“Amazing.” He turned to Cadence. “What do you think, then?”
“You really don’t mind?”
“I really don’t mind,” he said.
At first, she worried that her desire to lean on him meant that this was the kind of temptation she should resist. It seemed too easy, somehow, to just let Tyler handle this thing for her. But then she thought about it a little more deeply.
If this was a friend offering to help, say, Diana or June, she’d say yes right away. And no matter where things were headed with her and Tyler, they would always be friends.
“Okay,” she said. “Yeah. That would be amazing.”
“Cool,” he said. “I have now entered into a bargain for alotof library books, so we’d better hustle. What time are the delivery guys due?”
She gave him all the details about the moving parts of the day, then hurried over to the gallery to prepare, while Tyler and Isabelle headed out for what would be a long library trip.
As she took two of the receiving orders from local artists and cleared the area where the new furniture was due to be placed, Cadence mused over the little kernel of hope that felt like it had been growing inside her by the day. When Tyler and Isabelle arrived a little while later, she felt that kernel swell even bigger.
They didn’t even come inside the gallery, which Cadence appreciated. The gallery was pretty tough for a kid of Izzy’s age, since it was full of temptation, given all the things that looked interesting but which could not be touched. Library bribery aside, Isabelle would do a lot better if she got out some of her energy before she came inside.
Even though she had a million things to do, Cadence paused to watch them play a game of tag. She could practically hear Isabelle’s laugh just from looking at her expression. Tyler too, was lit up with delight.
Oh, how she had missed watching them play together. They still did so, of course. Isabelle always returned from visits to her father’s apartment with stories of all the fun they’d had together. But Cadence didn’t get to see it anymore. And she hadn’t really registered how much she’d missed it until now.
It made her ache to be a family again, the three of them. She wanted it as much as she’d wanted anything in her life.
But what if her heart got broken again?
The plumber arrived shortly after that, tearing Cadence away from watching out the window.
The furniture delivery people showed up about four minutes after that, a full hour earlier than they were supposed to arrive.
Tyler, however, leapt into action. He drew Isabelle out of her play, which was no mean feat in and of itself. Yet he quickly got her ensconced in a back corner of the gallery, surrounded by thepreviously negotiated stack of library books. Cadence saw that at least four of the volumes were one of Izzy’s favorite series about kids who traveled through time to save the day using math and reading. That would occupy her forplentyof time.
Tyler, meanwhile, did everything else without need for instruction. He talked to the delivery people, quickly checked in with Cadence about placement, and, by the time she came back from dealing with the plumber, he had everything in place.
He was even fluffing a throw pillow just so. And Izzy was sweeping away the trail of debris that the movers had inadvertently trailed inside.
“I’ll do a spot check on that,” Tyler confided quietly to Cadence, nodding toward Isabelle. “She really wanted to help though.”
He grinned a crooked grin, and Cadence couldn’t help but suddenly notice howhandsomehe was. And strong. And competent.
That was one of the first things she had noticed about Tyler, back when they’d first started dating. He did things with such confidence. When she had commented on that, he’d laughed, and there had been this twinkle in his eye.
She’d fallen a little bit in love with him at that. She felt herself falling a little back in love with him now.
“You know,” Tyler said conversationally, leaning against a post in a manner that was, alas, devastatingly attractive, “I thought the gallery looked great before, but I think this is why I am the electrician and you’re the artist. Because this is already looking better. I never would have thought to change things.”
“I’m not an artist,” she demurred.
“Agree to disagree.” And then he had the audacity towinkbefore heading outside with an armful of trash.
Gosh, she was a goner for him, she really was.
Don’t get ahead of yourself, she cautioned herself.
By the time Tyler returned, Cadence had mostly gotten her blush under control.
“So, what’s next?” he asked.
