
“And you said you couldn’t do better than the mural artist,” he says.
“This is miles worse.”
“Too modest.”He leans forward to peer at it, resting his hand on my lower back as he does.“It’s great.You should keep going.Redo the whole mural so it’s right.”
“You guys are soooo cute,” Becks croons, and I glance up to see her beaming at us.Even Drea’s frown is marginally less severe.
“Yuck.”Tristan wrinkles his nose without looking up from his paper where he’s scribbling a black ink cloud over his lion.
Jonesy straightens away from me, but not before squeezing my shoulder.“Someday you’ll understand, kid.”
Kristy chuckles, then claps her hands.“Children under the age of eighteen, to the car.We’ve bugged Hollis enough for one day.”
The kids jump to obey, although they each swipe another cookie on their way out.
“Nice to meet you,” the oldest girls singsong in almost unison as they vanish with the rest of the kids.
“It was nice,” Kristy affirms, giving me a quick hug.“Keep an eye on him for me,” she whispers.“Make sure he doesn’t work too hard.”
“I’ll do my best,” I say, a little unsure of what exactly just happened here or how Jonesy explained my presence to her during their side chat.
Once the van pulls away, I turn to see him leaning against the wall with his hands in his sweats pockets, watching me warily.
“So,” he says.
“So,” I reply, deeply unsure what happens next.
Fifteen
