Chapter 29Liem
29
Liem
“Professor Liem, I am disappointed.”
I paused my tidying of the Locc’s classroom and abandoned the macrame supplies on the table, giving Miss Lenny my full attention. “Oh? Was today’s class not to your liking?”
She exhaled dramatically and perched on the tabletop beside me, her floral perfume mixed with the strong smell of muscle-and-joint cream quite overpowering. “Oh, no, it was a charming class. It’s just that my frame remains empty, you see.”
I nodded thoughtfully. “Ah, well, Miss Lenny, I assure you I am working on that figure drawing class. My aunt would be the ideal instructor for it, but she’s been under the weather the past few days.”
Which was why I’d stayed in Gulf Shores longer than anticipated.
Uncle Gil had fallen into the habit of helping Ireland out with odd jobs and various maintenance at the Locc, and though he’d assured Aunt Ari that he would stay at the condo to take care of her, Ari insisted that he not leave Ireland in the lurch.
Lurch. There it was again.
But yes, the ever-grumpy and oft-mysterious Ireland had formed a quiet friendship with my uncle while becoming his sort-of apprentice.
They were an odd pair, but it somehow worked. You’d only know they were tinkering at the Locc if you saw them or heard the clangs and rattles of whatever task they were undertaking together. I didn’t think I’d ever seen or heard them exchange more than a few words, and even those were just succinct instructions from Gil, which Ireland answered with equally succinct nods. I’d discovered jealousy inside me at the easy friendship Gil had struck up with Ireland, but it didn’t deter me.
I now had even more experience with and admiration for such beautiful, complicated personalities and was determined to make her my friend.
It was one of the many vows that lay in my heart these days.
As I ran my fingers over the strands of cotton cord on the table, my thoughts returned to Cody. I missed his presence terribly. I could hardly believe I’d once gone so many months without him near, and now that I’d had a taste of it, I was ravenous.
Alongside that hunger was a yearning for my Monday meetings with Bree at the gazebo, my quiet afternoons with Vinh, and the pockets of peace I’d built in Bay Springs.
An ambulance siren sounded faintly nearby, and Miss Lenny and I both snapped our attention to the open classroom door as if we could see what was happening from here.
I quite enjoyed this place, but it was not inherently peaceful.
Visits from emergency personnel were more than common here, given the nature of the Locc’s residents—older, and prone to illness and injury. In the several days I’d been here, I’d learned it was rare for a day to go by without the sound of sirens.
Thankfully, we rarely saw such activity in the recreation part of the Locc, except on the days Ireland taught dance classes, but it was still unnerving.
Miss Lenny muttered a prayer under her breath before picking up the threads of our conversation. “You were saying about dear Arizona?”
I pulled my gaze from the doorway and smiled faintly, taking one more moment to even my breaths. “Yes. She’s not been well, so it may be a bit before she’s up to it.”
Miss Lenny made a sympathetic noise and then tapped her nails on the table. “Couldn’t you teach it, dear? I’m sure you have many friends who would be willing to sit for the session.” Her gaze traced my form. “As much as we wanted you to be the model, I’m sure you have other prospects?”
I hummed because I certainly did, but I didn’t want to raise her hopes. “Thank you for your kind opinion, ma’am.” I scooped the sorted cords into my craft box and closed the lid. “Let me keep working on it and see what I can come up with. I have a good feeling about it.”
“Quite reasonable as always, Professor Liem,” she agreed, patting my hand before easing off the table. “I have a list of dates that I’ll be out of town, so make sure you don’t schedule it for one of those. I’ll leave a copy for you at the front desk with Jillie.”
I bade her goodbye, and once I finished tidying the room, I packed my supplies in my canvas duffel bag and slung it over my shoulder, eager to get back to the condo and check on Aunt Ari.
Jillie waved me over as I approached the front desk, and I adjusted the strap of the heavy bag, not at all enjoying the way it dug into my shoulder.
Intentional, expected pain from the prick of a tattoo or a piercing was different. I had perfected methods to harmonize with those. Techniques I’d started during my first apprenticeship when I was sixteen. And as an adult, I’d learned to deal with some emotional pain via visualization techniques or expression with the stroke of a brush.
The chafing from this rough strap, though? It was irritating me.
It was irritating me badly.
