January 3rd 2020

Chapter 3
Their House of Colors

"Is that Dot?"

Lucas had been coming back up into the attic after grabbing some supplies from downstairs when he heard Maya's voice from within.

"What?" he asked. She turned from where she stood, paint roller brandished at her side like a staff and staring out the window. She pointed with her other hand, which was dotted with paint stains.

"That's her truck, isn't it?" Lucas moved to stand with her and spotted the vehicle coming along. From up here they could see a good length of the lane leading up to their house, and by now it was nearly to the turn into the space next to where his car was parked.

"Yeah…" he blinked, setting his things down and moving back toward the steps. Maya wasn't far behind. They made it all the way out the door, finding Dot along with all three of her kids climbing out of the truck. "Hey!" Lucas greeted them. They turned and waved as he and Maya jogged down the front steps to join them. "We weren't expecting you…" Lucas looked from his aunt to his cousins and back to Maya.

"Surprises, you know," Emmett Jr. smirked.

"For us?" Maya asked, which sounded almost beside the point, because who else…

"Well…" Dot looked to her nephew, and suddenly he knew exactly why they were here. He didn't know how else to look except stunned. She was done? He looked to the truck. They couldn't see what was inside, but… "I was talking with your mom last night, and she mentioned how the two of you would be up here today, so what better time?"

It was meant to be Dot's wedding present, as suggested by Lucas months ago. Of course, he and Maya weren't married yet, and seeing as they hadn't so much as set a date yet, there was no telling when that would change. But then no matter when that would come to pass, they would have moved into the house already by that time. What sat in the back of the truck just now… well, it was a focal point if ever there was one. It needed to go in sooner rather than later.

"Are you nearly done with the attic?" Alex cut in, getting a look from his sister for being overly direct.

"Actually, yeah," Maya answered him. "Why?" She was getting curious, Lucas could see, and for a moment he just wanted to bask in how cute she looked.

"Should we wait?" Dot asked Lucas.

"Wait for what?" Maya looked between the two of them like she really just wanted one of them to say something already.

"Come on, I'll explain upstairs," Lucas took her hand, leading her back toward the house before stopping and looking to his aunt again. "Give us twenty minutes?"

Back into the house they went, up the stairs and then up into the attic. They were nearly done, only had to do finishing touches, and then let it all dry and they'd be good to go. Over the past week, after the trio's arrival from Houston, Lucas and Maya had been going about doing some of the work they had left to do in the house, the things which had been left intentionally undone, so he could do them with her. The attic was the most involved room they had to tackle, so they did it last. This had started with flooring and now today they had been painting… They might not have been able to set the gift in its final spot, but it could be brought in, assembled…

"You know stuff, tell me," Maya pointed at him. He held up his hands in 'surrender.'

"When Dot was here, to help restore the bedroom set, I told her what it was all for, the house…"

"The proposal," Maya smiled now, and he smiled back.

"Yeah. The bed frame and the dresser and all that, they were a wedding present to my grandparents, you know." She nodded. "Well… Dot and I got to talking, about something she might be able to do for us, for our wedding."

"Oh…" Maya blinked, starting to understand. Her smile brightened with curiosity. "Did she tell you what it was going to be?"

"Yeah, well, we sort of decided together. I asked if she could make something… for you." Maya stepped up at this, curiosity turned to appreciation.

"What did you do?"

"I did nothing, I just made a suggestion," Lucas smirked. Maya thought for a moment, looked around.

"Oh, it goes in here, doesn't it?" she asked. He nodded. "Okay, well come on, we have to finish," she tapped his arm and they got to work.

Ten minutes after they had gone up to the attic, they heard the light sound of Dora Cassidy's voice, asking if she could come up. When she was told that she could, she poked her head through the opening until she could see her cousin and his fiancée.

"Need a hand?"

"We're nearly done, it's alright," Lucas told her.

"Okay," she nodded and remained where she stood on the steps, giving off the impression that she might have come up here for a whole other purpose than to offer her assistance. "It looks nice here, I like the floor," she reached past the rails surrounding the opening in the attic floor and touched the wood. "White oak, nice…"

"Actually, we could use another…" Maya started to say, deciding to put the girl out of her misery, and before she could finish her sentence Dora was climbing the rest of the way to join them. Going off her clothes they could tell she'd come here with the intent of doing work which might lead to stains or rips. Her long hair had been pulled into a massive bun atop her head.

"What can I do?" she asked eagerly.

They really could have finished it just the two of them, and well in the time they'd said they would. But now, with Dora there to assist, they finished early, all the better for them to suss out what she really wanted, or at least to get her to say it. Both Maya and Lucas had a pretty good idea what this was about.

