The Other Side - J. D. Robb [116]
He loved the feel of aged wood in his hands. It wasn’t just the grain and texture, but the history. It pleased him to think about the tree it had once been and the men who had helped to cut it, plane it, sand it. This particular wood had come from a supplier he knew and trusted, who had assured him that it had once been a wall of an ancient abbey.
Holding up the medallion, he was pleased to note that it perfectly mirrored the medallions carved into the marble fireplace surround. He’d drawn one to scale and had used that as a template for the others. He had a feeling that his client would welcome this special touch on her cabinets.
His client.
He was particularly pleased that she left him alone with his work and never tried to engage him in conversation. Even though they were essentially working in the same room, the plastic sheeting gave each of them a sense of privacy. That’s what he liked most about this job. He didn’t have to interact with other people. They left him alone to create something with his own two hands, with wood and tools, without ever having to talk to people except in passing. And the work kept him from thinking about what he’d lost and would never be able to regain in this lifetime. It was too painful, too heart-wrenching. There were times when he felt like an open, bloody wound that would never heal.
Jake was so absorbed in his work he wasn’t even aware at first of the little boy who had sidled up beside him. It wasn’t until the boy reached for a medallion and began turning it over and over in his hands that Jake noticed the movement. Seeing the way the boy was studying the wood, Jake smiled.
“You like it?”
The boy took no notice of him.
Instead of being annoyed by his brush-off, Jake was enormously pleased. It would seem that this was another family member who knew how to allow a man his privacy.
Jake turned away, like the boy, lost in his own thoughts.
“Any other questions?” Christina sat at her desk and gazed into the camera on her computer monitor, studying the faces of the men and women in her advertising agency who’d been part of the computer-generated conference call.
“I think we’ve covered everything.” Amy Morrow, her executive assistant, smiled at the oversized flat-screen monitor mounted on the wall of the agency’s conference room.
“It’s plain to me that you have all given this latest campaign a great deal of thought, and it shows. When I decided to spend more time here, my chief concern was that you might think I was letting you and the company down.” Christina cleared her throat and swallowed the lump that was threatening. “Dad always bragged that he had the best team in the advertising business. He was right. You’ve all been amazing.”
Bright smiles broke out on all the faces as the camera panned the group.
“Thank you. All of you. I’ll be in touch tomorrow. Same time.” As Christina exited the program, she sat back and swiveled her chair to stare out the window.
When she’d composed herself, she pushed away from her desk and got to her feet.
As she crossed the room, she couldn’t resist pausing at the flap in the plastic sheeting. Curious to see how the work was progressing, she stepped inside.
The first thing she saw was Tyler, wielding a hammer, pounding nails crookedly into a piece of wood.
Catching sight of her in the doorway, Jake paused in his work. “Your son?”
She shook her head. “My little brother.”
Jake didn’t know why her response pleased him. “Doesn’t talk. But he seemed interested in what I was doing, so I thought I’d let him try his hand at it.”
“Thank you. That’s kind of you. Tyler rarely shows an