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“Guess I’m going to have to show it to you fully. Just don’t make fun of some of them.”
“Never,” he said.
“Before I show you mine, you need to show me yours,” she said, laughing. “I just thought of that.”
He smirked. “I can do that. Homework for me.”
7
A LITTLE TOO TIDY
“What do I owe this surprise to?” Lacy Mills asked her son on Monday morning.
“I can’t bring my mother flowers in a pretty vase because I love her?” Carson asked.
His mother squinted one eye at him. They’d gotten to the island last night. His parents always sent a text out saying where they were to him, his brother and sister.
They were a close family but not too intrusive.
“You can,” his mother said. “I love and appreciate it. But normally you only did those things when you were in trouble or wanted something. Are you craving some peanut butter cookies?”
“I’m always craving them,” he said.
“I know. But you don’t normally bring me flowers in a vase that cost a few hundred dollars to get them.”
His jaw dropped. Not that he couldn’t have afforded to buy that for his mother, but he’d had no clue.
He shouldn’t have assumed though. Laine’s paintings were priced higher than the average person would spend. It’d stand to reason anything she did demanded a pretty penny.
“Then I’ll be honest and tell you it was a gift.”
“You repurposed a gift,” his mother said, laughing. “You’re an idiot. More so this. I know a Laine Connors vase when I see one. I’ve got several pieces of hers in the house.” His mother lifted the blue and green swirls of colors over her head to glance at the signature on the bottom.
“Laine gave it to me herself.”
“Oh,” his mother said. “Come into the kitchen and fill me in on this. She’s a lovely young woman.”
He should have figured his mother would have talked to Laine. All the more reason for this visit.
“How do you know her? Or just from frequenting her studio for her pieces?”
He’d only seen one here on the island so his guess was the others were in his childhood home in Boston. He didn’t go there often anymore. No reason to.
When his parents hosted holidays they did it on the island where their three children lived.
“A little bit of both,” his mother said. “She’s donated pieces for the annual fundraiser over the years too. You’d know that if you attended them.”
“I’m working,” he said. Or he volunteered to most times. Ever since Janet and Helena Bond got it in their heads to put the single men up for auction, he’d found a way to not attend.
They’d only done it once, but once was more than enough for him. Funny how his cousins Hailey, Emily, and Bode ended up with spouses from that night. Or at least Hailey and Emily did. Bode’s wife’s parents were who bid on him to do work on their house.
Yeah, sometimes things on the island were a little too tidy for even him.
“That’s your story and you’re sticking to it,” his mother said. “So tell me the story of how you got this beautiful vase and why you gave it to me.”
“If you know Laine, then you know she’s a little out there.”
“No,” his mother said. “Not even eccentric. She’s a beautiful carefree soul that breathes the world around her. She brings out the life in others she’s near too.”
