June 25th 2022
Chapter 176
Our Days of Colors
Had they been so stuck on the details, Lucas knew Ella would have made sure that every part of their irregular – but very devoted – routine could be observed. Would it have meant her driving from Houston down to Austin only to then get right back on the road for Houston again, this time with her father? Yes, and it would have felt like time they could have used for other things, but that wouldn't have stopped her. In the end though, both father and daughter had agreed that, as fun as their long rides together always were, it wouldn't be the part that really mattered on this day. So, they would settle for him picking her up from home. That would still give them some distance to drive, even if it wasn't all that long by comparison. They could easily make up for the rest once they were together.
"So, are you doing both today?" Ella asked about as soon as she was in the passenger seat, and her eager curiosity made Lucas laugh.
"That's the plan," he nodded. "Marianne wanted to come and watch," he went on. "I almost brought her, and I'm sure if I'd asked you wouldn't have minded," he explained, and Ella nodded to confirm it. "But it felt like I needed to… honor our thing. Who knows how many more of these we'll get?"
"Right," Ella smiled. "If it's any tattoo she wants to see, maybe Mom can take her whenever she goes, yeah?"
"That was part of the bargain," Lucas confirmed, making Ella laugh. That sounded like her sister alright.
It didn't seem so long ago that they were last here, him and her together, for the triplets. But now here they were again, on their way to introduce new ink on to themselves, this time in honor of one Mackenzie Abigail Friar. This would mean another small flower added to Ella's wrist, one more bird to Lucas' forearm, and then another portrait piece to join the ones he had, of Maya and Marianne, and Maya and triplets… This one of her and Mackenzie, like the last one, he had not seen yet, but this time, he had decided to take it one step further. He'd had two hours to think on his way to Houston, and of the many things he'd thought about, one of them had been that he wouldn't see the portrait piece, not until it had been completed and he could look down and see it on his arm. He didn't need to wonder what Maya would have come up with this time. Whatever it was, he knew he would love it as he did every other bit of her art he carried on his skin.
"You know, whenever you won't be adding any new ones on there, you could get Cheyenne to fill in the blanks around that area? Make it look like they're hanging on a wall," Ella teased as they waited their turn. Lucas looked down at his arm, then at her, and laughed along with her.
"I could see it," he finally nodded. In his head, he could hear Maya claiming that it would 'bring everything together.' "I guess we'll just have to wait and see."
"You guys still want more after…" Ella had to ask. Lucas considered her question. They hadn't exactly stopped and discussed it yet, but by now, after three pregnancies, five babies, six children… He guessed they were going to have to think about whether they would just keep letting whatever happened happen or if they would draw the line.
Before he could pronounce himself – which would have been slightly awkward, admittedly – Cheyenne came calling for Lucas. He would get his bird, then a break while Ella had her flower, which wouldn't take too long. Then it would be time for the mystery portrait.
Under the owl and nightingale of her parents and joining the two swans and three kingfishers of her sisters, Lucas would soon see his youngest daughter represented there as a jolly-looking little canary, and as small as she still was, not quite three months old at the moment, he thought it suited her very well. While he switched seats with Ella, he contemplated the new addition with a smile. If he was going to 'fill in the blanks' and make his portraits into a wall, then he might as well contemplate some kind of scene for his birds, too? It was all just a silly notion at this point, but it was one that amused him, so it was all that mattered.
"All done?" he asked when he looked up to find Ella returning to him. She presented him with her wrist, where the many flowers already there to represent herself, her daughter, her parents, her sisters, and Granny Lizzie, and the sleeping lamb in memory of Lambert, were joined by a fresh new daisy for Mackenzie.
"So can I see what Mom did, or do I have to wait until it's done, too?" Ella asked. Lucas stopped to think the question over.
"What do you think?" he turned the question on to her, and he watched her consider it over like she'd known he would say this and now the choice was hers.
"I guess it'd only be fair if I waited, too," she finally decided, tacking on a sigh that made Lucas grin, thinking how much he could feel that Maya was rubbing off on her. "I'll go sit over there so I don't see anything," she moved off, and Lucas returned to the chair.
While Cheyenne worked, he kept his head turned away, the better not to see what she was doing even as they kept talking. This afforded him a clear view to where Ella sat, waiting. It looked like she'd started off by looking at some of Cheyenne and the other artists' new displayed work before a text on her phone had taken her attention and kept it. She looked like she was writing back and forth with someone and, entirely clueless of whether or not anyone might be looking at her, whether they were in the room with her or on the other end of this conversation… she was smiling all the while. Lucas would say even she didn't see her smile as it was, but he certainly did, and unless someone else had entered the picture and they didn't know about it – which was extremely unlikely – then he had a good idea as to who it was that would get her smiling like that.
