Would she really be able to finish her degree online? Frankie hoped so. It would impact her future. She’d be more promotable and be able to earn more money with that degree. It was no surprise that the field of education rewarded those with more education.
Frankie closed the door and went back to her canvas. Stroke by stroke, she applied wisps of paint. Hair was tedious, but also greatly satisfying when it came out right. The beauty of oil was that it remained malleable for so long.
It took almost an hour for her to use up the paint she’d mixed. Her back was a little achy from leaning in toward the canvas. She put the palette down and stretched. Her plan had been to work all day, pushing forward to get as much painting done as possible.
That no longer seemed liked the best plan. Wearing herself out wasn’t going to accomplish anything. Maybe she should take a break.
The door opened and Willa came in, pushing her sunglasses onto the top of her head. Her brow was furrowed with concern. “Hey, have you seen Archie? I think he’s run off.”
Frankie shook her head. “No, he’s fine. I let him in earlier. He went upstairs. Did you nap?”
Willa smiled, obviously relieved. “Yeah. Something about the warmth of the sun, the breeze, and the sound of the water just puts me out. It’s so nice.”
“Hey, take advantage of it while you can. You know, we should put a hammock up out there. Under the covered part. Wouldn’t that be cool?”
“It would be. One more place to nap.” Willa laughed.
“I’m all for that.”
Willa came over to look at the painting. “Wow, you made a lot of progress.”
Frankie frowned as she looked at it with her daughter. “You think so? Doesn’t feel that way to me.”
“That’s because you’ve been looking at it all day. I’m going to get something to eat. Any chance Joyce or Beryl came by with that banana bread yet?”
“No, and that’s not lunch anyway.”
Willa pursed her lips. “Hey, bananas are healthy, and chocolate is basically a fruit, so…”
“Go eat some protein, smarty-pants.”
Willa grinned and headed for the stairs. “How about some tuna sandwiches? You want one?”
Frankie’s plan had been to not eat until dinner, but her stomach was putting up a pretty good argument. “Hmm. How about some tuna melts?”
Willa stopped on the first stair. “I don’t know how to make those.”
“How about I show you? I just need a few minutes to clean up here.”
“I was going to take a shower first anyway. Meet you in the kitchen in ten?”
Frankie nodded. “Done.”
Willa jogged up the steps. Frankie organized her area, then wiped the excess paint off of her brushes before dipping them insafflower oil and setting them on a rack to dry. That way they’d be ready to use tomorrow. All she’d have to do was wipe off any remaining oil.
She went up to the kitchen and started getting out ingredients for the tuna melts. She didn’t want to start until Willa came down, so while she waited, she grabbed her tablet from the office.
She sat at the kitchen counter and began roughly sketching out her concept for Allan’s first book cover. He’d sent her the titles and the rough outline of the series. The first book was calledStarfalland the premise was intriguing, although perhaps just a little over her head. That was all right.
She didn’t need to understand all the intricate details to give him a cover that would set him apart. She’d researched photographs of space. Stars, nebulas, planets. It had been very inspiring.
Her stylus moved across the tablet’s screen with speed and purpose as she sketched out her idea. She’d been thinking about this cover a lot. She knew the key to making it pop was color, something space seemed to have plenty of despite how much it was ignored on the standard sci-fi cover.
Color alone would make this cover different from its competition. Allan had told her he was all right with color, but she wondered if he’d still feel that way after he saw her design. Only one way to find out, really.
“Hey, that’s cool. What is that?”
Willa was looking over Frankie’s shoulder. “Concept cover design for a new client. He writes science fiction.”
