Her mom nodded. “Ah, OK. That makes more sense than him nagging you. He’s a good boy.”
April resisted the urge to roll her eyes. Luke Pointer wassomething, all right.
A good kisser, a traitorous little voice whispered in her head and she sternly told it to shut up. There were much more important qualities to Luke to consider, like his arrogance, his insufferable need to be right all the time, and—
God, his lips were soft.
“Oh, look,” April said, reaching at random for something on the desk to distract herself from the treacherous thoughts running through her mind. It had been a while since she’d scratched a particular itch, so it was just her hormones running rampant at the first hint of intimacy—even if it was with the most annoying man on earth.
Kathy glanced up at what April was holding and her brows knotted. “Ah, yes, one of your dad’s better ideas, believe it or not.”
April ran her eyes over the paper to finally take in what she’d picked up. It was a design for a beer glass, with small arrows coming out of the sketch to indicate different features—like a color-changing logo on the front that turned black when your beer was sufficiently cold. Her dad had had a billion ideas, most of them nonsense, but she had to admire his ability to keep dreaming and creating.
“Did you enjoy your dinner at least? The Garden Table is supposed to be good.”
“You haven’t gone yet?” April avoided the question while shuffling through more papers with various and increasingly zany ideas jotted down. Maybe they could keep them and make a scrapbook, or frame some for the shop …
“I haven’t really had much reason to go out.”
April frowned. “You can go out to eat by yourself, you know. You don’t need a reason. But we could go for lunch or dinner, maybe? Just me and you?”
“Really?” Kathy’s eyes warmed, a sheen making the blue look brighter for a moment. “That would be lovely.”
“Truth be told,” April said slowly, feeling like she should offer up a sliver of vulnerability too, seeing as her mom had just done so, “I didn’t get to experience the food with Luke. We didn’t stay long.”
Kathy hummed in response, thumbing through a notebook and smiling at something she found there. “That’s a shame.” She held out the book for April to see and her breath caught as she took in the sketch. It was her and Noah. They couldn’t have been more than thirteen and fifteen respectively. The artwork was rough, but recognizable, the shading capturing the scowl on her teenage face and Noah’s outstretched tongue as he goaded her.
“Are there more?” she said softly and Kathy flipped the page, revealing more sketches—some bigger than others. A hand holding a cup of tea, or clutching a magnolia blossom, freckles across a small nose, one of her mom in bed asleep. “They’re beautiful.”
“He always did see the world in a different way than most people.” Kathy smiled, her fingertips running gently over her own face on the page. “I miss that.”
“Sleeping?” April teased, trying to keep the mood light and the sadness from creeping back into her mom’s eyes.
“Him,” she replied simply.
April turned the page and found more sketches, thistime of birds and plants, one in particular catching her eye. “Violas.” Her dad had gone so far as to shade in the petals with a colored pencil. “My favorite.”
Kathy peered down at the paper and smiled as she tapped another illustration, this time of a lily. “And mine.”
An idea stirred and she bit her lip. “Do you think I could take these? I think maybe it would be nice to frame them, have them in the flower store.”
The brightness reappeared on her mom’s face. “That sounds like a wonderful idea. A fitting tribute.”
They continued clearing piles, sorting them into things to keep or donate, though a healthy amount also went in the trash. It felt strange to be the ones making these decisions. Clearly her dad had thought these things were all important enough to keep, but he wasn’t there anymore to use them. But organizing his office was necessary, even if it felt callous.
She thought back to her own spring clean of her childhood bedroom. Maybe her dad wasn’t the only one who held on to things unnecessarily.
“What’re you smiling about?” Kathy nudged April playfully.
“Just how alike me and Dad are. Were. Whatever. I went through my room the other day to try and clear things out a little, but I don’t think I made that much progress with my stuff, aside from the clothes—and that’s only because a lot of them didn’t fit me anymore.”
“Find some good stuff?”
April laughed. “Yeah, actually. But probably trash to anyone else. Although, I did find the photo of me and Luke after we were announced as co-valedictorians.”
Her mom chuckled, leaning against the now-clear desk as she watched April closely. “Nothing changes with you two, eh? Still going head to head even now, what with the shop. Noah told me you were very against Luke taking the bar. I assume you told him to get lost when he brought it up at dinner?”
“Well, yeah. It’s mine,” she said instantly and then corrected herself. “Ours.” She shrugged. “Old habits, I guess.” She just had to hope that recent developments didn’t become new habits. Her claim of temporary insanity wouldn’t hold up if she let Luke Pointer’s mouth touch hers again.