Page 167 of When Love Takes Root

Skye lifted her chin. “Yes.”

“Fork down,” I said.

She lowered it with grace she absolutely did not feel. “I was emphasizing my testimony.”

Maya smiled into her glass.

Josiah’s attention shifted to the sketchbook resting near her elbow. “May I see what you’re working on?”

Maya’s fingers tightened over the cover. Her eyes moved from his face to mine before returning to him. “It’s not finished.”

“Most things worth looking at are still becoming something.”

Her grip loosened by a fraction.

She turned the sketchbook just enough for him to see, keeping one hand near the page like she could close it if he looked wrong. Josiah leaned in with his forearms away from the table, careful not to crowd her work. The drawing was one of her faceless women, all curved lines, heavy hair, and flowers blooming where eyes should’ve been.

He studied it long enough for Maya’s mouth to tighten with nerves.

Then he nodded once. “You draw like you understand people can be beautiful and hidden at the same time.”

Maya’s eyes lifted fast.

The table softened around her.

Josiah glanced from the page to her face. “I don’t know art like that, but I know care when I see it. You didn’t rush her. Every line looks like you wanted her protected.”

Maya looked down at the sketch, her lashes low, her thumb brushing the corner of the page.

“That’s what she is.”

Josiah’s voice softened. “What?”

Maya’s voice came smaller now. “Protected. She just doesn’t know it yet.”

My throat pulled tight.

Josiah’s expression gentled. “Then keep drawing until she believes you.”

Maya’s mouth tucked in at the corner.

For Maya, that was a standing ovation.

JJ asked Josiah about the panel, and they drifted into a conversation about load calculations, circuit separation, engineering prerequisites, and whether field experience made classroom theory better or worse. Josiah answered without talking down to him. JJ sat a little taller with every response, his fork pausing halfway to his mouth because the subject had caught him.

Kayden watched all of it with his fork sitting untouched near his plate.

Every time Josiah answered somebody with patience, Kayden’s face tightened like grace itself annoyed him. When Skye laughed, he looked toward Jamal’s chair. When Maya asked another question, he pushed rice around with the back of his fork. When JJ nodded at something Josiah said, Kayden’s eyes cut to his brother with something wounded and hot beneath them.

Then he went looking again.

“So how long you been doing electrical work?” Kayden asked.

Josiah picked up his glass. “Since I was a teenager.”

Kayden leaned back. “That supposed to make us feel better?”

“Kayden.”