‘Babies aren’t my specialty, so you need to find someone else for that. Are there any support groups for new parents to swap ideas and have a natter?’
‘They did mention one when we were at the hospital, but I didn’t follow it up because I thought I wouldn’t need it.’ Her sister looked rueful.
‘None of us is an island, Becca.’
‘Iknow that, butyouoften seem like one.’
‘Me?’ Lyndsey couldn’t hide her shock. ‘Why would you say that?’
Another uneasy silence filled the air. If she didn’t push, and brushed it under the carpet now, their relationship would never have a chance to grow the way she’d always longed for. ‘Please. I want to know.’
‘Do you, really? Honestly?’
She nodded. The tables had turned while she wasn’t looking, and it was her turn to hear some home truths.
‘Okay. Here goes. You’ve always made it clear you never wanted a sister, and especially not me. I know there’s a big age gap between us, but I used to long for us to do stuff together.’ Becca sighed heavily. ‘You even keep Mum and Dad somewhat at arm’s length. It’s like you don’tneed other people in your life.’ She angled Lyndsey a long, hard stare. ‘Or maybe it’s not that you don’tneedthem, but you’re frightened of opening yourself to loving anyone because of what happened with Mum and your birth dad?’
Lyndsey opened her mouth to protest, but the urge to defend herself ebbed away. How could the family’s adored princess, the much-longed-for baby, ever hope to understand?
‘You’ve made a huge success of your business, and that’s awesome, but are you using it as a substitute for having a real life?’ Becca persisted.
For a few fleeting seconds, she hesitated. This was her chance.
‘Oh, forget it. I should’ve known this would be a waste of time.’ Becca scoffed.
‘Will you still let me help you with the house?’ Lyndsey asked timidly.
‘That’s your safe place, isn’t it?’ She shrugged. ‘We’ll see.’
She didn’t deserve anything more than that tentative half-promise. The failure nagged at her like an aching tooth, spoiling the prospect of the evening ahead.
Chapter Ten
Griff wound up the vacuum cord and shoved the machine back out of sight in the hall cupboard. After coming home from the afternoon’s ice cream expedition, he’d looked around his home and tried to see it through Lyndsey’s eyes. When he was engrossed in work, housekeeping tended to go by the wayside. Although it hadn’t been a trash heap on the level of her sister’s, it’d definitely been up there on the messy scale. It wouldn’t help his romantic prospects tonight if Lyndsey saw him as a candidate for her professional services. But now the house was sparkling — at least by his standards — and it was still only four o’clock. He needed something to keep himself occupied for a few hours, and a putter around in his workshop sounded his best option.
Crossing the sunny garden, he stopped to check out the bird feeder he’d hung from a wrought-iron pole near the porch. A strikingly handsome blue jay pecking at the seeds flew off as Griff approached, giving several of its loud distinctive chirps. Apparently they could do a good imitation of a hawk, although he’d never been lucky enough to hear that himself.
Outside the workshop, he followed his usual habit of kicking off his sandals and replacing them with an ancient pair of brown leather boots. There was less likelihood of losing a toe then, if he was handling a heavy piece of glass and dropped it. He sniffed the faint, distinctive but indescribable scent as he stepped inside his workspace and immediately felt less tense. The ideal job for now, which wouldn’t get either himself or the room messed up, would be to sit and draft some patterns on his laptop. Griff hovered over the bin of offcuts and spied a shard of deep amber glass, the color of Lyndsey’s skin. The idea for an abstract piece based on her Caribbean background formed in his mind.
He unhooked his protective apron, slipped it on and tied a knot around his waist. First he’d find a suitable piece of MDF to build the mosaic on. The incredible mosaicist who gave him a lesson after he saw her work at a local craft show said that was the best thing to use for a base, as opposed to regular wood that might warp.Some people used glass or slate instead, but he hadn’t experimented with those mediums yet.
Griff rifled through his supplies and picked out a simple, small rectangle perfect for what he had in mind. Sometimes he did a preliminary sketch, but today the picture in his head was so clear he’d take a chance and skip that step. He returned to the offcuts bin and picked out a selection of vivid blues for the Caribbean Sea, a shard of sparkling emerald for her eyes and heat-drenched yellows and oranges for the sun. He’d amassed a variety of miniature tiles which were perfect for forming the borders and delved into his collection to find enough complementary colors. Once the piece started to come together, he’d probably add beads or faux jewels, but they could wait. Capturing the essence of Lyndsey would be a challenge, but he was eager to get started.
A quiet tap on the door startled him. Griff straightened, absentmindedly rubbing the back of his neck. He glanced at his phone and was shocked to see it was eight o’clock. Somehow he’d been working for almost four hours without being aware of anything but the design coming to life in front of him.
‘It’s only me.’
‘Hang on a minute.’ He grabbed an old towel from his cleaning supplies and draped it over the mosaic. ‘Come on in,’ Griff shouted, breaking into a smile as she only took a couple of cautious steps inside. ‘I wasn’t sure you’d manage to get away.’
‘Becca’s always happy to shove me in your direction. I don’t mean . . . She’s very fond of you, but right now it’s me she’s not so sure about.’ There was a brittleness to her smile. ‘I’m joking.’
No, you’re not.
‘You’ll have to avoid touching anything. I’m sorry. I cleaned up earlier, ready to show you the panels we were talking about, but I was at a loose end late this afternoon and—’
‘It’s okay. Don’t apologize for being passionate about your work.’
He almost blurted out that the only thing he’d intended to be passionate about tonight was her, but that was best left unsaid. Griff gestured towards the three completed panels hanging on the back wall. ‘There they are.’ The nerves in his stomach jangled as she began to study them.
