Page 63 of Sherry and Sunflowers
"Sorry, kid. I'll figure you out soon. In the meantime, you have to forgive me if I talk down to you."
Alara exchanged a smile with Reaves when Zia said, "That's okay. Grown-ups do it all the time. I'm used to it."
Delaney surprised Alara in the best way when she said, "Well, that sucks. You shouldn't be used to it. And I don't want to be one of those dumb grown-ups, okay?"
That earned her first real smile from Zia. "Okay. I'll help you with that—I’ll tell you when you’re being dumb. And how are you going to help Mom?"
"Like I said. I'm going to make sure that all your mom needs to think about is her design work. I'll deal with everything else." She turned to Alara. "Sound good?"
"It does, thanks. But I don't want you to cut me out of the loop completely. If there's anything I can do, I want to know; I want to help."
Reaves came farther into the room from the door where he'd been lurking. "How about we figure it all out between the three of us? If I'm in the loop as well…"
Alara was about to protest—he had enough of his own to deal with.
"That sounds perfect," said Delaney. "If you're going to be stepping up to help your dad out, you need to be in the loop." She shot Alara a quick smile. "And I'll leave the two of you to figure out how you want to handle things between you. So. Are we straight?"
"We are," said Alara.
"Sounds good to me," said Reaves.
"Maybe," said Zia, making Delaney laugh.
Delaney got to her feet. "You're turning out to be my kind of person, kid."
"I don't know yet if you're mine," said Zia.
Delaney let out a laugh. "You just proved my point exactly." She came toward the desk. "But I'm running out of time before I need to get out of here. Can I finally see the designs?"
"You can."
Alara hated that her hands shook as she reached for the papers. She hadn't minded that they did it when she showed Charles—that was emotion, not nerves. It had really mattered to her that he should like them. But this, with Delaney? Actually, no. It wasn't nerves about what she thought. Alara knew damn well it was good. It wasn't about the quality of her work. It was about whether it would serve the purpose Delaney needed it to.
"Go on, then. You can't keep me in suspense any longer. I'm excited to see."
"Okay. Well, like I told you, I think the gold leaf is key. And this is obviously not how the real thing will look."
Delaney waved a hand at her. "I'll figure out the gold leaf. You had it right the other day. You tell me what you need; I make it happen."
Alara smiled at that. "That helps. It really does."
"Good. So quit with the build-up and show me what we have."
She laughed. "It's not just build-up. I need you to understand. I did this by hand. Obviously, it's not real gold leaf. But I needed you to get the…"
"I know." Delaney's smile was softer now. "It's about the feeling. I might let on that I don't have any. But I wouldn't last aminute in this business if I didn't." She smiled. "But I'm going to be relying on you guys not to give me away. Okay?"
Alara nodded. "Okay then. Here it is."
She slid the paper with the label and logo across the desk.
Delaney picked it up. She didn't say anything—just turned it slowly toward the window, so that the light caught the gold and ran along the vine motif. Then she tilted it back the other way and watched it catch again.
She stared at it for long enough that, for the first time, Alara started to doubt. She shot Reaves a look, but he nodded encouragingly.
It was Zia who eventually broke the silence. She'd slid down from the sofa and come to stand at Delaney's elbow, up on her toes to see. "So, do you like it? Isn't it wonderful?"
"It is." Delaney lowered the paper so Zia could see it properly. "I'm not surewonderfulis a big enough word, even."
