“Hey, are you good out here?”
“Yeah,” she responded, turning her attention back to the notepad in front of her. He assumed it was why she’d asked Jalen for the keys before asking if she could go outside.
“What are you sketching if you don’t mind my asking?” he questioned.
“Your brother,” Landon answered.
“Can I see it?”
“I guess so,” she responded, pushing the notepad towards him.
He moved closer to the table and discovered that she was extremely talented. She’d only been outside by herself for about an hour, and she’d pretty much finished the sketch. Not only that, but she was drawing it from memory, and it looked so much like Trent that it was scary.
“This is really good, Landon.”
“It’s okay.”
“No, it’s extremely well drawn. You’ve got talent.”
“I…drew you too.” She held her hand out for the sketchpad, and he handed it back to her. She flipped through a few pages and handed it back to him.
Rohan smiled down at the page. After seeing just two of her drawings, he was beyond impressed, and she’d done them both from memory. He couldn’t understand why she didn’t feel like she was doing good work.
Most times, when a child didn’t feel accomplished in something they enjoyed doing, he knew it was from a lack of praise or others teasing them about it. He knew Jalen was very proud of Landon’s creations because she’d told him how many sketchpads she’d bought, and she’d even shown him the sketch pencil set she planned on getting her for Christmas, and it was costly.
“You know, Trent’s a fan of good art and great drawings. I bet he’d buy his sketch from you,” he told her, and he wasn’t lying. His brother was always buying art pieces he didn’t have space for. Rohan figured it was because Trent didn’t have an artistic bone in his body, but enjoyed the story the pieces told.
“I don’t see why he’d want to,” Landon told him with a shrug.
Rohan raised an eyebrow at her. “Should we go find out?” He watched as she wrung her wrist but didn’t respond. “Tell you what, if I’m right, you owe me a canvas-size sketch. If I’m wrong, I’ll give you fifty dollars. Either way, you’ll make money.”
“You can just give me the money now,” she told him, and this lack of confidence in her skill bothered him a bit. He always thought kids should be confident in what they liked.
“Nope, let’s go find Trent.”
Landon sighed, standing, and he allowed her to enter the house first. He followed her through to the living room, where his brother was scrolling through his phone. Rohan handedLandon the sketchpad back, not wanting to flip through her drawings. They were hers and could have been personal.
“Hey, Trent,” Rohan called, and his brother, along with Jalen and his mother, turned to look at the two of them. “Landon has something she wants to show you.”
He watched as the teenager flipped back to where she’d drawn Trent and handed the sketchpad to him. His brother took it from her.
“Well, I’ll be damned,” Trent stated.
“Language in front of the child, Trenton,” his mother scolded.
“This is…incredible. You drew this in the time you’ve been outside?” Trent asked, completely ignoring their mother. Rohan knew it was because she cursed far more than they did in front of Alynn.
“Yeah,” Landon whispered softly, and Rohan wondered if she had a little crush on his brother.
“Can I have it?” Trent inquired. “I’ll pay you for it.”
Landon’s eyes widened before she turned and looked at him. “You…you planned this,” she accused.
Rohan lifted an eyebrow at her. “How would I have done that when this is my first time seeing your drawings, and you came into the house before me?”
“Planned what?” Trent questioned.
Rohan recounted the part of the conversation they’d had out back that was relevant, and his brother and mother both laughed.
