Page 12 of Meet Me on Lilac Lane

He checked his phone for the time. It was still early enough that, once he finished the light switch covers, he could check the next building on his list and maybe finish that one too. If everything went well, he could even fix the swollen door at the back of this building.

The spring sunshine invited him outside for a breath of fresh air.

He took two steps out the front when he spotted Mia and her kids walking toward him. His breath hitched. A smile spread across his face before the survivor’s guilt swept in to drown it away. The trio stopped in front of him.

Mia brushed a stray brown curl off her face and tucked it into the deep red handkerchief she’d tied around her dark hair. The color brought out the flush of her cheeks. Next to her, Finn and Maggie were dressed in matching rain boots. Maggie wore a fuzzy purple hat topped with a bobble that swayed with her every step.

“Hi, Cody.” Mia’s smile lit her face.

Keep it casual. “Hey, Mia.” He bent down to shake Finn’s hand. “Hi, buddy.”

“Me too.” Maggie clutched a stuffed rabbit under her arm. She reached out and grabbed his left hand with her right and shook it vigorously. Her purple bobble and the rabbit’s ears kept time. “Hi-hi.”

“Hello, to you too, Little Miss.” He winked at her. “What brings you guys into town on this beautiful morning?”

“I have a coffee date with Dani in fifteen minutes,” Mia replied. “But we were all going stir-crazy in the house, so I thought I would take these guys for a walk first.”

Finn chased Maggie around and around his mother’s legs.

“Looks like that was a good plan.”

“Are you working here?” Mia turned to look in the window of the store. “Someone painted.”

“Yeah, Dani asked me to spruce up a few places downtown. I started with this one.” He gestured at the door. “Want to come in?”

“Sure. C’mon, kids.” Mia corralled her charging steeds and ushered them into the unit. “Is the paint still wet?”

“No. I finished that yesterday. They can run around if they want.”

Mia shot him a grateful look and let the kids go. They scampered off to the cabinets at the back of the space. “I remember when this was Sampson’s gallery. It was so sad to watch it decay over the past few years.” She spun in a slow circle. “They used to display art over there to the left and the gift items to the right. I used to love to come in here.”

“You even showed a few pieces here, right?” He’d never forget the expression on her face when she’d told Troy and him about the showing in their senior year. Excitement had lit her up from the inside.

“I can’t believe you remember that.” Mia brushed another stray hair back into her handkerchief.

Cody pushed his hands into his pockets. “How could I forget? You made Troy and me call you Madame Monet for a week straight. Even though Monet painted with?—”

“—oil paints and not watercolors, which are clearly superior,” they said together.

Mia laughed. “I guess I did say that a lot. It seems like so long ago now.” Mia strolled around the small space, ending up in the center of the room. “We were just babies back then. So much has happened in the last six years.”

He tried to see it through her eyes. He’d cleaned up the flooring and painted the walls, and now the seven hundred fifty square foot retail unit looked almost brand new.

“I hardly think seniors in high school are babies. But I know what you mean.” Cody picked up the paint brush he’d been using to touch up a few places on the walls and wrapped it in plastic to clean later. “Troy and I thought you were brilliant. We knew you’d make it big with your art someday.”

“Yeah, well, see how well that turned out.” Mia kept her back to him. “As much as I love Finn and was thrilled to be married to Troy, leaving art school was the death of that dream.”

“Sorry. I didn’t mean to bring up a sore subject.” Cody reached to touch her shoulder but let his hand fall back to his side. “There’s still time though, right?”

“Sometimes I feel the old spark of inspiration and think about getting my supplies out, but I don’t have time for that right now.” She turned to him, lifted her palms in the air. “My kids need me.”

“Your kids need you at your best. Maybe your art is part of that.”

“I suppose.”

But he could see her shrug off his words. “Do you still have any of your pieces?”

“When the Sampsons closed up shop, they gave me back my paintings. Those must be somewhere at Mom’s house along with the things I painted at Kendall.” Mia spun in a slow circle again. “You did a good job in here. I like how this gold wall warms up the space.”

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