Page 114 of Missed Sunrise
Dad was cleaning his hands with a wet wipe as he replied, “I asked that too. He said they were expensive.”
My first instinct was to take my anger out on Dad, but I knew he was on my side. He’d gone out of his way to check on something before I’d even realized how important it was to me.
I met his gaze across the desk, our positions so like my last visit, which was hardly any time ago at all but felt like a completely different life.
And maybe it was.
“We should buy the building,” I said as if I wasn’t a twenty-three-year-old without a job or degree.
Frank Desmond, on the other hand….
Dad took off his glasses, produced a lens cloth from his suit pocket, and cleaned them thoroughly. He put them back on his face, leaned forward on his elbows, and then stopped my heart with a smile.
“I think you’re onto something.”
I smiled hugely. “And I’m calling the head of the BTB committee.”
29
Liem
“Professor Liem, I am disappointed.”
I paused my tidying of the Locc’s classroom and abandoned the macrame supplies on the table, giving Miss Lenny my full attention. “Oh? Was today’s class not to your liking?”
She exhaled dramatically and perched on the tabletop beside me, her floral perfume mixed with the strong smell of muscle-and-joint cream quite overpowering. “Oh, no, it was a charming class. It’s just that my frame remains empty, you see.”
I nodded thoughtfully. “Ah, well, Miss Lenny, I assure you I am working on that figure drawing class. My aunt would be the ideal instructor for it, but she’s been under the weather the past few days.”
Which was why I’d stayed in Gulf Shores longer than anticipated.
Uncle Gil had fallen into the habit of helping Ireland out with odd jobs and various maintenance at the Locc, and though he’d assured Aunt Ari that he would stay at the condo to take care of her, Ari insisted that he not leave Ireland in the lurch.
Lurch.There it was again.
But yes, the ever-grumpy and oft-mysterious Ireland had formed a quiet friendship with my uncle while becoming his sort-of apprentice.
They were an odd pair, but it somehow worked. You’d only know they were tinkering at the Locc if you saw them or heard the clangs and rattles of whatever task they were undertaking together. I didn’t think I’d ever seen or heard them exchange more than a few words, and even those were just succinct instructions from Gil, which Ireland answered with equally succinct nods. I’d discovered jealousy inside me at the easy friendship Gil had struck up with Ireland, but it didn’t deter me.
I now had even more experience with and admiration for such beautiful, complicated personalities and was determined to make her my friend.
It was one of the many vows that lay in my heart these days.
As I ran my fingers over the strands of cotton cord on the table, my thoughts returned to Cody. I missed his presence terribly. I could hardly believe I’d once gone so many months without him near, and now that I’d had a taste of it, I was ravenous.
Alongside that hunger was a yearning for my Monday meetings with Bree at the gazebo, my quiet afternoons with Vinh, and the pockets of peace I’d built in Bay Springs.
An ambulance siren sounded faintly nearby, and Miss Lenny and I both snapped our attention to the open classroom door as if we could see what was happening from here.
I quite enjoyed this place, but it was not inherently peaceful.
Visits from emergency personnel were more than common here, given the nature of the Locc’s residents—older, and prone to illness and injury. In the several days I’d been here, I’d learned it was rare for a day to go by without the sound of sirens.
Thankfully, we rarely saw such activity in the recreation part of the Locc, except on the days Ireland taught dance classes, but it was still unnerving.
Miss Lenny muttered a prayer under her breath before picking up the threads of our conversation. “You were saying about dear Arizona?”
I pulled my gaze from the doorway and smiled faintly, taking one more moment to even my breaths. “Yes. She’s not been well, so it may be a bit before she’s up to it.”
