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As much as Audrey worried about Willow’s friends, wondering if they were the kids Willow was protecting, she knew she had to trust her.
Her job as guardian was to give Willow rules and guidelines, and then trust that she would act wisely. Well, as wisely as any sixteen-year-old ever acted. “I think we can manage both. I was planning on all of us driving down to the bayfront for the fireworks. We’re going over to Sawyer’s place around noon, so there will be plenty of time after.”
She could almost feel the air shift around Willow’s shrug. “Guess you’ve made up your mind.”
“You can meet up with your friends when we get downtown,” Audrey offered.
For a moment she thought Willow was going to argue, but instead the girl simply said, “Okay.”
“Who’re you meeting?” she asked as nonchalantly as she could manage.
“Just some friends.”
Audrey fought back her frustration. Patience, she reminded herself. Time and patience.
“So we gotta go back there on Saturday?” Clinton asked from the backseat.
“For a picnic. Sawyer said bring your swimsuits.”
Bea started shrieking. Audrey glanced back and saw Clinton smile indulgently at Bea. And though Willow didn’t say anything, there was a hint of a smile on her face.
Audrey had to admit she felt excited about the prospect of seeing Sawyer on Saturday. She tried to tell herself it was merely because the kids would have fun swimming, but she suspected she was lying to herself.
* * *
MAGGIE MAY WAS at Audrey’s front door promptly at seven-thirty the next morning. She had on the tie-dyed oven mitts Clinton and Bea had bought her last Christmas. Those mitts gripped a cake tin of cinnamon rolls, Maggie May’s specialty.
“What’s the occasion?” Audrey asked as she let her in.
“I woke up at five and couldn’t go back to sleep, so I decided to put my time to good use.” She walked into the kitchen as she had so many times over the years. “They talk about all kinds of age-related issues, but they don’t warn you about the sleep problems. I’m up before the crack of dawn each day, but if I sit for more than a minute during the day, I nod off. Getting old ain’t for the faint of heart,” she said with a chuckle as she pulled a trivet from the drawer and set the pan on it.
She turned and looked at Audrey. “Have a roll before you go, and take one to your boss, too. That man looks as if a stiff breeze could blow him away.”
Neither Mr. Lebowitz nor Maggie May had any family to mention so they both spent holidays with Audrey and the kids.
There was a look in Maggie’s eyes that had Audrey wondering all over again... Mr. Lebowitz and Maggie?
She had to admit there was some merit in the idea. She wondered when she could get them together again without seeming obvious.
She laughed. She’d never managed to make a relationship work for herself, so why on earth did she imagine she could help other people hook up?
“Mr. Lebowitz will be thrilled. No one makes a better cinnamon roll than you do,” she said.
Maggie puffed up a bit. “Well, that’s sweet of you to say. Now where are the kids?”
“Still in bed.”
Maggie May shook her head. “That kind of sleep is wasted on the young. They don’t appreciate it. To be honest, a lot of things are wasted on the young. You all are always in such a hurry to make your mark and get to this or that. Sometimes you need to slow down and smell...”
Audrey interrupted. “The cinnamon rolls.”
Maggie chuckled and got out one of Audrey’s storage containers, popped a couple rolls in it and said, “Now see to it your boss eats one of these.”
“I will,” Audrey promised.
“Have a good day,” Maggie said. “I think the kids and I are going to go spend the day at the pool.”
Audrey bought a membership to a local pool every summer. Bea especially loved the water. She was going to have a blast on Saturday.
“Have a good day, Audrey,” Maggie said.
“You, too.”
“Oh, I will. I’ve got a new JoAnn Ross book. I plan to curl up under an umbrella and have at it.”
Maggie was a bookworm. “Tell the kids I’ll call at lunch.”
“I will. But we’ll be fine. Shoo.”
It was a ten-minute drive from her home in Wesleyville to work in downtown Erie.
Abe Lebowitz had opened his firm in a historic brick storefront on West Fifth Street. Audrey loved that from the office she could walk down to the dock or to Erie’s Perry Square, a two-block downtown park.
Today, as she went inside, she took a moment to study the photos in the public reception room, pictures of homes Mr. Lebowitz had helped design or remodel. Someday Audrey hoped to have such a body of work behind her. Though she’d taken on a few projects that she ran point on and Mr. Lebotwitz simply supervised, the Greenhouse was the first project that she truly felt was her baby. It would be the first picture on her wall.
When she’d graduated, she’d considered applying for a job at a bigger firm in a bigger city. But she knew it would take years before she’d have a chance to really get some hands-on work. And truly, the city of Erie was as close to a home as she could come.
As an intern for Mr. Lebowitz’s one-man business, she’d had a chance to take more active roles in design and meeting with clients. That’s what convinced her that going to work for him was the right move. And she’d made a good choice. She was basically his girl Friday. She did a little bit of everything and felt she had more practical experience than a lot of architects her age.
She glanced at the clock on her phone.
Half an hour before clients—the Castellinis—came in.
She had to get her day started.
As if on cue, Mr. Lebowitz called out, “Audrey, is that you?”
“No, Mr. Lebowitz. It’s someone else entirely.”
“Cheeky girl,” he called, laughter tingeing his voice. “Come in here if you have a moment.”
