Make a Wish (Spark House #3)(49)
“That’s true. But Harley was your nanny when you were a baby. She helped me take care of you.”
“The angels sent her to help because they took Mommy to heaven.” It sounds almost rote, like a line from a story she’s been told often.
“That’s right.”
“So did the angels send her again because we needed her?” Peyton asks, head tipped to the side.
“Maybe,” I answer honestly.
Because as much as I’d like to believe we reconnected by chance, it’s hard not to wonder if the universe is trying to tell me something I wasn’t ready to hear all those years ago.
* * *
Half an hour later we meet Harley at the entrance to the park. She’s dressed in a pair of jeans that hugs all her slight curves and a long-sleeved shirt that reads I BELIEVE IN FAIRY TALES. Peyton skips over to her and Harley crouches down, catching her around the waist. “How’s my favorite nine-year-old?”
“I’m so excited! I can’t wait to do graffiti!”
Harley smiles. “I can’t wait either!”
“Every time Granny sees it on a wall, she says it’s the riffraff who do it, and if they get caught, they get in trouble,” Peyton announces.
“If we painted graffiti in places it wasn’t supposed to be, that would be bad, but today we get to learn how to do it in a place where it’s okay.”
“Okay. That’s good. I don’t want to get in trouble for having fun.” Peyton takes one of Harley’s hands and takes mine in the other, and we walk toward the other side of the park, where I can see, very clearly, the wall of graffiti art.
Today, there are half a dozen kids, a couple as young as Peyton and a few who look to be a little older. There’s a boy who appears to be on the verge of becoming a teenager, wearing what I would consider skater clothes and a ball cap with the name of the artist instructing the class on it.
We spend the next hour learning all about the art of graffiti and creating our own designs that we get to photograph, but the paint is water-soluble, so it will stay up for the night and then get washed away.
Afterwards we grab a bite to eat from one of the food trucks and take Peyton to the park, so she can run around for a bit before we take her home. “Just stay where we can see you, okay, kiddo?” I ruffle her hair.
“Okay!” She leaves her popcorn with Harley and bounds off to the play structure. Harley and I sit on a bench so we can keep an eye on her.
“Just stay off the climber, please!” I call out, then mutter, “I wish they wouldn’t make them so enticing for kids her size. She’s too small to go up that high.”
“I’m guessing you’ve taken that into account with the park you’re working on.”
“I have. I have new sketches for the play structure. I’d love for you to have a look when you have some time.”
“Absolutely. Whenever works for you works for me.”
“Maybe sometime next week, then? You could come over for dinner?” I suggest, but know I’m taking an easy out by inviting her to the house instead of out on a proper date.
“That would be great.” She crosses one leg over the other and her foot bumps my shin. “Oh sorry.” She leans over to brush away the smudge of dust off my jeans and tugs at the material. “I like these.”
“You like my jeans?”
“They look good on you.” She glances at me out of the corner of her eye and smiles, then pops a piece of popcorn into her mouth. “Usually you’re in a suit.”
This is true. Most of the time Harley sees me when I’m coming home from work. And even when I dress down, I still tend to wear khakis and collared shirts. “You always look good, no matter what you’re wearing,” I tell her.
Her smile widens. “Even when I’m dressed up as a fairy godmother?”
“Especially when you’re dressed up as a fairy godmother.”
She laughs and shifts so she’s turned toward me and props her elbow on the back of the bench, resting her cheek on her fist. “So aside from the big park project, how are things? Are you happy to be working with your family again? And Ian too?”
“Honestly? It’s been great. It’s nice to be back in the place I consider home and working alongside Ian again. I don’t think I realized how much I missed working with my dad until I was again.”
“Is that hard then, since he’s retiring?”
“Well, I don’t know if he’ll ever fully retire, but he’s going down to part-time and planning to take a lot more holidays than he used to. He and my mom want to plan a monthlong trip to Europe. Isn’t your grandmother out there?”
“She is, yeah.” Harley smiles fondly. “She went to Europe for a vacation, but ended up staying a lot longer. I think she’s been there for nearly three years. She comes home every few months to visit, but she has a boyfriend out there.”
“That must be tough for you, though. She basically raised you, didn’t she?” I remember vaguely that she used to take Peyton to the park and meet up with her gran fairly often.
“She did. I miss her, but she deserves happiness, and if that’s in Italy, then that’s where she should be. We talk pretty regularly, and I have my sisters around, so it all balances out in the end.”