“We need to know if there’s an alarm on the painting, and we need to know what the cleaning staff looks like,” Nikki said.
“Tonight?” Audrey asked.
“I have a thing tonight,” London said, thinking of the coupon she bought to start learning how to blow glass.
“That’s okay. Tonight is just info gathering. Nikki and I can handle it. How’s the tree topper coming?”
London sighed. “That’s the thing I have tonight. I found a studio that offers glassblowing classes. Get this. It’s with the Fishers. I didn’t know that until after I booked with an online coupon. Serendipity, I guess. I’m taking a class tonight to get the basics down. There’s only so much I can learn from YouTube videos. I’m hoping that after I take the class, if it all goes well, I can buy some solo time to work once I figure out what I’m doing. You’ll still get both birds, and I’ll learn about glassblowing.”
“Sounds good. We plan to hit Harry’s office sometime this week, so keep your schedule fluid.”
“Me?” London asked.
“You’re the best driver around, baby,” Nikki said.
She nodded. Of course. Relegated to driver, as usual. Why she thought things would be different now, she had no idea. She checked the time. “I have to head out to get ready for my class tonight. I don’t know how long it’s going to take to drive out to the suburbs. It’s not like it’s right off the highway or anything, so I might end up lost.”
“I’m sure it won’t be that bad. You’ve been driving us through suburban streets for months. Let us know how it goes,” Audrey said with her head down scrolling through her tablet again.
As she left, she considered what she really wanted. Was it being a thief like Nikki? Not really. Being an artist was in her soul. Maybe she could manifest herself right into being a master glassblower and creating the tree topper would be easy.
She shook her head. Even she couldn’t convince herself of that lie. She only hoped that the instructor tonight was someone that she could bribe into letting her learn in the studio on her own.
That was a manifestation she could believe in because if Mia had taught her anything, it was that money makes things happen.
Bronte rushedthrough the studio straightening up and setting up extra fans, and propping the back door open, which was setting Ezra on edge. He shot his sister a dirty look.
“I know you don’t mind this place feeling a little like Hades, but we have our first class tonight and most people aren’t used to hanging out in heat like this.”
“They want to play with melted glass, but the heat’s gonna bother them? Maybe they should stay at home.”
She huffed and rolled her eyes. “We have five people coming. That’s two hundred fifty dollars that we’re pulling in for a couple of hours of time.”
“Plus the cost of materials.”
“Which is negligible because we’re making paperweights. Come on, Ez. This is going to be a good move. And these five are coming in with coupons. Regular price is almost double that. I’m just easing us in to get some word of mouth going.”
“Whatever. Just keep them out of my way.”
“You said you’d do a demonstration.”
“I know. I’ll do a paperweight so they can see what it’s supposed to look like and then they can go home feeling like losers because theirs looks like shit.”
“Way to be positive. I’ll do most of the talking. Try to keep your snide comments to a minimum, okay?”
He grunted. With most people, a grunt or growl was enough to get them to move on and out of his way. Unfortunately, Bronte didn’t care. She bumped his arm and smiled up at him.
Sisters.
He turned away to continue working on the piece he woke up thinking about. He wanted layers of bright blue and clear glass curving up like a flame. This was his second attempt because the first started to look like he didn’t know what he was doing.
An hour later, he was on his third attempt when he heard Bronte talking to people and chatting about their families.
Here we go.He took a deep breath and did his best to remove his scowl. If this stupid class thing was going to make Bronte happy, the least he could do was not sabotage it.
A small group was following Bronte as she talked. Clearly, there were two couples who probably thought this was going to be some kind of romantic date. He swallowed a laugh.Let’s see how romantic they think it is when they’ve got sweat rolling everywhere.
In the back of the group, a single woman followed. She was tall and lean with long, light brown hair flowing past her shoulders. She wore a black tank top and jeans that looked like she’d been dipped in denim.