Page 55 of Lucy Loves Him Not
That night we grilled burgers and opened a few bags of potato chips. I was sitting outside, popping open a can of Coke with the sky a furious pink. The new guys were still with us.
Adam had been inside getting some dip. He came out to join the rest of us sitting around Olivia’s outdoor table. “Liv, you need to get a Lucy Rhodes original to hang inside this new house,” he said.
“A Rhodes original?” Liv asked as she layered pickles on her burger.
“Adam, you know Luce paints?” Mom asked. She knew my art was something I held close to my heart.
“Iownone of her paintings,” he said so proudly it plucked every string in my heart. I’d never ever be able to dislike this man again.
“Lucy, you made him a painting?” My mom’s voice was thick with suggestion and surprise.
“No, he won it in an auction,” I explained quickly. I didn’t want her to imagine me secretly making paintings for Adam like some lovesick highschooler. (I learned my lesson back in high school).
“It’s crazy. I didn’t even know it was hers when I bid on it,” Adam said. “I just found out yesterday.”
“Wow, you had one of Lucy’s paintings hanging in your house all this time!” Mom said dreamily. “That’s really something.”
“I’m still shocked you put up one of your paintings.” Olivia was intrigued. She put her burger down. “Was it the sunset one?”
“Yes,” Adam and I answered in unison.
“Can I see it, Adam?” Mom couldn’t hide the excitement in her voice.
Adam whipped out his phone. “I have pictures.”
He’d taken pictures to show it off.I hadn’t even taken pictures of it. Adam showed everyone while I dug into the bag of chips.
“Lucy.” Olivia kicked me with the toe of her flip-flops. “It’s beautiful.”
“She has an Etsy shop,” Adam said, my adorable new marketing director. “She just hasn’t posted anything in it.”
“Lucy!” Mom clapped. The air dropped a couple of degrees as the sun sunk lower in the sky.
“I love this for you,” Olivia gushed.
“Let’s pull it up.” Victor pulled out his phone. He and Olivia searched for my shop and they started brainstorming ideas for it. Olivia started dreaming up a custom Lucy Rhodes painting for her house.
My mom looked at me with teary, proud mom eyes.
AndAdam. Adam. Adam. Adam.
Twenty
Me
Last night I worked on my Etsy shop and even bought a domain under my name. It’s in part thanks to you. Thank you for that.
Adam
there are some lucky people out there about to discover their new favorite artist.
For research purposes, Adam and I were spending the afternoon at Sweet River’s children’s museum. After having trouble finding parking, I stumbled inside nearly fifteen minutes late, spotting Adam while checking in at the front desk. He was studying the giant treehouse in the middle of the front room. He spotted me, too, and waved me over.
Adam and I went outside to walk around the pretend farmer’s market with shiny plastic food and cattle ranches with fake cows the kids were crawling all over. There were hands-on exhibits geared toward introducing kids to science, art, and local history. Adam and I giggled over a toddler pretending tomake smoothies at a pretend food truck and I couldn’t help but wonder why I’d never thought to invite the museum to the festival before.
I was fanning myself in the June heat when Adam led me over to the fake lake next.
“Ever go fishing?” he asked, grabbing a child-sized pretend fishing pole.
