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Chapter 5
By some miracle, Tanith was home shortly after five that day—number crunching and weird dancing moments with Ursalina and Espie aside. The gallery normally closed around seven, but seeing as she’d had so many late nights over the last few months, she decided to make the executive decision to head home earlier and see her daughter.
Hayley, eight years old and quite the artist herself, had been diagnosed with sickle cell anemia before she turned three – apparently both Tanith and her father were carriers of the recessive gene and somehow she’d gotten one from each. While Tanith would have loved to home school her daughter herself, she was awful at math and science, and therefore knew she owed it to her miniature best friend to hire a professional to see to her education.
The disease kept Hayley weary, weak, and in chronic pain. There were many doctor visits in a year, many new medications and treatment options. With the disease, it was all about preventing other horrific complications from happening.
To do all that, Tanith needed a steady income. The gallery, for the most part, provided what she needed to provide her daughter with all the tools to live a relatively happy life. Still, working so often meant Tanith wasn’t at home as much as she liked.
Today, with the high of Ursalina still tingling through her system, she decided to lock up early and spend the evening with Hayley. Movies, junk food—only a little, of course—makeovers, comic book reading party, girl talk…whatever Hayley wanted, Tanith was ready to do.
After packing up her work life and loading up the car, she left Angel Fire for the evening long before sunset for the first time all week. Tanith owned a little bungalow outside of Angel Fire near the college, and when she arrived, she was pleased to see most of the windows open and the curtains pulled back; it signified a good day for Hayley.
She left the bulk of her work gear in the car, not wanting to bring it in with her, then hurried inside with a spring in her step. Sure enough, she found Hayley and her tutor, Trudy, in the living room working on a puzzle, Hayley’s textbooks and papers piled up at the end of the coffee table.
“Mommy!”
Tanith padded across the off-white tile so that Hayley wouldn’t have to get up, crouching down and pulling her daughter into a hug. While she had Tanith’s blue-green eyes, and some said her nose, she had a lot of her father in her, too. Skin like cocoa and a smile that could light up a room, Hayley was Tanith’s greatest masterpiece, illness and all. She wore her curly hair in pigtails, which had been the style of the month these days.
“How was school?” Tanith asked, her arms wrapped as tightly as she dared around Hayley’s slim figure. They had had a few bad weeks recently, resulting in a weight loss that her pediatrician considered concerning. However, in just a week, Hayley had managed to put on five pounds. It certainly helped that Trudy was not only a fabulous tutor, but an excellent cook. Tanith never had to worry about her daughter eating crap food at some public school cafeteria.
“We did art, history, English, and math today,” Hayley told her. “Do you want to see my drawings?”
“Of course I do,” Tanith gushed, pressing a quick kiss to her forehead before helping the girl to her feet. She was off like a shot to the kitchen through the adjoining doorway, and Tanith tried not to wince at her speed.
“She’s doing really well today,” Trudy told her softly, “but she’s been fighting a nap for the last hour.”
Her gaze swept over the half-completed puzzle. “These usually put her to sleep.”
“You spoiled my plan,” Trudy said, grinning. At twenty-eight years old, Trudy had all the necessary teaching requirements to provide Hayley with a spectacular home-school education. Besides all that, she was just a lovely person, which made it much easier for Tanith to leave her daughter every morning. It bothered her, of course, that sometimes it seemed like Hayley spent more time with Trudy than her own mother, but Tanith knew it wouldn’t be forever, and it was the best case scenario for someone with her daughter’s condition.
Hayley was back a few moments later, socked feet sliding on the tile, and presented Tanith with three sheets of paper. All three were sketches of various flowers in their back garden—and they were good. Having the genetics of two artists helped her a lot.
“These are stunning,” Tanith praised. She steered Hayley to one of her fake leather couches and plopped down, examining each page in detail. “These look more like final products than sketches. Are you going to add color? They’re so realistic, yet you’ve added your own creative twist to each of them.”
She looked up to find Hayley beaming, as she always did when Tanith complimented her artwork. Tanith always would, of course. She had been praising Hayley’s drawing from the very beginning, and would do so for as long as Hayley enjoyed doing it. Given her background, Tanith had always thought artistry of any kind ought to be encouraged, not put down as so many parents did these days.
“I think I just want them in black and white,” Hayley admitted after careful consideration, and Tanith nodded.
“Yes, yes, that’s the right approach.” She held the papers to her chest, treasuring each one of them. “Would you mind if I framed them and put them up at the gallery?”
Hayley’s cheeks flushed, but only faintly, and she groaned. “Mom.”
“I won’t put them up where people can see.” Tanith chuckled, knowing her daughter wasn’t ready to be the star of the show just yet. “Only in my office. Can I do that?”
Hayley considered the proposition for a moment, then finally agreed. “Only in your office though.”
“Scout’s honor,” Tanith remarked, holding up two fingers to seal the deal.
As Trudy cleaned up the puzzle, Tanith grilled Hayley on all her lessons that day, wanting to know the littlest details so she could create a clear picture in her mind. It wasn’t that she was a control freak—Tanith couldn’t stand those kinds of mothers—but being out of the house, and almost out of Hayley’s life, so many hours a week meant she was forever playing catch-up.
She asked so many questions about Hayley’s day because she genuinely wanted to know. Of course, while Hayley was still under the age of ten, her daughter was more than happy to spare no detail of everything she learned. Tanith was already mentally preparing herself for the one syllable answers she was bound to get once Hayley started the dreaded teen years.
Once she had told Tanith everything that had happened that day, Hayley’s eyes started to droop.
“I think it’s time for a nap,” Tanith said cautiously. Some days, Hayley was all too happy to crawl into bed and sleep the bad feelings away. Others, it was a huge production that always tested Tanith’s somewhat infinite patience. Today, she cut Hayley’s protesting off before she could even get started. “After your nap, you and I are gonna spend the whole night doing whatever you want. If you don’t nap, you can just do homework. Make your decision.”
Hayley’s mouth opened and closed as she worked through her options. In the end, she opted for the nap. Grinning, Tanith kissed her on both cheeks, had her say goodbye to Trudy, and then shooed her off to her bedroom. Tanith had given her the master suite in their two-bedroom bungalow, knowing Hayley needed the en suite bathroom more than Tanith did depending on how she was feeling.
