“I’m fine with that.” She took the drawing away from me and set it on the desk under the vision board wall she’d created.
I pushed aside the sketchpads and library books she had on the desk and found a coiled notebook. I picked up a pen and made a quick drawing of the balcony and porch that had crumbled. I wanted it close to what had been but better.
More stone and wrought iron mixed with the ornate Victorian gables to give it that ornate flavor I’d fallen in love with.
She peered over my shoulder, and I growled.
“So testy.” She laid a hand on my shoulder as if I hadn’t just given her a warning. “I just want to see.”
I ripped the page off the notebook and shoved it at her, stepping away from her.
She tilted her head as she looked at it, then she tacked it up with the rest of her drawings.
Where her lines were finely detailed and architecturally perfect, mine were jagged and dark.
“I see where you’re going.” She grabbed the sketchpad and went to her bed to sit cross legged as she started sketching.
I shoved my hands into my pockets and turned back to the wall. Seeing her in the middle of a wrecked bed was not good for me at the moment. Too little sleep and annoyance at her lack of personal safety left me raw.
The cat leaped onto the desk and stared at me unblinkingly. He lifted a paw toward me with a chirping sound.
I frowned at him. “What does he want?”
“That’s his happy chirp.”
“He’s not a fucking bird.”
She laughed. “No, but he’s quite talkative. Just pet him.”
“Sure he’s not going to scratch me again?”
“Always possible.”
I grunted, but I put my hand out to let him butt against it. Then he pushed his head into my hand, and I coasted my palm over his head and down his back. His tail swished and I froze. That wasn’t usually a great sign. Instead, he put his paw out again and went onto his back legs.
“What do you want?”
He pawed at the air with another chirp.
I stepped closer and he climbed up my shirt. “Ow. Little fucker.”
I tucked him into the crook of my arm, then he started purring. With a sigh of resignation, I left him there and absently scratched his head as I took a better look at her drawings. The color choices were close to what I would have chosen. Maybe a deeper green. Was there paint that wouldn’t fade in the unrelenting weather of the Northeast?
She glanced up at me. “Like this?” She waved me over, her face softening when she saw me holding her devil cat. “You made a friend.”
“Probably wants food.”
“He always wants food.” She reached up to scratch under his chin. The little motorboat in his chest increased. Her eyes met mine as the soft skin of her arm skimmed mine before she pulled her hand back. “What do you think?”
I glanced down at her sketchpad. She’d smoothed out the rough edges of my idea, using some of the existing intricacies of the finials and balustrades. She obviously knew what she was doing. Way more than I did, that was for sure.
“Can you make the balcony a little bigger? I wouldn’t mind a seating area off the living room to look at the lake. It’s a killer view.”
She nodded and altered the sketch. “I’ll do a better job in my design program, but that’s a good rough look at what we could do. We’ll have to check with TJ, our carpenter, and of course, the mason you mentioned. Whatever TJ can’t do, I’m sure Gideon can.”
“Gideon?”
She pressed her lips together. “Oh, right. I keep forgetting about your…situation. Not that I should. You have the same disposition as your sister, that’s for sure.”
I crouched in front of her. The cat didn’t like that and jumped down to wind around between the two of us. “How well do you know Gideon?”
“I’ve worked with them a lot. Gideon is one of the major players in the rehab game around here. He’s expanded quite a bit from the handyman startup he once was. He’s a fair guy. Excellent crew, as well as reputation.”
I didn’t know much about my sister’s husband. I’d checked him out when I saw their wedding announcement. I had an internet alert set up on her to keep track of her, at the very least. I’d received the baby announcement and one from the local paper with the stingy photo of one of their biggest business owners getting hitched to a hometown guy.
My sister had made a good life without me.
I just hoped there would be a little room for me if I didn’t totally fuck up.
She reached out to touch my arm. “Have you spoken to Macy?”
The softness of her skin burned into me. I hadn’t allowed a lot of touching since my accident. After being at the mercy of doctors and nurses for nearly two months during the grafts and reconstruction, I’d loathed anyone to be in my space.
Then it just got easier to keep that up.
I wasn’t sure what to say about Macy. It hadn’t been a roaring success, that was for sure. I opened my mouth to shut down the line of questioning when a muffled moan came from the doorway.
Dahlia’s eyes widened, and she pressed her lips together.
