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Layla wandered closer, still examining the paper, then handed it to Calla. “She’s cute. She looks very…”
“Younger Amy Adams?”
“Ooh, yeah. I can totally see that.”
“For sure. She has very shiny hair.”
“I like her eyes.”
The girls passed the paper around the table as they rattled off their comments.
“No!” Crew yelled. “She does not look very Amy Adams. This woman is pure evil. She will haunt your dreams and take all of your left socks in the dead of night.”
More often than not, it was impossible to take Crew seriously. Not with the bumbling, stumbling routine like he’d displayed coming in here today. The Hawaiian shirts didn’t help either. But the way he was yelling about what looked like a very sweet girl made it even harder. He was the baby of the family, and no matter how old he was, we’d always see him as that.
“Maybe give her a chance to settle in. Once she’s been there a bit, when her truck is no longer the new novelty, things will even out.” Nathan’s answer was logical, but Crew’s only response was a mostly unintelligible comment that I thought mentioned us being traitors. Then he was gone, rushing out the door as quickly as he’d rushed in.
He was back a heartbeat later, though, snatching up his stack of papers with a grumble, then stomping off again.
Chuckles went up around the room as Calla went on to tell the rest of my family the story she’d told the girls earlier. The sound of her voice fell away as my eyes snagged on Marigold’s.
It was just a second, a brief moment in time where the world slowed and the room darkened and a single spotlight landed on her. She was still smiling at Crew’s outburst. But the instant she noticed my attention, her bright smile faded, and her eyes, once filled with utter joy, were now swimming with a mix of confusion and regret. Could she see it in my eyes too? In an instant, her genuine smile morphed into a poor facsimile of the expression. As if my attention alone had drained the happiness right out of her.
Would it ever be possible to get her to give me a genuine smile like that again? The kind she used to share with me so freely? Because, God, did I want to claim them all.
“Miles, can I talk to you real quick, bud?”
I’d learned this trick early on with the boys. It was a technique I called sandwiching.
I’d take the bad, smear a little good on both sides, then serve it up in hopes that the kids wouldn’t notice the bad. Like hiding puréed veggies in the mac and cheese sauce. For years, it worked like a charm. Now that the boys couldn’t easily be redirected by Mickey Mouse or a dye-free sucker, its success rate was abysmal. Didn’t stop me from employing the technique, though.
“Sure, Mom. Give me one second.”
Miles sat at the dining room table, which was used for anything and everything but dining, with colored pencils. He was drawing what looked like a blue whale.
My little artist. He wanted to be a marine biologist when he grew up. Dallas liked to say he was going to be Johnny Knoxville. Something he’d gotten from Liam, for sure. For as similar as the boys were in appearance, their personalities were so different. My heart squeezed each time I thought about how they were becoming their own people.
Miles put the colored pencils back in the box in the order of the rainbow and placed it neatly in his backpack. He was a kid after my own heart.
“Okay, I’m ready.” He turned toward me, wearing a sweet smile.
Dallas was in his room watching the newest animated Spiderman movie, judging from the sounds wafting in on the air. That meant I had a solid three minutes to get this out. Having this conversation with Miles alone was imperative. Dallas was quick to get over things. He would get upset, but thirty minutes later, the emotions would dissipate and he’d revert back to his happy-go-lucky self. Miles needed more time. I’d have to put more energy into my explanation and the alternative I’d come up with.
“You know how Dad and I got signed up to work the spring festival together?”
His cheeks flushed a little, and his smile grew wider, putting his scraggly teeth on display and reminding me that I’d need to pay for braces in his early teenage years.
“Y-yeah? What about it?” The smile quickly morphed into a nervous one. Like he knew where I was going with this.
Gah. It made my heart ache to do this.
“I know you really want me to help out with this stuff, but I’m so busy at work. Plus, I’m not great at this kind of stuff. So maybe it’s best if we find someone else to take care of the project with your dad.”
There. That way I could leave Liam out of it completely. I didn’t get along with the man, but I always ensured the boys had a solid relationship with him. I would never want them to think less of him. No matter how much he annoyed me.
“What?” He deflated right there in front of me, tears welling and face drooping like a sad puppy who’d been told he couldn’t have a treat.
Not that look. Anything but that look.