She left the reception room, headed past her office door and Mr. Lebowitz’s public office to the back room she called his “cave.” He was in a white button-down shirt that was open at the collar and had its sleeves rolled up. He smiled as she walked in.
Audrey set the cinnamon bun in front of him and his smile broadened. “Maggie was baking this morning.”
“She made this from scratch?” he asked, picking up the roll almost with reverence.
“She did,” Audrey informed him. “She said to be sure you ate it because you’re too thin.”
“Other than seeing clearly,” he said, patting his slightly paunchy stomach, “is there anything that woman can’t do?”
“Nothing I know of,” Audrey assured him.
He took a bite and groaned. “Wow.”
“You called me back because you wanted something?” she prompted.
Mr. Lebowitz was lost in a cinnamon brain fog. Audrey watched as he tried to clear his head enough to remember why he’d summoned her.
“Oh, yes.” He dug through a precarious-looking pile of papers and pulled out a neon orange Post-it. Audrey did the ordering for the firm, and chose the brightest sticker notes she could find so they would stand out amid the clutter.
“Marcia James, the mayor’s assistant, and Ms. Wilkins, the educational enrichment coordinator for the school district, set up a tentative meeting for Friday. Marcia asked that you confirm.”
She took the Post-it. “Sure. I can make that work.”
“Great. Now, go get ready for the Castellinis. I’m going to sit back and savor my cinnamon roll. And when you have a minute, could you give me Maggie’s phone number so I can thank her properly?”
Audrey tried to keep the speculation out of her voice as she said, “She’s at my house with the kids today, so you can reach her there.”
“Great. I will.”
And because the matchmaking bug had hit, she added, “You know, you should probably think of a way to reciprocate. Maybe ask her out to dinner some night?”
She left before he could respond.
What was with her? She had romance on her mind, and that wasn’t like her at all. Between the kids, work and now the Greenhouse, her life was full. She didn’t have time to date, which was good because her last attempt had been a disaster.
She’d been held up at a meeting that ran late, and got home just in time for Maggie May to apologize profusely and say she had some stomach bug and couldn’t babysit. It was too late when... What was the guy’s name? Paul. That was it.
He was a nice zoologist. It was too late to call and cancel. She opened the front door just as Bea told her she was feeling sick. He stepped inside and... Bea barfed on his shoes.
She would have thought a guy who dealt with zoo animals on a daily basis could handle a little vomit.
He couldn’t.
That had been right before Willow came to stay with them.
Audrey still got asked out on occasion, but she’d said no the past few months. She was trying to build a connection with Willow and didn’t want to divide her attention.
So why, all of a sudden, was she trying to fix up Mr. Lebowitz and Maggie May?
And why, when she thought about them dating, did she think about dating, as well?
And the biggest question of all... Why was it Sawyer Williams she imagined sitting across a restaurant table from her?
Clutching her orange Post-it note, she hurried into her office.
She had a lot of work to do. Notes to pull together for her clients Marcia and Ms. Wilkins. The Castellini meeting.
She was not going to think about fixing up Mr. Lebowitz and Maggie May.
And more than that, she was not going to think about dating anyone herself.
Especially not Sawyer Williams.
CHAPTER FIVE (#ulink_aeee7a8b-e3d8-54eb-877e-c0fc38d7a28e)
AUDREY’S FIRST THOUGHT on Saturday was, Today we go to Sawyer’s.
She felt...excited. She tamped down the feeling and reminded herself that this wasn’t a date. Sawyer was a nice man who, despite himself, was taking an interest in Willow.
That was a good thing.
She knew from personal experience that having people care about you made a difference in how you saw yourself. She got out of bed and meandered downstairs.
Weekdays were frenetic, which was why she savored moving at a snail’s pace on the weekends.
She smelled coffee before she got all the way down the stairs. Willow had beat her to the kitchen.
Most nights Willow went up to her room around nine. But she rarely came downstairs early. She definitely had that teenage ability to sleep late down to a science.
“I started your coffee,” she said. “I was just going to come wake you up. You said we could go to the DMV when I was ready. Well, I’m ready.”
This was the first time Audrey had seen Willow so excited. She hadn’t wanted to offer to let Willow learn to drive. She knew that any number of things could happen. For years she’d avoided learning to drive herself.
But it was her job to prepare Willow for adulthood. And if Audrey taught her, she could make sure Willow drove as safely and responsibly as possible.
Still, things could happen. Things you couldn’t control.
She pushed the thought away and concentrated on her smiling charge.
“Willow, I know you’re excited, but it’s a holiday. The DMV is closed.”
“Oh. I checked that it had Saturday hours, but I forgot it was a holiday.”
Her disappointment was palpable.
“Tell you what, I’ll try to get out of work early on Monday and take you up before you go to Sawyer’s.”
“Really?”
“Really. I’ll text Mr. Lebowitz today, but I’m sure he won’t mind.” He genuinely liked her kids and allowed her to juggle her schedule to make things work for them. She always made up the time later.
“You don’t have to go to any trouble for me,” Willow said.
“I know I don’t have to,” Audrey assured her. “But I want to. You’re worth a bit of trouble now and again.”
Willow looked as if she wanted to say something, but she sat mutely.
