Page 23 of Artfully Wild
“We obviously have paint,” Avery chimes in. “But we definitely need balloons.”
“And darts,” adds Sophie.
“Then we can’t really do it now, can we?” I ask, not really understanding why they all seem to know exactly where Charlotte is going with this and I am left fumbling around in the dark searching for my glasses.
“Oh…on the contrary.” Charlotte gets up and starts heading tothe hooks by the door where our coats and scarves are hung up. Shivers trail down my spine at the mere thought of stepping out in the cold, knowing I’d freeze to death before I’m two feet away from the doorstep.
Sophie and Avery follow suit. Avery pushes her arms through her light brown pea coat while Sophie shimmies on her white beanie on top of her black hair, low ponytail sticking out the bottom. Once they all look like they are ready to go hiking through a blizzard, they turn to me, still firmly planted on the couch with no intention to move until I am brought in on the plan.
“Well?” I prompt. “Anyone want to tell me where it is we are going?”
“A place we know has the supplies we need,” Charlotte answers.
“And no one wants to tell me where that is?”
“Really, Sky.” Exasperated, Sophie grabs my coat from the hook and hands it out to me. “I know you’re not stupid, but sometimes you can be really dense.”
I take the jacket from her, rolling my eyes in the process. Once I get it on and tug on the zipper, realization washes over me like the tide over a bed of shells. Except it’s not soothing or calming, it’s loud and rough and the shells tumble forward getting carried by the tide, by no choice of their own.
“No,” I say, starting to take off my coat. The zipper snags on my shirt, of course, because what else would have happened at this moment. I will not be a shell and I will not be carried by this tide.
“We aren’t doing this,” I get out, struggling with the zipper.
Sophie swats my hands away and inspects the zipper, oblivious to my fluttering heart. “You don’t have to do anything you don’t want to do,” she says, quietly.
Okay, so she’s even more observant than I give her credit for. “I don’t want to put you in any situation that would makeyou uncomfortable.” She glances at me for a brief second before returning her focus to getting my shirt unstuck from the zipper.
“But, I also know from the way your face got all dreamy earlier that you want to see him. You’ve been thinking about him nonstop since we’ve been here.”
She’s not wrong there. Jacob—and the pressure of his hands—has been circling through my mind since we parted ways.
Finally, she unlodges the zipper and pulls it right up to my collar bone instead of letting me continue taking it off.
“Plus,” she smiles, “I’m positive he’d love to see you, too, Sky.”
Giving her a sly smile, I grab one of my earmuff bands from a hook and cover my ears before stepping out the door, three friends in tow, heading to Jacob’s house.
CHAPTER ELEVEN
JACOB
The pain in my cheeks is going to flow to my head if I don’t start frowning at some point. Even just a casual RBF would do, but I physically cannot stop smiling. Ever since our moment in the studio yesterday, I feel like everything has clicked into place.
Skylar Waters has feelings for me.Me.
My smile deepens and I let out a chuckle, startling the two cats at the end of my bed.
“Sorry boys,” I murmur as they get up to stretch their legs, stopping only to send glares my way for disturbing their sleep. As if they don’t spend their whole day curled up in the sun spots around the living room.
Bob and Vincent were the first to move into my house once the shelter started becoming too full. Brothers who have been together since birth, and refuse to be separated. When people want to adopt, they typically only want to adopt one animal. It’s better for them here anyway.
I grab my phone from its place on the nightstand, intending to pull up mine and Skylar’s text thread, but the screen opens Charlotte’s thread instead. I had taken Skylar’s advice yesterdayand texted her about possibly designing a website for me and setting up social medias. Her response is filled with different links, each with a different picture featured. I press the first one and it opens to a website I’ve never seen before. She must have sent different options to get an idea of what I might want to do.
There’s a sleek logo at the top that reads,Blue Grove Animal Shelter, home to Oregon’s finest.And right underneath, there’s information about the Winter Festival and the auction.
Quickly, I sit up and ignore the head rush that follows. She designed a whole website for the shelter already. There are links and pictures of all the animals. How did she even get in? How did she find time to get this done? I had only talked to Charlotte yesterday when she got back from babysitting Ethan aboutmaybecollaborating with me on a website, showing me tips at least. I never expected her to dive in like this and go into this much detail with it. Even the animals I have living at my house are featured on the website. There are dogs, a parrot, two rabbits, and a few other cats hanging around here. Well, four other cats. Sophia, Dorothy, Blanche, and Rose— Golden Girls was a staple for my mom and I when Dad was gone traveling, which was a lot. So, it’s a show I’ve seen a lot through my lifetime and could probably quote every episode.
And a tank full of freshwater fish I’m still unsure how exactly I ended up with. But the important thing is everyone has a roof over their heads, a warm bed to sleep in and food to eat. And they’re all here.
