Well, okay then, maybe I wasn’t stupid, but I surely had no business getting tangled up with this girl. Not now. It’s just she looked so taken aback, disappointed even, when I’d turned her down for coffee. It wasn’t like I hadn’t wanted to go. I did. With every poisoned ounce of me, I did. I just couldn’t. But I hadn’t meant to hurt her feelings.
The bell over the door rang when I pushed it open. I was greeted with warm, soft light, and the sound of swing music. No way. I loved this kind of music.
“Hi,” a dark-haired woman called as she crossed the shop toward me.
I smiled at her. While I didn’t know her name, I’d seen her around town. Then I noticed the apron she was wearing. It was dark green with a bagel above the heart. That’s where I’d seen her, at the deli across the street.
“Hi,” I replied. “Is Kate—”
“She’s in the back,” the girl said, pushing open the door. “Later, Kater,” she called toward the back of the shop.
“See ya,” I heard the melodious voice reply. Then, I saw her. Kate smiled as she rose from a small workbench at the back of the store, clicked off a desk lamp, and then came toward me.
I could feel my heart pounding in my chest, and a moment later, a wave of nausea swept over me. Great. Just what I needed. Not now.
“Cooper?” she called.
“Hi, Kate.”
“Done already?”
“Done?”
“Your sunrise painting,” she answered, then I saw a guilty expression cross her face, like she’d been caught knowing something she shouldn’t have.
It made me happy to know she’d noticed me too. “I was out first thing, just did a quick watercolor. I wanted to bring you something,” I said then, motioning to the covered canvas. I realized then that this was twice in the last twenty-four hours that I’d brought this woman a gift. No wonder she looked confused when I turned her down for coffee. Maybe I was making a huge mistake. I didn’t want to lead her on, I just didn’t want her to look sad like that…ever again.
Kate smiled, her dark-blue eyes twinkling in the chandelier light.
I handed the canvas to her.
“For me? Really?”
I nodded.
Carefully, she unwrapped the crinkly brown paper.
“It was in my gran’s closet,” I said then. “It’s not a masterpiece or anything. I painted it during my senior year in high school. Gran always liked the mermaid folktales from this area, used to tell me them as a kid.”
Kate’s eyes went wide as she studied the painting.
I looked at the canvas. It wasn’t a bad painting. It depicted a mermaid sitting in the water, her body half-in and half-out of the water. Her back was to the viewer, letting them look out at the lake with her. I had loved painting the cutaway element, showing the small fish and plants under the water, and the mermaid’s tail. From above the surface, she looked like a woman sitting in the water looking out at the lake. What she really was lay beneath.
No, it wasn’t a bad painting. I used to paint more when I was younger, back before everyone talked me into pursuing a real job. Honestly, I’d just wanted to be a painter. But who can do that these days? This wasn’t the Renaissance, and money makes the world go ‘round. Maybe if I knew then what I knew now, I would have just followed my bliss. But my years of working with children and dolphins hadn’t been for nothing. We’d helped a lot of kids and learned a lot in the process.
“It’s stunning,” she finally said.
“It’s just gathering dust. I thought you might like it for the shop.”
“This should be displayed. Cooper, it’s so…touching,” she said, tears welling in her eyes.
Her joy filled me with so much happiness that for a moment, I forgot everything. I stepped a little closer to the painting…to her. Gently, I set my hand on the small of her back as we looked on. “There are lots of old stories from this area about mermaids. Have you ever heard them? The Native Americans from this area swore mermaids lived in Lake Erie. They called them something else though.”
“Lumpeguin,” Kate said in almost a whisper.
“That’s right, lumpeguin. You’ve heard the stories then?”
“Yes.”
“I painted this for our senior project. We had to paint something relevant to Chancellor. This is actually a cool place, lots of folktales about witches, mermaids, and faerie people. But I was the only one to paint a mermaid…well, a lumpeguin.”
“I don’t know what to say,” Kate said then, and I could see she was truly speechless.
I couldn’t help but feel a little pleased with myself. This was the reaction I’d hoped for, whether I wanted to admit it or not.
“So, you like swing music?” I asked.
Kate took a deep breath, shook her head slightly, like she was lost in her thoughts, then said “Sorry?”
“Big band music?”
She giggled a sweet sound like the chiming of a bell. “I love it.”
“There is a dance tomorrow night at the old Chancellor Dance Hall. It’s mainly for the senior citizens, but my gran’s friends have been trying to get me out of the house. I guess they have a swing band. Those old gals, I hate to keep disappointing them. Maybe if I came one time—”
“What time should I be ready?”
“Eight.”
“Sounds great.”
“It’s a date then.” The words came flying out of my mouth before I could stop them, and when Kate looked at me, I saw the same startled reflection on her face.
We grinned at one another.
“Thank you again for the painting,” Kate said. She carefully set the canvas on the floor, propping it against a display of blown-glass witch balls. She then turned and took my hand in hers. “Really, it’s remarkable.”
Something desperate stirred in me, and I moved closer to her. I moved my hand from her back to her hip, holding her a bit more firmly. I could feel warmth emanating from her. I looked down at her sweet, petite face. She had wide dark-blue eyes and perfectly-drawn pink lips that looked so soft, so sweet.
Surprising me yet again, Kate put her hand on my shoulder. “Shall we practice? My jitterbug is rusty,” she said then turned me, spinning me to the music.
I laughed out loud. Kate giggled. Moving carefully around the displays, we danced. Her face glowed. She had this magic to her. Her sweet, melodious laughter entranced me.
A moment later, the bell over the front door rang, and three older women entered. At the head of the pack, I saw Tootie Row, chief instigator of my gran’s old sisterhood.
“Well, well,” she said, spotting us. “Now, that’s what I like to see!”
I gave Kate a good spin, then smiling, gently let her go. She giggled, covering her mouth with her hand.
“I see you’ve met Kate,” Tootie said.
I nodded.
“She’s almost as stubborn as you,” the white-haired woman replied.
“Well, you don’t have to worry about that anymore,” I told Tootie then turned back to Kate. “Tomorrow, then?” I asked her.
“Tomorrow.”
I then turned to Tootie who was smiling at me. “There, now you can leave me be,” I said, then kissed her on the cheek. I caught her sweet scent of rosewater perfume and cold cream. The smell took me back to my childhood and flooded me with memories of my grandmother.
“Now, that’s a good boy,” she said, patting my cheek. “Alberta is smiling at you, Cooper.”
I grinned. I’d just done the exact thing I’d sworn I wouldn’t do, but for some reason, I didn’t have the heart to be mad at myself.