“Liem, is everything okay?”
I slid my fingers under the strap of the bag to create a barrier and formed a smile for Jillie. “It is.”
She narrowed her eyes slightly but didn’t question me further. She did, however, pull a piece of paper from a pile on her desk, which she slid in front of me with an excited smile. “I’ve found something for you.”
I gave up on the blasted bag and sat it on the floor before I leaned over the desk to peer at the paper.
“Oh,” I breathed, my irritation forgotten as I scanned every detail before flicking my eyes up to Jillie. “How much?”
She wrote a figure on a neon-pink sticky note and slapped it on top. I almost wanted to laugh in delight but was too busy running the numbers in my head.
“Such a thing is highway legal?” I asked her.
She smiled conspiratorially, though there was no way she knew that Vinh had tried to forbid me from this exact thing. “It is. I researched it after the son of one of our memory care clients posted it for sale.”
“Heavens,” I whispered, my eyes glued to the photo of the shiny, new-looking Vespa scooter. Bouncing on my toes, I pressed a hand into my chest as if that would keep the elation at bay.
Jillie slid another neon-pink Post-it note toward me, this one with a name and a number written on it.
Addy DeRosa. Thanks to you, I was dead meat.
Vinh was going to kill me.
And Cody might too.
I shimmied my shoulders, welcoming the goose bumps that danced along my spine as Cody’s gorgeous scowl flashed into my mind.
Oh, yes.
It would be well worth it.
When I returned to the condo, I was able to take my first truly satisfactory breath when I found Aunt Ari on the couch instead of curled up in bed.
“Feeling better?” I asked softly after I set the takeout bag on the kitchen bar.
“Yes,” she sighed through a tired smile as she twisted toward me. “I believe the worst has passed.” She rose gingerly from the couch, eyeing the brown paper bag. “Is that for me, my sweet Liem?”
“It is,” I confirmed as I took out the steaming containers of soup. “Would you like wonton or egg drop?”
Aunt Ari hummed as she scooped her glasses from the side table and slipped them on. “Wonton, please.”
Ari fell onto her soup enthusiastically, and my worry was eased by her newfound appetite. I put the kettle on and started some tea for her as I caught her up on my day at the Locc.
“That Lenny is a hoot,” she commented between sips of soup after I told her about the renewed request for a figure drawing class. “I’m sad I’ve hardly been able to help this week.”
“She is,” I agreed. “And I think Jillie is coming around to the idea of us painting a mural in the main hallway, so let’s look forward to that for when you’re feeling better.”
“That would be a great project. I have no doubt you’ll convince her. Now, tell me.” She set her spoon down with a clang and reached for her migraine medicine on the counter. “Are you going to ask that beautiful boy to model for the class?”
I folded my arms against the kitchen counter and leaned on them, smiling at her as I replied, “Aunt Ari, I’d ask Cody Desmond to have my babies if I thought he’d agree. But, to answer your question, yes. I was thinking of doing just that.”
She waved her fistful of pills in celebration before tossing them into her mouth and taking a long gulp of water. The kettle hissed as it reached temperature, so I moved over to turn it off and took it from the stove.
“Well then, the only question left, my Liem,” she told my back, “is what are you waiting for?”
I poured a bit of steaming water into her cup to warm it as the question crawled over my shoulder and slithered into my brain.
What was I waiting for?
I’d thought all day about how much I missed him, and he’d freely expressed the same to me when we messaged and talked on the phone. Why not invite him to Gulf Shores?
I wasn’t exactly worried that Cody would deny my request, but there was something there cautioning me, and I paid attention to it. It spoke from a place in a deep, dark, and rarely visited corner of my subconscious, whispering for me to swim against the current of my nature. To tread carefully.
But was I being too careful?
Cody Desmond was it for me.
I’d known it for a long time, and the potency of that knowledge had only grown since he’d come back into town. Since I’d seen his hazel eyes up close enough times to memorize their color.
When I heard every beat of his heart over the course of a night.
Since Dad had called me to tell me all about how “the kid” had a “real knack for making biscuits” and was “a natural.”
“Pining,” Aunt Ari sighed dreamily from beside me.
“Hmm?” I asked rather dumbly as I turned toward her.
