He shot her a sideways glance and grunted. Leah took it for acceptance.
“What’s on?”
“Geostorm. Have you seen it?”
She shook her head.
“A global network of satellites breaks down and creates a storm that threatens to wipe out the Earth.”
“Hell, yes. I’m in.” She curled up at the end of the couch and speared a forkful of meatloaf.
An unspoken truce settled between them. She seemed to understand his need to decompress, keeping her chatter to a minimum. He reined back the sharp retorts. It was... nice.
After nearly an hour, Jackson paused the movie to make a grilled cheese, and Leah followed him to the kitchen with her plate.
“Do you enjoy your work?” Her question was unexpected.
Jackson shrugged. “It’s the family business.”
“What’s the best thing about it?”
He wasn’t sure he’d ever stopped to think. “I like seeing things come together. It’s satisfying to see a plan through to the finished product.”
Leah looked surprised that he’d answered. “And what do you not like?”
Jackson frowned as he heated a skillet on the stovetop. “I don’t get to work the tools day to day. I’d like to be more hands-on. And working with my father can be... challenging.”
“Families, huh? Can’t live with them, can’t live without them,” she said, as if she identified with the struggle. Clearing her throat, she twisted a hammered silver ring on her thumb. “Would this be a good time to bring up my living arrangements?” Leah met his scowl and rushed on. “The thing is, I have it in writing from Esther that I can stay here while I’m working on the book. Her agent wants the final manuscript as soon as it’s transcribed. And thenthere will be the edits to make, which I can maybe do... I don’t know. I write a monthly newsletter. Did you know that? And I’ve got a marketing plan and all the social media to keep up to date. I understand you’ll sell Amity Court as soon as you can, but I’d like to live here until then. I’m already looking around for somewhere else to go after that.”
She took a breath—mainly because she had to, he imagined—and then held it, hanging on Jackson’s response. He was surprised it had taken her this long to raise the topic.
“Esther left enough money to pay your wages until her last book is complete,” he said finally, picking up his plate. “You can stay until the house sells, but I’m hoping that won’t be long.”
He left out any mention of the gift he was supposed to give her from the proceeds, or the fact that he’d been given no real choice about her living at Amity Court. He’d keep his cards close to his chest for now.
Leah exhaled a sigh of relief and trailed him back into the living room. “Thanks, Jackson. That’s a weight off my mind.”
“No need for thanks. If it was up to me, I’d have evicted you.” He wasn’t sure it was true anymore but it wouldn’t do to show any weakness. That lesson had been hammered into him more times than he could remember.
Jackson ate his sandwich, threw another log on the fire, and tipped his head back against the couch cushion as the movie played on. Weariness weighed down his eyelids. To the backdrop of a panicked cast trying to outrun the weather, he was a few moments shy of dozing off when Leah picked up her phone and a small plastic pen and began to draw.
“What’s that?”
“Hmm?” She glanced up.
“What are you drawing now?” His voice was drowsy, dulled at the edges.
“Just playing around with some character art.” She tilted her head to squint at her screen.
“What for?” He reconsidered the question. “And what’s character art?”
“It’s a picture representation of the characters in a story.” Leah swiped the stylus in smooth feathery strokes. “When I set up social media accounts for Esther to promote her books, I found that posts with character art are really popular, so I gave it a go. They’re pretty amateur but Esther wanted to use them, and the feedback’s been good.”
“Can I see?”
She hesitated but passed him her phone. “I haven’t rendered this one yet, so it’s still pretty rough. And I only use a free art app I downloaded, which isn’t exactly cutting-edge. It would be better on an iPad—”
“Who is it?”