"There, you're done…" Cheyenne's words drew him back into his own reality, and he blinked as he realized that it was all over. "Hey, Ella, you can come now!" the artist called over, and Ella nodded at her and said she was coming even as she quickly continued texting for a few seconds before sticking her phone in her pocket and hurrying over. In the meantime, Lucas had already gotten up and started over to the mirror, where he might see the new addition to his upper arm.
The first of these showed Marianne's little baby hand resting over Maya's grown one. Then there were the triplets in their Michelle Day knitted bath towels, Kacey's with the bear hood, Remy's with the cat hood, and Lucy's with the rabbit hood, all held by their mother. And now, next to that portrait, there was this new one of Maya with Mackenzie in one arm, held to herself, even as her other hand was holding an open book, a dictionary. The page Maya was looking at, they could see by the angle, let them know that she was looking at words that began with 'Mac.' Lucas grinned, and Ella laughed. Yes, if they were going to do anything to recall where their minds were at with this one, all her nicknames were going to be it, weren't they? Maya had gone so far as to use this set up to hide Mackenzie's 366.
I love you, twenty-four hours a day, seven days a week, 365 days a year, 366 on leap years…
That was their code, Maya and Lucas, and it had been with them so long. In the first portrait, they'd snuck in a 732, to signify that the feeling went for both Maya and Marianne toward him. With the triplets, they'd hidden a 366 in each towel. For Mackenzie, all they'd had to do was sneak it there, inside the dictionary, as a page number. It was just what they'd needed, and Lucas and Ella soon left, satisfied and eager to share their new ink.
"So…" Lucas looked to his daughter as they sat across from one another. They'd stopped to eat together before he started back for Austin. Ella looked back at him, unsure what he was after. Lucas smiled. "How's Taylor?" he asked, and now she sat up, hesitating.
"Fine…" she slowly replied. Lucas tipped his head to the table, and she looked at where her phone rested. Now she understood; he'd seen her earlier. Not only had he seen her, but he'd known who she was writing… "He's going to be back in a few days, so he's packing for the summer, you know?" she went on, casual as ever.
"Exciting stuff," Lucas declared, taking a bite of his sandwich.
"Dad…" Ella gave him a look.
"Daughter?" he gave her one right back, and her expression struggled to remain as shielded as she had tried to make it. "You're happy that he's coming back for the summer," he stated, because that was one thing that demanded no secrecy.
"Of course, I am," Ella told him, and he nodded. "And then he's going back to Indiana," she went on, something that felt closer to that part of her mind that she was keeping guarded.
"And that's not so happy in Ella Land," Lucas added. She didn't look up at him specifically, mostly picked at her food, but he knew her whole attention was on him, and his words.
"It is what it is," she shrugged. "Three more years… at least." Three more years of her here and him there, and whatever either of them is feeling just… held hostage by circumstances.
"Would I be overstepping if I suggested a… scenario?" Lucas asked. She didn't say anything, so he went on. "I don't think you realized what it would do to you for him to go away like that, not until after he was gone. And the longer he's been away, the clearer it's become for you… and harder, too." Ella looked up at him now, her eyes suggesting that, while she'd never considered it that way, once he'd said it… He'd hit it right on the head. Now if only that could make things better.
"There's nothing I can do about it," she reminded him. "Even if I did say something to him, and he felt the same way, then what? I'm not about to move myself and Tori all the way to Indiana, and he can't leave all that and come back here for me, and us being in the same place is the only way we could really know if there's any…"
"He's going to be here this summer though," Lucas pointed out. "Would it be so crazy to think about giving it a shot?" Ella opened her mouth to reply but soon closed it again, letting out a sigh and looking back at her plate. It felt like too much, he got that. So many things could go wrong, and then what? "Look, forget I said anything, except… I don't know, just… All I want is for you to be happy. Whatever that looks like, I want to help." This made her smile, and she looked back up.
"I know you do, Dad. It means a lot." Now he smiled back. Subject dismissed, for now. They had a little time left before he started back for home, and he wanted to go see his granddaughter while he had the chance.
TO BE CONTINUED
See you tomorrow! - mooners
