Della fidgeted modestly. “Thank you. That means a lot, coming from you. Austin told me you’re an art teacher. Do you also show work as well?”
“Yes, though I haven’t had a lot of time to work on my practice lately. But I guess now that I’m out of a job, I can start painting again.”
“I didn’t realize you’d lost your job,” Della said sympathetically. “I assumed you were off for the summer, being a teacher and all.”
“I wish this was just a summer break,” she said glumly. “But the school where I worked was forced to lay off a lot of staff, and, well, you know the arts aren’t considered too important these days, so my department was the first to go.”
“That’s such a shame. I think the arts are extremely important.” Della donned a pensive look. “You know, I just remembered something… I was talking to Harriet Burns earlier this week—she’s the principal of Paradise’s elementary school. Anyway, she mentioned that one of her teachers had a terrible accident. Jessie Dawson, a real sweet woman, about your age, I think. She’s four months pregnant, and last week she fell down a flight of stairs and broke her leg.”
Mari gasped. “That’s awful. Did she lose the baby?”
“Oh no. Fortunately, the baby is fine. But she’s totally immobilized now. She was supposed to go on maternity leave in November, but Jessie and Harriet arranged for the leave to start now. But see, this leaves Harriet in a real bind.”
Mari was wondering where Della was going with all this, but Austin’s mother apparently liked to take her sweet time getting to the point. For some reason, though, Mari found the woman’s penchant for telling stories in excessive detail kind of charming.
“Every summer the school runs a day camp for the children,” Della went on. “Jessie is the head of the school’s art and drama department, and she was responsible for that aspect of the camp. Harriet is desperate to find someone to fill in. This might be overstepping, but I can check if she’s willing to meet with you.”
Dumbfounded, Mari stared at Austin’s mom. “You mean, for a job interview?”
“Yes. Of course, I don’t know any of the details—you’d have to discuss them with Harriet—but if you’re interested in staying in Paradise for the summer, it might be a nice opportunity for you. I’d help the camp out myself, but I don’t think I could keep up with those rowdy kids, not at my age.”
She rolled her eyes. “Oh pshaw, you can’t be a day over thirty-five.”
Della beamed at her. “I knew I liked you.”
Laughing, Mari reached for her lemonade and mulled over Della’s idea as she took a long sip. She would actually love to spend the summer in Paradise, and earning some money while she did it was definitely appealing. However, if she stuck around, she’d miss her interviews in Des Moines. Not only that, but she had no idea what Austin’s plans were. What if he didn’t intend on being here all summer?
On the other hand, what was the harm in meeting with Principal Harriet and hearing what she had to say?
“You know what, give her a call,” Mari decided. “It probably won’t amount to anything, but it can’t hurt to get some more details.”
“Wonderful! I’ll call her shortly.” Della’s eyes twinkled. “But first, I want to hear all about the road trip you took with my son.”
“It really wasn’t that exciting,” she admitted. “There was a lot of driving involved.”
When she glimpsed the disappointment in Della’s eyes, she realized that Della’s request had nothing to do with the trip itself—the woman simply wanted to hear about Austin.
Mari’s heart ached. God, Austin had totally shut Della out this last year, and the woman was probably desperate to feel any sort of connection with him, even if it was just a secondhand account of a silly trip through the Midwest.
“But,” Mari continued quickly, “I did discover that Austin absolutely sucks at car games.”
Della laughed in delight. “He was never a fan of games. He preferred playing sports. What games did you play?”
“Well, there was Family Feud, but the Fast Money round was a disaster, thanks to his ridiculous answers…”
For the next hour, Mari regaled Austin’s mother with random stories from the trip in great detail.
And knew without a doubt that she’d made Della Bishop’s day.
Several hours later, Mari walked into Nate and Charlotte’s living room and found Austin on the couch, watching TV with a grave expression.
“Holy shit, can you believe this?” he demanded when he spotted her.
She wrinkled her forehead. “Believe what?”
He glanced at her in surprise. “Haven’t you seen the news?”
“No. I was out all morning and—oh my gosh,” she blurted out when she glimpsed the images flashing on the television.
Sinking on the couch beside him, Mari gaped at the words scrolling along the bottom of the screen.
Tsunami devastates Malaysian coast. Thousands dead. Entire villages wiped out.