I open my mouth. I close it again.
Across the table, Patty doesn't say a word. She just keeps her eyes on her mug and the smile that comes across her face is a slow smirk. She glances up just long enough to meet my eyes, and what's in hers is not a question. It's something that looks a lot more like a welcome to the family.
I look back down at my bowl, and I drag my brush through a line of deep blue that bleeds softer at the edges than I intended, and I think that maybe soft edges are not always the worst outcome.
"You're something else, Lucy Keller," I finally say.
She grins. "I know," she says, entirely without apology, and goes back to her wildflowers.
Chapter 15
Dakota
M: I spent the afternoon with your mom and sister.
I'm at Levi's, and we're working on an addition he's making so that Magnolia Grace will have more than enough room to run her business, when I get the text.
D: You did what?
M: You read that right. Spent the afternoon with your mom and sister. There's no way we're keeping this a secret from them. They basically told me they know what we're doing. You may have thought you didn’t confirm anything for your mom, but your non-confirmation was the confirmation.
D: So I guess the question is, when do we want to make our grand debut?
M: LOL! You say that like we're a couple at a debutante ball.
D: You almost were, weren't you?
M: Yes, but thank God my mom decided against it. What are you doing?
D: Helping your brother with the room he's building for Magnolia.
"Do you think you can set the phone down and help me?" Levi grumbles as he struggles to hold up a sheet of dry wall.
"Sorry." I throw the phone down and rush over to where he's standing, grunting.
"What's so important that you forgot you were helping me?"
It'd probably be a good idea to just get it out in the open right now, but I can't. Not without Molly here. I don't want her to have to face her brother on her own when he finds out what's going on between us. "It's a secret." I give him a conspiratorial grin. "You'll find out when I'm fucking ready to tell you."
"Has to be about a damn woman, then."
Little does he know.
We get the sheet up and secured, and I hold it in place while Levi runs the screws in, and for a few minutes the only sound is the drill and the occasional creak of the house settling around us. He's been working on this addition for a few weeks now, and I can see the shape of it coming together. He told me that he sketched it out one night while he and Magnolia were watching TV, but he had to think on it before he pulled the trigger. That's always been Levi. He thinks things through from every angle before he commits, and then once he commits, there's no half measures about it.
I step back and look at the wall, checking that it's sitting right, and then I look at the rest of the framing he's done and the materials stacked along the far side. "How much more do you have to do?"
"Three more walls and the ceiling, and then it's all finish work." He sets the drill down and pulls his water bottle off the windowsill. "Flooring, paint, getting her workspace set up the way she needs it. Maybe another month if I stay on it."
"It's going to be a good space." I say it, and mean it. The room faces the backyard and gets good light from two directions, and it's large enough that Magnolia Grace will have room to spread out without feeling cramped. He thought about what she actually needed, not just what seemed practical. "She's going to love it."
He nods, wiping his mouth with the back of his hand, and the look on his face when her name comes into the conversation is the same one it always is. Peaceful and settled. Like everything in him that used to run a little restless finally found where it was supposed to be. I know that look. I've been watching it on his face since the two of them got together. "Things are going good?" I ask, even though I can see the answer plain as anything.
"Really good," he says, and he doesn’t elaborate, which tells me more than a long explanation would. Levi doesn't constantly talk about his feelings or happiness. He just has it, and it shows up in the way he shows up for those he loves, it’s no different now that he and Magnolia Grace figured out what they are to each other.
I think about them and I think about what it cost both of them to get there, everything Magnolia survived before Levi was able to step in and be what she needed, and I have nothing but respect for both of them on the other side of it. Some people earn their happy ending in a way that makes it look even better once they get there.
"Wait here a second," he says, and sets his water bottle down and heads toward the main part of the house.