According to Design

by Nicole Dennis

  “Hey, did that umm—” Wyatt flushed. “Shit.”

  “Are you asking if I saw the cutie Keegan again?”

  “Shit.” Wyatt tapped his boot against the nearest machine.

  With a soft laugh at his embarrassment, Mari shook her head. “Sorry, boss, haven’t seen him, but I do like him. He’s quite different from Ethan.”

  Wyatt’s face flushed. He knew damn well it wasn’t due to the heat pouring from the forge.

  “Go talk to your brother, Wyatt.”

  With a grumble and mumble about needing to stop embarrassing himself, he wondered how he lost track of his days. He grabbed the bottle and headed to the back of the workroom. An interior spiral iron staircase led up to the second floor as a different access point to the small apartments upstairs. He’d managed to create an office in the space behind it to keep his mess and grime away from the beauty and grace of the gallery. Also, Mari would kick his ass if he dared to bring his disaster anywhere near her side of the wall, as she put it. Often.

  He dropped into an ancient leather chair with a groan as his body let him know of its various aches and pains. It wasn’t anything unknown to him from working with the stubborn hard-core materials. He picked up the phone. “Hey, bro, how is everything?”

  “Tired from seeing the endless highways,” Warren said, shouting over the car’s radio and breeze. “Got you on speaker phone.”

  “Hey, everyone,” Wyatt said.

  “You forgot, didn’t you, Wyatt? Lost in a design?” Warren’s wife, Julia, teased.

  “You know me too well, Jules,” Wyatt said. “Where are you?”

  “We crossed into Florida and we’re on our way to Pensacola. We should be in town in another two or three hours depending on traffic,” Warren said.

  “Wait…” Wyatt waved a hand, although his brother couldn’t see it. He tugged over one each of many drawing pads and pencils and started doodling while talking. “You guys are already on your way to drop Collin off. What about the whole calling me before you left?”

  “We did. I left several messages on your cell,” Warren said.

  “I added a few texts,” Julia said with a soft laugh.

  “You know I never answer the darn thing when I’m busy in the shop.”

  “Are you in the shop all hours of the night and day?”

  “When I’m working on a commission, yeah,” Wyatt said as he shrugged and altered the doodle of his family’s faces. “You know how I can get.”

  “Wyatt, are you sure you want to take care of Collin for us?” Warren asked.

  “Dad,” Colin whined in the background. “I’m not a damn puppy. I’m a teenager and can handle myself. Uncle Wyatt doesn’t have to babysit me every minute of the day.” In a higher tone, Collin called out, “Hi, Uncle Wyatt!”

  Wyatt chuckled while he doodled Collin as a fluffy puppy. He held back more laughter since his teenage nephew wouldn’t see it. “Hi, Collin. Yes, we can get along together just fine, Warren, and I’ll make sure to leave the studio to give him attention. He can also join me here to do his homework and stuff. We’ll figure it out together.”

  “Okay, and sorry you didn’t know sooner.”

  “It’s all right. My fault. When will you get here?”

  “We’ll be in Shore Breeze within three hours. Where do you want to meet?” Warren asked, getting control of the conversation again.

  “My home. Call me when you hit the bridge. I’ll clean up and meet you guys there.”

  “I’ll make sure to call the gallery so Marissa finds you,” Warren teased. “What would you do without her?”

  “Scare away any potential clients and never sell a damn thing. I’ll be one of those poor, starving artists. See you guys soon.”

  “Talk soon.”

  Wyatt hung up and leaned back to take longer sips of water. He checked out the crazy doodles and laughed at the adorable Collin puppy. “It’s so fluffy,” he said in the teasing matter like the line in the movie Despicable Me. He rose and headed toward the hallway separating the workshop from the gallery. At Marissa’s office, he knocked when he heard her on the phone.

  Marissa held up a finger as she continued her conversation. “Yes, Mr. Johnson-Schmidt, I’ll make sure to hold the Eagle in Flight sculpture for you. Would you like to pay as you did before and I can have it shipped to your home?” She waited and smiled. “That sounds wonderful and thank you again for all of your support in Fire Glass. I’ll call you once I make all the shipping arrangements. Goodbye, Mr. Johnson-Schmidt.” She spun her chair several times after she hung up. “I got him! Took a couple of days, but I got him.”

