I grinned. “Let me get something to hang it with.” I rifled through my drawers and came up with some tape. As I crouched next to Lila and attached loops of tape to the back of her drawing, I heard someone clear their throat.
Deena stood in the doorway, her laptop in her hands. Her gazebounced from me to Lila to Erica. She took note of Erica’s head wrap, and I remembered that I’d told her about my sister that night I couldn’t resist calling her.
“Sorry to disturb you,” she said. “I’ll come back.”
“That’s okay. We have to head out soon anyway,” Erica said. “Little miss ma’am needs to get some lunch into her.”
“Mom! Not yet. We’re hanging my picture!” Lila had all the attitude of a teenager in a tiny little body. I couldn’t hide my smile as my gaze bounced from Lila to Erica—and finally to Deena.
NINETEEN
DEENA
Cal’s smilewas unlike any expression I’d ever seen on his face. It was pure delight, and it lit his face up from within.
I’d seen him surly and annoyed. I’d seen him sly and cunning. I’d seen him turned on and angry.
I’d never seen him full of pure, unadulterated joy.
The force of it hit me like a train. He was so gorgeous. My whole body felt electric, my heart pulsing as my extremities tingled. His eyes met mine, and a touch of guardedness returned to his expression. The distance I’d insisted on creating between us was still there.
“Hang on, Erica,” Cal said. This had to be the sister and niece he’d told me about. “Let me put this up on the wall and then you can go.”
“Yeah, Mommy! We’re hanging my picture.”
Cal stood and taped the drawing to the wall, right between two large canvases of modern art. He stepped back, and his niece joined him to admire the drawing.
“What do you think, Lila?” Cal asked.
Lila scrunched her face, then waved an imperious hand at the wall. “There’s too much stuff on the wall. You can’t even see my picture!”
“Lila, this is Uncle Cal’s office,” her mother chided.
“No, she’s right,” Cal said. He spun around, studying his walls. His gaze landed on a diploma framed behind his desk. His MBA. He strode over to it and yanked it off the wall. Right when I was going to slink away and leave them to their family time, Cal spoke to me without looking away from his diploma. As he put the frame face down on his desk, he said, “Deena, do you mind going to the supply closet at the end of the hall? I think there’s a screwdriver in there somewhere. Willa might be able to help you. Phillips head.”
“Sure,” I said.
He lifted the diploma and showed it to Lila. “You think your picture will fit in here?”
“Yeah!” She smiled at her uncle, then at her mom. She had a gap in her teeth right at the front, just like Riley.
I melted. It was just too cute. I dropped my laptop back on my desk and made my way to the supply closet. After a bit of shuffling around, I found a small tool bag, which I brought back to Cal’s office.
He had one of those big, expensive-looking canvases in his arms. His hair had fallen over his forehead as he shuffled over toward the back wall, the painting brushing his front. Erica watched him with her chin resting on her palm, a fond, slightly lopsided smile curling her lips.
“Is he always like this?” I asked quietly, setting the tools on his desk.
Erica glanced from her brother over to me. She huffed. “Pretty much. He gets an idea in his head and nothing will change his mind.”
And he would do anything for the people he loved, I noted.Like rip apart his office decor just to make his young niece happy. Lila bounced on the balls of her feet as she watched him, then flitted over to study the frame of the painting. She scraped at it with her index finger, then bounced over to where Cal stood in front of the second painting.
Cal grabbed it off the wall, but the edge of it caught on a table lamp. I dove forward and caught the lamp before it smashed on the ground. Cal looked down from where he stood, his eyes bright, a smile on his lips. “Thanks. You mind grabbing this end? Let’s rest it against the back wall.”
We put the canvas next to the first one, and then Cal tugged on one of Lila’s pigtails and led her over to the desk. He unscrewed the back of the diploma frame while I put the table lamp where it belonged, and then I found myself drifting toward his desk so I could watch. Erica had leaned her arms on his desk, and Lila was kneeling on his chair.
Cal stood in the middle, taking tiny screws out of the back of the frame and setting them carefully aside. He pulled out the backing of the frame, then slid out his diploma. He glanced at it briefly, then set it carelessly aside. His niece’s picture, he handled much more delicately. He gently peeled off the loops of tape he’d previously stuck on the back of it, centered it in the frame, and put the whole thing back together.
I grabbed the level from the tool bag, along with a hammer and a little nail. Cal grinned at me, setting off a tiny detonation in my chest. With Lila leading the way, we walked over to the far wall, leveled the frame, and marked where it should go. Then Cal hammered the nail into the wall and hung up his niece’s drawing.