She patted me on the shoulder and took the forgotten kettle from my hand. “That’s what I would title a portrait of you in this moment. If I’d the time to paint it.” She patted me again and then lightly pushed my shoulder. “Go call him, sweetie.”
I wordlessly excused myself to the balcony to do just that, any delay or other course of action seeming almost unbearable. Leaning against the railing, I pulled my phone out and threw a bit of caution to the Gulf wind.
“LL,” Cody’s deep drawl answered on the second ring. “Is everything okay with Ari?”
A pelican swooped by, and I might as well have tossed it my heart to be delivered to Bay Springs. “She is much better this afternoon, actually,” I replied, smiling at his concern. “I think I’ll be able to come home soon.”
“Thank God,” Cody groaned unabashedly, but then there was a pause before he added, “Ah, I mean, for both of those things. Just so we’re clear.”
There was a shuffling sound on his end followed by a loud thud, almost like a door closing, but not quite.
“Sorry about that,” he said but made no explanation for the sound. “So, you were saying about coming home?”
I turned and leaned my back against the rail and crossed my legs at the ankle. “Just that things are improving here. Uncle Gil should be home from the Locc soon, and Ari is….” I craned my head to peer through the sliding glass door and found Ari wiping down the counters. “Well, she’s well enough for domestics, so that tells me she’ll be back to normal by the evening.”
“That’s good news.” He sounded genuinely relieved, and I considered asking a pelican to fly me back to Bay Springs.
“What are you laughing about, LL?”
I hadn’t even realized I’d made a sound, but I’d give him the truth. “How it must’ve felt for Gandalf to fly on the eagles.”
He made a sound low in his throat. “Cher isn’t invited to our next movie night.”
Our. It really felt like I was floating, and I leaned into the feeling.
“—I can’t bear another three hours of her asking if I recognized the scenery from my run to Mordor,” Cody continued, though I regrettably missed whatever he’d said in the middle there, as suspended in my fantasy as I was.
The four of us—Bree, Vinh, Cody, and myself—had watched the first half of Fellowship of the Ring two nights ago and the second half last night. Vinh had video called me on both occasions and set me on a tripod so I could watch along, the three of them in the cottage living room and me in the guest room at the condo.
It helped me to feel connected, but at the same time, it was quite torturous, seeing them all there and not being able to interact beyond speaking.
Our conversation lapsed then, but the silence wasn’t so much awkward as just… unrushed.
“So, tell me, Dezi,” I said as I broke it, remembering my purpose. “How do you feel about modeling?”
Dead silence followed, the nature of it unclear.
Cody broke it this time several seconds later. “Umm…,” he hummed. “For you?”
Yes, my brain screamed. One day.
I gave it a moment’s thought and decided it might be best to see his expression when I explained further, to help gauge his true feeling on the matter. To that end, I pulled my phone from my ear and clicked the icon for a video call, only having to wait seconds before Cody accepted.
It took a great effort to not swallow my tongue or swoon off the balcony when his bare chest came into view, but still I had to reach back and grip the railing with my free hand.
When I’d come on the beach, mere days and somehow also an eternity ago, it was Cody’s chest I’d imagined painting. I tracked my gaze down his chest now, and I swore he’d changed since I’d last seen him in person. His biceps bulged and his chest seemed an impossibly broader canvas as he stepped out onto the deck of the houseboat.
“All right, there, LL?” he asked with a smirk, the uncertainty in his voice from earlier nowhere to be seen or heard.
“Quite, Dezi,” I said primly, straightening and meeting him in the eye for a moment before I betrayed my answer and my gaze drifted back down his chest. “Thank you for inquiring. I take it the exercising with your dad is going well?"
His smirk grew, but he ignored my question. “You want me to model for you?”
“Yes,” I answered aloud this time. “But that’s not what I meant. Not at this juncture, anyway.”
He raised his brows. “Well, don’t keep me in suspense.”
I smiled and spoke plainly. “I want you to model for a figure drawing class at the Locc.”
His eyes widened. “Oh.”
A third bout of silence formed.
And dissipated.
“You want me to come to Gulf Shores?” Cody repeated.
“Yes,” I affirmed.
He nodded to himself just as a flare of sunlight cut across the screen, briefly obscuring his features. When it passed, he was smiling as he walked back into the boat. “Time and place. And tell me what I should wear.”