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He checked to see if Taylee had heard, and she obviously had because she was sitting there, looking like a kid on Christmas morning, her eyes filling up with the happiest tears. His were a little bit wet too.
If he hung up his painting, he’d probably never take it down. It would always and forever remind him of this night.
Chapter 15
Taylee
“Look at you go, kiddo!”
Misty beamed with pleasure at Kier’s words of praise. She fitted another piece into the puzzle.
“At this rate, we’ll be done in five minutes.” Taylee was still working on a section of blue. It was the hard part, the sky. All blue, endless blue.
Misty was doing the bottom half, all different cats lounging on a patchwork picnic blanket, hiding in the basket, sitting on a lawn chair, and playing with balls of yarn and in the grass. Kier was working on the rest of the grass and trees in the distance, and he was having about as much luck as she was with all those different shades of green.
“I feel like you’re taking one for the team.” Kier noticed how she was struggling.
She looked down hopelessly at the mountain of green pieces he had to sort out. “Maybe we both are,” she said. “Although, it’s okay to be bad at this. I’m still having fun.”
“I’m having so much fun!” Misty slapped another piece into place and followed it up with another and another after that.
“My gosh,” Taylee sighed. “A genius.”
Misty flushed at that. “I can help you with the sky, if you want.”
“Oh, sweetheart, thank you. Maybe when you’re done there. I’ll keep plugging away at it until then.”
“Hey! Where’s my grass and trees help?”
“Here!” Misty took a few pieces, and after staring at them for a few seconds, arranged them into the top of a tree.
“Well, I’ll be darned.” Kier gaped at Misty in genuine admiration. “You’re a pro at this. We should enter you into puzzle building competitions.”
“And it’s a thousand pieces too. Most people your age are probably barely doing fifty or a hundred.”
“It just makes sense to me,” Misty said. “I don’t know why.” She shyly reached for a few more green pieces and shaped them into a big section of grass.
“I think I had better get working on snacks. It’s just about bedtime. Anyone have any requests?”
“Quitter,” Tay mumbled, but she smiled secretly at Kier and then winked at Misty. “That’s okay, Kier, don’t worry. We’ll just finish up here. No need to keep plugging away at the grass. After the sky kicks my butt, I’ll just move on to that.”
Misty giggled. “Cinnamon and sugar toast?”
“Oh geez, that does sound good.” Tay’s mouth watered. A distant memory pricked at the dark space in her brain. She’d had it before, she was sure. She could taste the buttery flavors combining with the sweet sugar and spicy cinnamon on her tongue.
“I have fresh bread, compliments of Glendy and Thaddius.”
“How does she find time to run her store, look after a baby, as well as Emma, and still bake?”
“I think it was more Thaddius. He grows a lot of our food in the summer and forages in all months, but he’s also really good at canning and preserving and baking too.”
“I should learn how to make bread.” Taylee sighed.
“I think that would be fun!” Misty looked at her eagerly. “Do you think we could learn together?”
Suddenly, not knowing how to do something didn’t seem so bad. Not remembering if she knew how to do it wasn’t even that bad either. She would love to do that with the people she cared about. “Yes! I can get my mom to show us. Or someone here, if they wouldn’t mind.”
“Maybe both! We could learn all the things!” Misty was all eagerness and wide eyes.
