September 24th 2022

Chapter 267
Our Season of Birds & Flowers

Lucas had watched her draw them for him. Last time… last year… he hadn't seen what Maya had made for him, hadn't known what she'd created until it was inked permanently to his arm. And it might have been the same this time around, except for the idea she'd had for Aubrey's portraits, both of them. In the past, they had always been unique, specific, to each of them and their relationships to their daughters, and she could have done something like that here, too. Except if she was to think of something impactful, to reflect this time early on in their youngest girl's life, there was no escaping the start of her life… right here, at home. So, she had drawn a memory shared between the three of them, the first night she'd spent in her own house, in her parents' room.

The last step before the two of them had gone to bed had been to put the baby in her crib, but oh, they hadn't wanted to let her go. This moment had been delayed for days, their getting to be home with her. So, they'd sort of sat on the bed with her for a while, one or the other holding her, but then also just laying her down on the mattress, between them. And that was what Maya had drawn. It started out as one larger drawing, showing the two of them, with the baby in the middle, Lucas' hand around her, Maya's hand cradling her head. The full image was sitting on his desk now, the original from which she'd then sketched their separate tattoos. The one that would end up on her arm would show the right side, with Aubrey and then Lucas, while the one he would have done on him that day, along with a second, smaller nightingale, showed the left side, with Maya and then Aubrey. The one thing that would show that they belonged to the same image, other than the identical rendering of their lucky girl, would be his hand and hers around her.

With his art just waiting to be handed to Cheyenne, he'd gone and asked Ella if she was ready to get her newest flower added to her wrist. She was in Austin with him, this time around, so unlike last time they would be driving out to Houston together, two hours for a bit of father-daughter time…

"Actually, would you mind if Taylor came with us?" Ella asked him, cranking on so much of a pleading look as she might have given them if she'd been their daughter as a child. "We've been talking about getting something done for us, so…"

"Of course, give him a call, I'll get Cheyenne," he showed his phone.

On the morning of their appointment, Lucas and Ella left the house and headed for the Munroes' to pick up Taylor. It was a strange position for Lucas to find himself, suddenly, wondering about one of his daughters' arrangements with her boyfriend. It was a special circumstance, with it being Ella, who was grown, sure, but she was no less one of his girls, and she had been dating Taylor for about five months now, and from a distance at that… He wasn't out there asking himself whether the two of them had yet to… As far as he'd been made aware, they had never spent the night in the same house, whether it was back in Houston or now that they'd come out to Austin. He'd been visiting his parents, and she'd been visiting hers. Would it matter if they'd taken this step in their relationship? To them, sure, but not to him, not in any way beyond what should matter, it was just… his daughter… and he wasn't used to that particular card being on the table. He wasn't going to be weird about it. If Taylor was to spend the night at their house, he would be welcome.

For now, he was simply joining them as they drove to see Cheyenne for their new ink. When they pulled up to the house, Taylor came quickly out to meet them, stopping at the open front passenger window where he greeted Ella with a good morning and a kiss before pulling back to tip a nod with his greeting to Lucas, sitting at the wheel. He climbed into the back, and they were off.

"So… Do you two know what you're getting done today? Other than your flower," he indicated Ella without taking his eyes from the road.

From what he'd seen, Taylor had already gotten a new tattoo before this, a frayed sort of band that came around his wrist, below his lamb. In the spirit of loved ones he'd lost, this one had been done in memory of his grandfather, a representation of his old watch. Taylor had inherited it as a child, when his father's father had passed on, and he had the actual watch in his parents' home safe. He could never bring himself to wear it. The thing was worn, old… But all those wears meant something to him, like they were a direct connection to the man he'd loved as a kid. Lucas knew how that felt, deeply so. Taylor had gotten the band done to stand for that watch.

"Well, it's only going to be half of it today," Ella told her father.

"Like… split down the middle between you two?" Lucas asked, pointing between them.

"No, not like that," Ella chuckled. "You'll see."

That was an intriguing promise already, so the best they could do was advance toward their destination. The ride was a split between Lucas asking after Taylor's team back in Indiana, how their season had gone, even as Taylor asked Lucas about the same with his team. Opening the door to basketball talk between the players could be a slippery slope, but Ella never aired any kind of annoyance or wish for a change of subject. If anything, she looked amused, seeing her father and boyfriend interacting in this way. There was also talk about upcoming plans for the summer that would involve all three of them, and that really took up as much time as the basketball talk… well, maybe a little less… It was a long drive, but it never felt that way. Soon, they were navigating through the streets of Houston, most familiar to Lucas but growing so for Ella, too.

