Page 45 of Ocotillo Kisses
Ginny waved a hand. “I can handle the diner. I was just giving you a bad time before. We will bring it up to your expectations. But if you decide you don’t like sleeping anymore, you could maybe do some art for us to hang? Or, I know! We could get prints made of your murals. Put them for sale? Do we know of anyone great at taking pictures? There has to be someone we know who has a good camera and can take the pictures of the murals, and we can get prints made, framed, and could sell them in the diner.”
“That was my idea,” Caleb protested. “But I thought she could do original pieces, small ones.”
“Why not both?”
Sofia held up a hand. “Because as much as I like doing things, I actually do like sleep.”
“I can paint some stuff,” Sophie interjected as she splashed in the shallow end of the pool.
“Maybe we can set that up,” Sofia smiled indulgently. “But back to Mrs. Lopez. Who’s going to ask her if we can get into the store and clean?”
“She only likes Con,” Poppy said.
“I don’t know. She likes me okay,” Caleb said.
“She likes Con best,” Poppy insisted. “Con, you go talk to her. You’ll be in town anyway to help with the walkways.”
He grimaced. “I suppose. But I don’t think she likes me as much as you think she does. I think she just feels sorry for me.”
Britt winced at that. That could be true. “I don’t think she will turn down the help, though.”
“Just the intrusion,” Ginny said. “That will be her issue, that we are butting into her business, criticizing her for not keeping her own place up.”
Con nodded. “I’ll think of a way to talk to her.”
“Then the following weekend we’ll get the pressure washer, and then the following weekend you’ll be out of school, right, Poppy? And can go get the planters, then get to work on that?”
“That’s the plan, right, Con?” Poppy asked. “We’ll drive down to Del Rio?”
Britt didn’t know why they insisted on taking the time and gas to go to Del Rio for pottery they could probably find for a few dollars more in San Angelo, but she’d already voiced her opinion on that and wouldn’t say anything more.
She was starting, however, to feel left out. She would be here for the planning, sure, but not for the event itself. She tried to picture her calendar in her head, wondering if she could make it back to town for the celebration.
Would Con like that, or would he resent it? Would he and Poppy start building something together once she left? She couldn’t imagine Poppy would wait, and Britt didn’t want to interrupt that.
She wanted him to be happy, really she did, but she didn’t think Poppy was the one who would make that happen.
“Con! Con! Look at me!” Caleb’s daughter Sophie shouted from the edge of the pool, before taking a running jump and cannonballing into the center of the pool, arms wrapped around long skinny legs.
Caleb muttered a curse and was on his feet at the edge of the pool when Sophie surfaced and paddled to the edge of the water. She pushed her hair out of her face, ignoring her father and blinking at Con.
“Did you see me? Did I go far?”
“You did,” Con said, his tone soft, and Britt turned to catch his indulgent smile.
Clearly Sophie needed no more encouragement. “I’m going to do it again. Watch me, okay?”
“I’ll watch,” Con said, making a point of turning his chair toward the pool.
“Caleb, I think your daughter has her first crush,” Poppy said.
Caleb scowled. “No, she just is friendly with Con because of the riding lessons. He’s the one she knows best.”
“Maybe,” Poppy said. “But I know kids pretty well. She’s telling him, and not you and Sofia.”
Caleb’s scowl deepened as he looked at Con, who lifted his hands in a don’t-look-at-me gesture.
“Yeah, Con, how dare you be handsome and kind?” Poppy teased, batting her eyelashes at him.