"Talked to Sam lately?" Maya casually asked as they were picking up everything that needed to be taken out of the attic. Dora turned to her, looking almost surprised. It was the first time Maya had acknowledged how she knew that her brother and Lucas' cousin had been in contact. She had officially discovered this connection on the night Lucas had proposed to her, though she had suspected it before, but as far as Dora knew, she'd had no idea.

"Yes… this morning," she finally admitted with a smile. "He told me how you were going to drive to Tucson to get him next week."

"We are, yeah," Lucas confirmed. For all those little traits of hers, which had seen her compared to some woodland creature for as long as he could remember, this shy side of his cousin's was a new one. The sixteen-year-old had always come off almost above nerves, but now Sam Hart had come into the picture and triggered whatever part of her was, at heart, a teenage girl.

"That's nice," Dora smiled and nodded, fingers twisting together.

"Dora?" Maya smiled back and the girl looked at her. "Would you like to come with us?"

"To… Tucson?" she asked, blinking.

"To Tucson," Lucas repeated with a nod.

"I… I need to ask my mom," she trailed off and back down the stairs. Once they couldn't hear her steps anymore, Maya looked to Lucas with a barely concealed laugh. It was impossible not to love Dora Cassidy. Sam sure knows that…

"Hormone police," Lucas whispered at her ear. Maya turned on him.

"Don't even," she pointed in his face, even as she went on laughing, leaning to him as he closed his arms around her. "We did pretty good up here, huh?" she asked, eyes scanning the room without moving from him.

"Now we just need to… get stuff up here," Lucas nodded.

"Including that mystery gift," Maya whispered.

"Patience," he whispered back.

In order to keep the surprise a surprise until the right moment, Lucas and Maya had been instructed to go off for an hour.

"Is it weird that I don't want to wash this off?" Maya asked, staring at her arms as she sat in the passenger seat. They were on their way to the diner for lunch, paint stains be damned… or praised, with how Maya took in the various colors on display over her arms. Some of them were from today, others from the day before, even the day before that. Lucas had written it off to her being tired at the end of the day, but now maybe it was just that she liked what she saw.

"Kind of suits you," Lucas decided as he looked over.

"It does, doesn't it?" Maya beamed. "We made some great choices."

"Now it just needs to look like a house…" Lucas breathed, thinking of all those boxes, from Houston and before, and furniture, and just all of their belongings, waiting to be arranged into what would be their home, for years and years to come.

"Almost there," Maya promised him.

When they returned from lunch, they were informed of two things. First, Dot was on board with letting Dora head into Tucson with Lucas and Maya. Second, they were still working on this mysterious surprise, but by now they were okay so that, while the attic remained off limits, the rest of the house was clear, so whatever needed doing could be done. They didn't actually have all that much left that could be done today, while paint dried here and there, but what could be done was done.

In mid-afternoon, Dot came to find them and announced that they were all done in the attic. With many thanks, Lucas' aunt and cousins were seen off to their truck, leaving the two on their own once again.

"Well…" Maya turned to Lucas with an expectant grin.

"Come on," he laughed, leading her toward the attic. "I'd tell you to close your eyes, but…" he pointed to the stepped ladder.

"Not a good idea, no," she agreed. "I just won't look up until you say so, yeah?" He went up first, though he decided not to look before her. He wanted to see it at the same time she did. When she climbed up, they came to stand together, eyes averted until finally, on a count of five, they looked across the attic floor to find Aunt Dot's gift.

The drawing desk was everything Lucas could have imagined and then some. He thought it was even better than the bedroom set, but then that was him. The true test would be found in Maya's opinion. The desk was for her.

He turned his head to look at her and found her in tears, happy ones, stunned, overwhelmed, joyful tears. She was speechless.

"I… I thought it might look great over there, in front of the back window?" he pointed with one hand, the other moving to loop with hers. "You can see so much out there…"

"Yeah… I love that," she finally spoke, nodding. She approached the desk with near reverence, taking in the details, the elements… Dot had really done fantastic work. She had done this piece with love, with someone very specific in mind. She had also furnished a proper stool to go along with it, and Maya sat there for a moment. Lucas could just see her working here, and she probably saw herself right now, too. Until she could do all that, she contented herself in looking back at him, knowing the role he'd played in bringing this desk into existence. That he would have thought of it, that he would have chosen for Dot's gift to be this… it was a hundred percent him, and she expected no less.

TO BE CONTINUED

See you tomorrow! - mooners