She was halfway through now… two years done, two years to go before she and Lea would move back to Austin, barring any change of plans. It felt as though time was slipping them by faster and faster, but then that might also have had to do with the back to back babies. In this case, he would hardly protest, not if it meant his daughter and granddaughter being minutes away instead of hours. He was sure the same was on Ella's mind, for the family and for Taylor, too. They had far more than two hours between them, and they were bound to be looking forward to shrinking that distance down just as he was.

As he'd soon find, 'halfway there' was closer to explaining what Ella had meant about her tattoo with Taylor. On their forearms, there would soon be the outline of a compass. By the time they would be done with the identical pieces, they would show that it was only halfway colored in, two of the quadrants done. The plan was for them to get the third of these quadrants colored in the following summer, and then the last one the summer after that, when they would graduate, when they would come home. They both looked so pleased with the results, and once a new lily of the valley was added to Ella's flowers, for her new baby sister, she and Taylor sat waiting, looking at one another's forearms with great smiles.

In the meantime, it was Lucas' turn again. They'd had Cheyenne pretty booked up, between Taylor's one, Ella's two, and now his two, enough so that at some point they stopped for lunch, which they had delivered for the four of them. As they ate, they listened while Cheyenne spoke of her own tattoos, what they were for, who had done them for her… Her right leg below the knee was all the artists she had mentored over the years, which she was proudest of. It went a long way to show how she and Maya had bonded, both as artists and as teachers. Lucas had his bird done before they ate, his new little nightingale, matching the one that represented him, the very first tattoo he'd had done, sitting alongside the owl that represented Maya. Looking at it, he could still recall that night, at the house in Houston, when he'd spotted the doodle that Maya had done on her arm, the two birds traced finely with a marker. They hadn't set out to get these to become a permanent fixture on their skin, but then they had, and now, with two swans, three kingfishers, a canary, and a second nightingale to join them, they'd taken on a brand new meaning. He wouldn't have had it any other way.

He told Cheyenne about the portrait when she got it started, explaining the matching piece that Maya would get in time. The tattoo artist had not yet heard about the incident of Aubrey's birth, and she was floored to hear it, enough so that Lucas was glad the machine hadn't been buzzing at his skin when he told her. It was easier for Lucas to talk about it now without feeling like the bottom was dropping out of his stomach every time. Easier, not easy.

To him, sharing the story just now made the portrait even more special than it already would have been, be it for Cheyenne's work rendering it, or Maya's work capturing it… His lucky girl was now there, in the gallery of his arm, with her sisters, with her mother smiling upon her, and his own hand reaching in from out of frame. And she will likely be the last… It had been his choice, and Maya had supported it one hundred percent. Maybe they would change their mind later on, but just now, the thought of a third surprise pregnancy would only take him back to that hospital room, the sight of her seeming to fade away… He couldn't bear it. But he looked at his arm, which was getting to be a great sleeve of a tribute to his wife and daughters, and there could be absolutely no regrets on their having shut the door and turned the lock. They had the key if they ever changed their mind.

By now, going home on an 'ink day' meant being crowded around by several eager little girls, who all wanted to see the new things that had appeared on everyone's skin. To the smaller among them, it was like magic, a view possibly encouraged by parents who didn't want them thinking they could get one that would stay, too, not just yet. They looked at everything, the half-filled compasses, the lily of the valley, the nightingale, and the portrait. The triplets would point to the one of their mother and Mackenzie and tell the girl herself that this was her. The one-year-old would look at them like they were joking, like in her mind she would tell herself 'that's impossible, that's a baby, I'm not a baby.'

"Look, Aubrey, that's you!" Lucy had very nearly dragged her father by the hand until she could hold his arm for the baby to see. "And Mama, and some Daddy," she poked lightly at each of them. Was the baby, not even two months old, a bit too young to understand? Definitely. Did the way she moved her head just then come off to her big sister like a sign of 'ah, yes, I see it,' and make Lucy proudly smile? Absolutely.

TO BE CONTINUED


See you tomorrow! - mooners