Fire and Glass
Page 23
He put her on his shoulder and breathed in her scent, feeling the weight of this little person in his hands.
“It’s all right, Poppy,” he said to her, bouncing her a little, his voice a gentle coo. “It’s going to be all right.”
Chapter Thirty-Four
Daniel came up with a plan, and part of the plan involved Lacy’s mother.
He called Nancy and arranged to come over for a visit. Then he arrived carrying an expandable file folder containing his tax returns for the past five years, his bank statements, a list of regular buyers of his glass, a letter from another potential client inquiring about a piece similar to the one at Eden, and spreadsheets showing his plans for savings, investments, and college funds for any possible children. He also had written out the steps he was planning to take to expand his line of vases, bowls, plates, and other tourist-friendly items, and a contingency plan for his financial security should things go south with his glass business.
He presented it all to her over coffee at the Jordans’ kitchen table. When he was finished, Nancy leafed through the papers he’d brought, looking them over with interest.
“You earned that much for the Las Vegas job?” she said, her voice tinged with awe.
“Yes, ma’am. With that and the savings I already had, I’ll be able to pay for the renovations to the house in cash, without taking on debt. And I’ll still have enough in the bank for an emergency fund, should business slow down.”
“Do you expect it to slow down?” Nancy asked, shooting him a look out of the corner of her eye.
“No, ma’am. In fact, the Eden job got me a good amount of press, so I’m getting more interest than ever before. I just delivered a large piece to a buyer in Los Angeles, and I expect a significant increase in my income over the next year as a result of the increased publicity.”
“Well, look at that,” Nancy said thoughtfully, peering at the paperwork through half glasses perched on the end of her nose.
“I don’t believe I need your approval to continue seeing Lacy,” he said, with more confidence in his voice than he felt. “But I’d like to have it. I know how much Lacy respects you, and I know what it would mean to her to have your support.”
Nancy put down the papers, took off her reading glasses, and looked at Daniel across the table. “I spoke to Pamela Watkins the other day,” she said.
Daniel’s eyebrows shot up in surprise at the mention of Rose’s mother. “You did?”
“She’s quite a fan of yours,” Nancy said.
He felt both pleased and a little embarrassed. “Well, I—”
“She told me flat-out that I’d be an idiot not to want you seeing my daughter.” A hint of a smile appeared on Nancy’s face. “I’m not an idiot.”
“Well, no. I never—”
“I just want what’s best for my daughter,” she said. She shuffled the papers, avoiding his gaze. “That’s all I’ve ever wanted.”
“I know that,” he said. “And Lacy knows it, too.”
“Well.” She put the papers back into the folder and pushed the whole thing across the table to Daniel. “Why don’t we just give it a try, and see how it goes? You can start by coming over for dinner on Sunday. Let us get to know you a little.”
“Yes, ma’am,” he said.
The next part of the plan involved both Vince and Lacy.
Daniel asked both of them to meet him at his house on a sunny afternoon in late January. He requested that Vince bring the sketches he’d drawn up for the renovations to the house.
“What’s this about?” Lacy asked when she got there and climbed out of the passenger seat of her father’s car.
“You’ll see,” Daniel said.
He brought them both into the house and asked Vince to go over the plans for the addition, so that Lacy could see them.
“I want to go with Plan B,” Daniel said, as Vince started spreading papers out on the kitchen table.
“Plan B?” Lacy said.
“The one with the second story,” Daniel clarified.
Vince gave him a look and then chuckled and shook his head slowly, amused. “The one with the couple-three more bedrooms,” Vince said.
“That’s right.”
“You sure about that, son?” Vince asked.
“Yes, sir. I’m sure.”
“Well, all right, then.”
So Vince went over the plans with Lacy step by step, showing her the expanded kitchen, the new, larger studio—and the additional three bedrooms and full bath upstairs, which could easily accommodate a growing family.
“Oh, and I want one more thing,” Daniel added when Vince was done.
“What’s that?”
“I want to put a pad out back with electric and water hookups, where I could put an Airstream trailer.”
Lacy looked at him, her eyes wide. “Daniel? What is this? What is this about?”
“I figured you wouldn’t want to move without your trailer,” he said. “I know how much you love it. Of course, you’ll be living in the house, with me—at least, I hope you will. But you might want the trailer for reading, or having some quiet time. Or we could use it for guests.”
“You want me to move in with you. With my trailer,” Lacy said, just to be sure. Zzyzx was in her lap, and she stroked his fur while he whined in bliss.
“I want you here. Z wants you here. I’m ready. For all of it. The work on the house will take a while, but after that …”
Lacy looked at Daniel, and then at Vince.
“Dad,” she said. She didn’t ask for his approval, not in words. But they all knew that was what she meant.
“Well, honey.” Vince sniffed once and looked embarrassed. “Seems to me Daniel here is a good man.” He nodded once. “I guess he’ll do right by you. Not like that Brandon.”
And because none of them wanted to talk about Brandon, they went outside to consider where they should put the Airstream.
The work on the house really was going to take a while. In the meantime, Daniel remembered what Lacy had said in Vegas about never having traveled.
“I was thinking that if you can get some time off work, we ought to put that Airstream to use,” he told Lacy one day over olallieberry pie at Linn’s.
“What did you have in mind?” she asked, scraping the last of the pie onto her fork and eating the final bite with gusto.
“I thought we might hook it up to my SUV, take it out to Boulder.”
“Where your mom and dad live,” Lacy said, just to clarify.
“Well, yeah.”
She grinned. “Daniel, are you inviting me to meet your parents?”
“Well, I … Yes. If you’d like to. Yes.”
“I’ll see if I can get time off work,” she said.
“See if you can get more time than that,” he amended.
“More? Why?”
“Because I’ve been invited to teach a few courses as a guest artist at the Abate Zanetti school in Venice this summer. I thought if you weren’t doing anything …”
“Venice? The real Venice?” Lacy’s eyes grew wide.
“Right. The one without the hookers and the slot machines.” He felt ridiculously pleased with himself.
She threw herself into his arms. “Oh, Daniel.”
“And after that,” he said, “I really need to go to Delaware. It’s the only one of the fifty states I haven’t seen yet. I mean, if you’re up for it.”
She smiled, and with her arms still wrapped around him, she leaned down and put her head on his shoulder. “I’d love to go to Delaware with you.”
He was aware that Delaware was a code word for marriage, family, a future, forever.
And that was just fine with him.
He couldn’t wait to get to Delaware, as long as he would be going with Lacy.
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About the Author
Linda Seed is a former journalist who lives in Murrieta, California, with her husband and three children. Linda is a freelance fiction editor who enjoys working with independent authors.