  “It was the eagle sculpture Johnson-Schmidt wanted, right? How many times has he looked at it?”

  “Four. Two on his last trip to Breeze with his husband.”

  “Was this Johnson or Schmidt?”

  “Johnson. He’s the art connoisseur of the two while Schmidt is the money. Either way, they’re an awesome couple to work with whenever there are new pieces.”

  “Does he have any wishes for something else?”

  “Several and some are in great detail.” Marissa stopped spinning and typed something on her computer. She printed out a few pages, stapled then handed them to Wyatt. “Here’s his last email.”

  Wyatt leaned forward to take the printed email. “I’ll take a look and see what I come up with. After all they did to support the gallery, I don’t want to disappoint him if he requests something special.” Wyatt scanned the pages. “I can do some of these. Damn, these are good ideas.”

  “What did you come in for?”

  “My family is on their way to drop off Collin. Warren is gonna call when they hit the bridge. Just let him know you told me and make sure I leave the shop.” Wyatt gestured to his obviously messy appearance. “I gotta clean myself before they arrive and get to my place.”

  “Will do.”

  “Is everything ready for Collin?”

  “I finished decorating his room last week. I exchanged several emails and different chat sessions with Collin to make sure I got what he liked.”

  “School? Supplies?”

  “Thanks to Julia, we applied and transferred all of Collin’s records to the high school. We finished the guardianship papers you signed. Everything is approved. Collin will start as a late transfer student. Since it’s only a couple of months into the new school year, he wouldn’t have missed much and the teachers will accommodate him. I found the list of supplies for his different classes and purchased everything he needs.”

  Impressed as hell with Marissa’s thoroughness and dedication, Wyatt smiled. “Damn, Mari, what would I do without you?”

  “Stay locked in your workshop and be another poor starving artist. Now get outta here before you mess up my office. Shoo,” Marissa said, waving her hands.

  Unable to resist the chance to tease her, he rushed toward her with his grimy arms open to hear her squeal. He took off before she could toss anything at his head.

  Less than an hour later, Marissa yelled at him to move his ass. He raced home. By the time he’d finished showering and had picked up around the house, Wyatt stepped outside to greet his family. They parked their Explorer stuffed to the gills with Collin’s belongings. When Warren got out, Wyatt tugged him into a hard bear hug.

  “Damn, I missed you, brother,” Wyatt said.

  “Miss you too, little brother. Gonna be worse when we’re out of the country,” Warren said.

  Wyatt backed away and shrugged. “That’s what email, messaging, and all those nifty social places on the Internet are for. I got Collin to show me the way. Speaking of the little devil.”

  As Wyatt spoke with Warren, a gangly teenager with dark green eyes and pale blond hair cut in soft layers, stepped around the SUV. He wore a faded gray hoodie, worn jeans, a pair of scuffed Chucks, and blue Beats headphones around his neck.

  “Holy shit, when did you stretch out like a beanpole?” The thin youth had blossomed into a beautiful young man, a defini
te heartbreaker.

  “Please, Uncle Wyatt. Not the pole thing,” Collin said. “I’m built up to play soccer so I’m not that scrawny.”

  With a chuckle, Wyatt reached out one of his hands then dragged Collin into a tight embrace. “Hey, bud, how are you doing?”

  The typical teenager expression disappeared from Collin’s face. “Hey, Uncle Wyatt,” Collin said. They squished each other before moving back. He adjusted the headphones around his neck and slid a hand into the kangaroo pocket. He pulled out a matching iPod then turned off the pulsing music. He glanced up at Wyatt and shrugged. “Doing okay. I guess.”

  “You guess? What do you mean you guess? Hey, bud, you agreed to go along with all this.”

  “I know. Had a good soccer team back at the old school and I would have been on the varsity squad, even as a freshman, if I didn’t transfer. I didn’t wanna say bye to my friends. I’ve done this mid-year transfer stuff and it sucks. Stuff is hitting me about the drastic change and shit.” Collin’s head snapped forward from his dad’s well-placed hand. “Ow.”

