Taylor stopped and looked at Christina with suspicion, as if she might
have packed an anaconda or a viper into her bag underneath all those toys.
“I wanted to say— uh— that I’m sorry for what I said to you
yesterday.” Christina set the bag down for Chloe to look through. She bent
and began to eagerly rummage through everything. “I know you must be
under a lot of pressure and a ton of stress. I didn’t mean to make it worse. I
didn’t mean to get into your business or insinuate that you’re— well, you
know.” She didn’t want to say a bad mother in front of Chloe. “I got a lot of
calls done yesterday and I don’t have many more to make today. I brought
my tablet and was going to work on some marketing designs to run past
you. Flyers for the grand opening, ads for papers and websites. That kind of
stuff. It won’t take me all day, so I thought that me and Chloe could do
some crafts and stuff together. The movies are probably getting old.”
“Um…” Taylor looked behind her and to the side. Chloe was still
eagerly rummaging through the bag. “I…” She wanted to say something,
but then she just shrugged. “If you want to, that would be awesome. I can
still check in—”
“No need. I know the fencing is really coming along. You guys are
doing an amazing job out there.”
“You’re quite positive this morning—”
“Mom, look!” Chloe cut Taylor off before she could really get the
sarcasm rolling. She held up a set of paints and a coloring book that came
with it.
“Wow!” Taylor switched from being guarded and annoyed with
Christina and looked at Chloe adoringly. It was quite a change and it
happened in just a few seconds. “That’s awesome! You love painting.”
“Books too!” Chloe pointed. “Crayons! Markers! Scissors, glue, paper,
she brought everything!”
“You’re going to have a busy morning.”
“Snacks!” Chloe shifted aside some of the art stuff and let out a whoop