Page 99 of This Life and All the Rest
She drives us to the rec center and parks at the grocery store, then we walk slowly to the familiar double doors. The parking lot is roped off, just like Casper said it would be, and music is pumping from a small DJ stand set up on the far end.
When we walk into the building, we run smack into Macon.
“Hey,” he says to me with a smile. “I’m glad you made it.”
“Of course. Looking forward to painting some faces.”
He holds my gaze for a brief moment, just enough to give me goosebumps, then flicks his eyes to Sam. He raises a brow.
“Harper.”
“Davis.”
“You here to work?” he asks, and she gives him a cheeky grin. I have to bite my lip to keep from laughing.
“Don’t you know?” she says sweetly. “I was born to work.”
I lose my control after that and bark out a laugh. Macon rolls his eyes with a grin, then gestures over his shoulder.
“C’mon,” he says. “You can face paint with Lennon.”
We’re set up under a tent outside with a flash sheet of face painting options. They’re pretty basic and bland.Emoji smiles and hippie flowers,as Casper said.
I hand the flash sheet to Sam and pull up some pictures on my phone. Last night I researched face painting and found some really cool things I’d like to try. I saved the images to my phone for reference.
There’s no way I’m going to paint something from a flash sheet on these kids. I’m not pretentious, but I am an artist, and my work should reflect my abilities.
A few hours later,I’m surprised at how much fun I’m having.
These kids are a blast. So far, I’ve transformed them into every superhero you can think of, some absolutely gorgeous butterflies, a few tigers, and one very interesting interpretation of “a plate of spaghetti.” Because yes, I take all requests.
At one point, my line was twenty kids and parents deep, and my smile was so big, my cheeks hurt.
Sam ended up giving up trying to paint faces and started working as my assistant, filling my paints and switching my brushes as I needed them. She also started taking pictures of my designs, and I cannot wait to look at them later.
When there’s a break in the line, I feel eyes on me, and I glance over to find Macon walking in my direction. His smirk heats my blood, and I can’t look away from him until he’s stepping right in front of me and setting two glasses of lemonade on the table.
“Brought you something to drink,” he says, flicking his eyes to Sam briefly and then back to me. “How’s it going? The kids look great.”
“Thank you,” I say, smiling. “We’re having a lot of fun.”
I grab one of the glasses of lemonade and bring it to my lips, taking a sip slowly. I don’t mean for it to be sensual, but the way Macon watches, eyes zeroed in on my throat as I swallow, turns me on in a way I didn’t expect.
“Okay, well, I gotta pee,” Sam says quickly, standing up and leaving without waiting for a response.
Macon and I both nod, but we don’t break eye contact. Sparks fly between us, and all I can think is sodium and potassium.
I’ve always loved a rainstorm.
“Thank you for doing this,” Macon says, and my lips hitch up at the corners.
“I’m having a great time,” I tell him honestly. “It’s amazing that you put this all together.”
“I had help,” he says, shrugging, playing it off like I knew he would. “But it seems to be going well, yeah?”
“It definitely does.”
“Well,” he says slowly, “I need to run a scrimmage and a relay race before these kids turn feral.”