  “Language,” Warren said.

  “Yes, sir.” Collin cleared his throat and shoved his hands in his pockets.

  Warren shook his head and glanced at Wyatt. “Make sure you have a swear jar for him. Clean up his language.”

  Wyatt snorted and winked surreptitiously at his nephew.

  “You were going to say something, Collin,” his father urged.

  Collin shifted from one foot to the other. “Sorry, Uncle Wyatt. Thanks for letting me stay here.”

  “Couldn’t let all of my family disappear on me,” Wyatt said, not sure how he would handle a sullen teenager. He hoped the sunnier side of Collin’s nature would return with some time. He smiled and gently took Julia, his sister-in-law, in his arms for a kiss and hug. “Hi, sweetie. Have you managed to tame this grumpy bear?”

  Julia chuckled while she hugged him back. “You know that’s impossible.”

  With a wicked grin, Wyatt escorted his family inside.

  “Can I check out my new room?” Collin asked.

  “Sure. Go ahead. Marissa set you up in the guest room opposite mine. We can fix anything you don’t like,” Wyatt said.

  Collin raced off to the bedroom.

  “Okay. I didn’t think things would be like this. I’m not sure how to handle these odd shifts of moods. I thought he would miss you two, but be his usual self. The accepting sweet-natured kid who went with the flow.” Wyatt sat down with Warren and Julia in the living room. “What happened?”

  “He’s a teenager, Wyatt. He’s been going back and forth for the last few days,” Julia said. She returned to the living room. She glanced over her shoulder. “I see your addiction to sketch pads and drawing pencils hasn’t let up one bit. There’s a stack of five pads on the coffee table.”

  “They’re all different sizes and paper types,” Wyatt said, explaining away his addiction.

  Julia lifted an eyebrow.

  “What? I’m an artist,” Wyatt said. “Gotta draw when the muse hits. It’s the way I flow.”

  Julia looked to her husband.

  “Can’t help you, hon. He’s done that since we were kids,” Warren admitted.

  Julia shook her head and laughed.

  Wyatt flushed. “So, what’s going on with him? The crazy attitude.”

  Julia sighed and exchanged glances with her husband.

  “I believe he doesn’t want to leave America,” Warren said. He grasped his wife’s hand while they shared a quiet moment between them. “He didn’t want to leave his soccer team and band of friends. He was hoping to get on the high school team as a goalie, but with the transfer, he didn’t bother to try out and it’s too late for him to get on a team here. The attitude needs some adjustment, I know, but it’s hard on a kid born to a military family. As he said, this isn’t the first time we moved in the middle of a school year.” Warren glanced at his wife again and sighed.

  “You can’t blame yourself for following your dreams and what you love,” Wyatt said.

  “I know. We brought him into this world, knowing I wasn’t planning on leaving the military. Our boy never asked for this,” Warren said on a long sigh. “Julia and I were used to moving around thanks to my different deployments before he came along. I hope he’ll get used to the feeling that he’s not leaving in a couple of years and can settle in, find friends, and do what he wants with his life.”

  “I’m sure he will.”

  “Want me to have a talk with him?”

  “No. No, I want to see how he deals with stuff. Let him get situated and attending classes for a few weeks. I’ll handle things with him if it gets bad. We’ll see where we stand.”

  “Are you sure?”

  Wyatt nodded. “We’ll figure out how to live with one another. We’re in this together.” He leaned back on the sofa to look down the hallway and back to his brother. “Why did you decide to accept this one?”

  “They required someone of my caliber. I put in the request with my superior—this will be my last deployment and then I’ll retire.”

  “Wow! That’s a change.”

  “Not having to be active military will be hard, but I’ve earned it. Collin will be away in college. Julia and I can travel as we wanted, other than to different bases, and settle somewhere we want,” Warren said, placing a hand on Julia’s knee. “Plus I’ve been promising the last couple of years I would retire.”

  “We’re thinking of settling here in Shore Breeze or across the bridge in Pensacola. I would love to move here. There’s a peacefulness to this wonderful town,” Julia said.

