“You already took your vacation days to be here last month.”
Bri patted the seat next to her. “Tell me… What’re your plans for your big 5-0?”
Julie knew her daughter well enough to know she was hiding something but decided to give her space for now. She’d never been the meddling mother type, so she wouldn’t start now. “Don’t have any, really. Work, I guess.”
Bri huffed. “Mom, tell me you’re not spending all your time running that shop you don’t even like.” She shoved from the couch, causing Houdini to bolt from Julie’s lap and run up the shelves lining the room, where he liked to sit and watch everything from a perfect vantage point. “Let’s see what you’ve been working on. I’m always bragging about the amazing artist my mother is. Total creative type that I wish I could be.” Bri pointed to the back door that led to Julie’s office-turned-storage shed.
Houdini whined at the thought of being abandoned.
Wind rattled the mesh grates outside the old-style slat windows. She would’ve updated them years ago, but they were good at keeping out the bugs, especially the icky roaches, better than the modern screens. Besides, the greenish glass was artsy and vintage.
Bri paused at the hallway. “Come on. Show me what you’re working on.” She disappeared into the kitchen, causing Julie to hurry from the living room and Houdini to race undoubtedly to Julie’s bed to pout. A hint of anxiety whittled its way through her nerves. She’d lied to Bri to get her to return to work a few weeks ago, claiming she would be working on her art again and would be distracted. It had been the only way to free her daughter so she’d leave. She’d spent way too much time here since Joe’s passing three years ago.
“Wait, I don’t have anything finished.” She raced after her daughter, but by the time she’d caught up to Bri, she’d already entered the shed.
“What?” Bri turned in the center of the room, the only place left to move with Joe’s things stacked to the ceiling. “I don’t understand. You said you were working on pieces again, sculpting and putting together art, maybe even doing some sketching.”
Julie wanted to change the subject and quick. “I haven’t had time to clear out the shed. Honestly, I’m not sure what to do with all this stuff.” She braced for her daughter’s scolding about how Julie was stuck in the past and needed to live in the present, but to her relief, there was no reprimand.
Bri shrugged and smiled. “No worries. We can clear this out together and get your studio set up. It’ll be fun.”
Julie couldn’t hold in her question any longer. “Tell me the truth. What are you doing back here?”
The cry of a seagull above echoed through the shed, but Julie remained with her motherly staredown firmly planted on her daughter.
Bri ran a finger along the dust-covered camping lantern, leaving a clean trail. “I needed a break. I miss you, and I miss dad. I—I quit my job, and I’d like to come home for a while if you’ll have me.”
In that moment, Julie saw pain flash over her daughter’s face, something Bri would rarely allow Julie to see. Instead of further questions and drilling into her thirty-one-year-old daughter about wanting to give up her career and come home, she opened her arms and pulled Bri in for a hug. “Of course, darling. This is and will always be your home.”
They stood there in the old shed, Julie torn between the joy of her daughter’s return and the fear she would remain too long until she forgot who she was—a feeling Julie knew well. She wanted more for her daughter. It was her job to show Bri how well she was doing and lift up her daughter so that she could go back to her own life. For now, though, she’d give her some space until she was ready to talk about what had brought her home, beyond caring for her widowed mother.
Bri hugged her tight and then released her, turning away and eyeing the pile of old clothes in the corner. “We’ll start tomorrow so we can get this place ready for you to create again. I always love watching how you take crazy and make it beautiful.”
Julie froze. That was a saying she used to hear often years ago, but Bri wouldn’t know about that. She’d never met her childhood friends. Sure she knew about them and the mischievous activities of Julie’s youth with her BFFs, but she wouldn’t know that saying. A coincidence. It had to be. “Let’s go inside and get some dinner and chat about what’s going on in your life.”
Bri glanced around the space one more time. Julie knew she couldn’t get rid of anything, not now, not ever, not when it was all she had left of Joe and their lives together. But that was a problem for another day, so she flipped off the light and closed the door.
“Nice deflection, but okay, I’m game to focus on me for a few. I’ve got some news to tell you anyway.”
“What’s that?” Julie knew her daughter had been dating a boy for almost a year, but she had yet to meet him. Her daughter had sworn it was nothing serious, but perhaps something had changed. Bri had never even mentioned marriage, perhaps because Julie always warned her against getting married too young. Now that Bri was over thirty, Julie worried she’d warned her one too many times, but she’d always wanted more for her daughter than what she and Joe had together in their lives.
“Nope. Not now. Over dinner. Come on. It’s been forever since we’ve cooked. What shall it be? A soup made of anything we can find in the fridge and cabinet, or an anything taco?” Bri took Julie’s hand and guided her away from the
