A Mother's Homecoming(62)
“Welcome to C-3,” Pam chirped.
He grinned at her. “I’d like to make an appointment. Preferably with you, for lunch.”
She laughed. “Your daughter would have a fit if she knew you were here. Didn’t you give her some speech about not stalking me while I was at work?”
“Aren’t you familiar with the expression ‘Do as I say, not as I do’?”
“Is that the fancy version of ‘Because I said so’? Lunch sounds good in theory,” she said, glancing at the open spreadsheet on the computer screen, “but I don’t think today’s going to work. I’m right in the middle of something I need to finish. Besides, I leave today at two and wasn’t really planning on a lunch break. Aunt Julia has a project she needs my help on.”
Julia had been lamenting that while her jewelry-making had taken off better than expected, her clientele was mostly women of a certain age. She was trying to vary her style enough to attract a younger market.
“I sit in my vendor stall at community festivals and watch these teenagers run around,” she’d mused. “And it got me to thinking—some of them have a bigger budget for mad money than their mothers! Allowances, babysitting funds and no monthly bills.”
Pam had come up with a few ideas for a funkier “line” of jewelry, including earrings made from guitar picks.
Which reminded her. “Have you and Faith ever revisited the guitar discussion?” she asked Nick.
“A little,” he said. “If she’s serious about it, I may get her a guitar for Christmas. She wants to learn enough about sheet music that she can do notations for some of the songs she’s written.”
Pam took a deep breath. “Well, I’m not offering lessons—I’m too rusty for one thing, and it takes more than just talent to be able to teach someone else how to develop that talent. But how would you feel about letting me borrow Faith for a couple of afternoons? She’s in the right demographic to give Julia and me her opinion on jewelry designs. In return for her help, I’ll show her some basics on the guitar. The house is finally in good enough shape that she wouldn’t require a hard hat and an emergency contact card.”
“Sounds like a win-win for everyone,” he said. “I think she’d love that. In fact, maybe I’ll swing by the school and have lunch with her. As long as I don’t try to be funny in front of her friends, she seems to like seeing me periodically.”
“So you’ll talk to her about my idea?” Pam knew it would mean a lot to Julia to meet her great-niece, even if it were only under the guise of getting a twelve-year-old’s perspective.
“I’ll ask her, but I guarantee the answer is going to be an enthusiastic yes. The only real question is, how soon do you want to get started?”
EVEN FROM THE SIDEWALK out in front of the little house, Nick could hear the feminine laughter inside. Pam’s uninhibited laugh, Faith’s slightly higher giggle, making her sound like the adorable little girl she’d been not so long ago, and was that even a restrained chuckle from Julia? They sounded as if they were having so much fun that he almost hated to knock on the door.
As it turned out, he had to knock repeatedly before they finally heard him. Pam opened the door, her eyes bright and cheeks flushed with humor.
“Come on in.”
He would, but he was temporarily too dumbstruck to move. “You did all this?” he asked, staring past her.
She followed his gaze, taking in the finished living room walls, the gleaming new light fixture overhead and the recently hung shelf—on top of which sat a framed picture of Ed and Julia, a small flowering plant and a radio. “Not by myself. I told you, I’ve had help.”
She ticked off names on her fingers. “Uncle Ed stopped by whenever he could, sometimes bringing a guy or two from the warehouse. Aunt Julia showed up one day with two volunteers from her sewing circle. Beth and Dawn have both been out here to pitch in at various times, and some of the people at AA meetings who are newly sober and still restless have discovered that showing up here around ten o’clock at night gives them something constructive to do and keeps them out of bars.”
Nick frowned over the idea of her opening the door to people she didn’t know well after ten o’clock, but admitted, “The place has never looked better.”
“I’ll give you the complete tour when it’s done.” She ushered him inside.
“Hey, Dad.” Faith and Julia appeared at the edge of the living room. His daughter was smiling yet looked disappointed at the same time. “Do we have to leave already? Pam never even pulled out the guitar!”