  Wyatt puffed up his chest in a teasing fashion. “And it doesn’t help that I’m here.”

  Warren and Julia laughed.

  As they continued to talk, Wyatt caught sight of Collin walking away from the hallway, back to his bedroom.

  “Am I the only one over there?” Collin asked.

  “On that side, yup. It’s your place and another room with the bathroom in between. My room is on the other side of the house.”

  “So you don’t mind if I crank my music?”

  “Since I do the same in the workshop, nope. Not unless I’m trying to watch TV, but we’ll talk about it. Same thing with using the PlayStation and Xbox systems.”

  “Right.”

  “Does your new pad meet with your approval?” Wyatt asked.

  “Yeah. Marissa did an awesome job. I saw the stack of supplies on the desk,” Collin said as he leaned over the back of the sofa near Wyatt.

  “She said you’re all signed up at the high school, got a schedule and everything, so she could hunt down the supplies.”

  “At least she found them. School’s been in session for over a month, right?” Collin said.

  “Almost two since Florida starts in mid-August.”

  “Ugh. Wish I could have started the same day, but at least this is better than the last semester or something. Those really suck big time.”

  “So. You ready to become a freshman in a new place, pal?”

  “I can handle it. Not like I haven’t dealt with ten other schools since I started,” Collin said with a glance at his parents. He pulled in his lower lip to nibble on it for a second. ”What about gay students? Are they accepted?”

  “There’s an active LGBT student group, a zero tolerance for bullying both in person or electronically, and the entire town is LGBT friendly. One of the reasons why I love living here. You’re going to love the craziness of Pride Week. This place gets jam-packed.”

  “Awesome.”

  “Wanna go get your things? Let’s move you in. Then we can grab something to eat,” Wyatt said as he rolled off the sofa.

  “Is Southern Delights open?” Collin asked.

  “They’re doing construction on the entire area. It’s getting a facelift. I can call to see if they’re open for dinner. If not, we can find somewhere else.”

  “I really like that place,” Collin said.

  “Son, you�
��re living here. You’ll enjoy it more often,” Warren teased. He rose and rubbed his hand through Collin’s hair. “Come on. Let’s get your stuff out of the car.”

  “Trying to get rid of me? Huh. I see. That’s how it is. Get rid of the kid. Parents are footloose, worry free and ready to party.” Collin wrestled around with his father as they raced around outside.

  Wyatt and Julia followed, laughing.

  Chapter Three

  It took a couple of weeks for Wyatt and Collin to settle into a pattern of school and work. Grief still hit Wyatt at odd times and threw him out of whack. Sometimes he spiraled down into the darkness, ignoring daily stuff and at times concern for his nephew. He hated how his depression could overwhelm him, but he refused to be on medication. His art always helped him. It was easier for him to throw chunks of clay at a board than take a pill.

  Collin tried to reach him, but Wyatt couldn’t connect with his nephew. He knew he let things slide with him, relying even more on Marissa to help with Collin. Underneath the depression, Wyatt hurt at the thought of letting his nephew down. Especially after things had started so promisingly between them.

  Wyatt leaned back against the table, clad in his usual layers of protection, and studied the massive structure coming together. He’d separated it into two parts in order to make sure he could safely deliver the finished piece to the high school and install it. He might need to split it into thirds, but that was an issue to be figured out at a later point. Right now, he needed to bend, shape and color the steel plating to give the dolphin and waves skin. This was where he would bring the dolphin to life.

  He pulled over a new sheet of steel then draped it over the board. Once he’d adjusted the different designs around the table, he located the wave pattern. He planned on layering them for depth and movement. It was a repetitive piece and could be cut at the same time to increase his productivity. He located the next cut-out, which would give him a general idea of the size and shape. Using the tracing paper as the template, he followed the outline with the black Sharpie. He continued until five more shapes were grouped together on the same piece.

  With a sharp nod to drop the welding face shield, he fired up the plasma cutter, blinked at the bright light, and cut along the outer edge of the line with some give for the steel to bend and curve. At the same time, knowing the classic U2 song by heart, he sang the lyrics.