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I laughed and shook my head. “You hate creativity. You like research and numbers and facts.”
“Not for a day spa,” she snipped. “Let me think about it. I can be creative when I want to be. I gave birth to you, after all, and you’re quite the free spirit.”
Lola and I both laughed harder now as we continued the tour. My mother made a few snide comments about our ideas, but for the most part, she was fairly supportive.
Shocker.
Lola’s phone rang, and she said it was the contractor, so she stepped away. My mom and I stood in one of the only spaces that wasn’t currently occupied by workers, which would be the yoga room.
“So, you’re going to paint a mural in here, is that right?”
I studied her, waiting for her to tell me all the reasons it was a bad idea. For starters, I didn’t live here.
“Yeah. I’ll fly back the week before the opening, and I can paint the mural then. I just have to decide what I want it to be.”
She brushed some nonexistent dust from her powder-blue blazer, and her dark gaze met mine. “Haven’t you been painting lately? I noticed it on your hands the other night at dinner.”
“Yes. I’ve been coming up with some ideas.”
“Well, I’m a fan of the arts. Why don’t you run them by me?”
My eyes widened, and instead of insisting she would hate them, I reached into my back pocket for my phone. I’d painted a few things at Cage’s over the last few days. Gracie and I had painted for a bit after her riding lesson yesterday. All she ever wanted to paint was Sally, so Cage would need to get on board. His daughter was definitely ahorse girl,as she liked to call herself.
I showed my mother the painting of the trees and the water in the distance. It was earthy and soothing, which might be a nice fit.
“That’s… lovely. Did you paint that?”
“Thank you. I did.” I scrolled to the next photo and held it up for her to see, and she took the phone from my hand. It was a layered sunset, with a large raven soaring through the sky and a second raven in the distance. There were mountains in the background, and the wingspan of the bird was open and wide. It needed more work, but it was just an idea to give Lola a few choices. Even if she said she wanted me to decide, I thought it should be a group decision.
“It’s a raven, isn’t it?”
“Yes.”
“That’s beautiful. It’s tranquil. That’s what you should name the spa. Tranquility. It’s what we’re all searching for,” she said.
“Well, thank you. I’ll take that as a compliment. And I’ll run the name by Lola, but it’s ultimately her decision.”
“Fair enough. Didn’t Casey call you Raven back in the day?”
I rolled my eyes. “Mom. We dated for years. His name is Cage, and you know that.”
She didn’t deny it. She just smirked like she was having fun. I didn’t know my mother knew how to have fun or how to be funny. I could count on one hand how many times I’d heard her laugh in my entire life.
“Fine. Isn’t that the name thatCagecalled you?”
“Yes. He said it was because they don’t really fly the way other birds do. Ravens soar and glide through the sky, and that’s how he thought I looked when I was at my horse jumping competitions.”
She pursed her lips. “Oh, I always figured it was because they are wild and do acrobatics in the air. They don’t follow the rules or do what’s expected of them, you know?”
What the hell was she talking about?
“Did you research the raven?”
“Of course I did. He was the first boy you ever dated, and you stayed together so long. He always called you Raven, and I figured there was a reason. And then you put that tattoo on your wrist, so I’ve read pretty much everything there is to read about the damn bird.”
I shook my head in disbelief. “You pretend that you can’t even remember his name, yet you’re researching the nickname he called me in private all of these years?”
“We all have our own way of doing things, Presley.”
