Little Girls and Puppy Dog Tales
 

Chapter 2



 

“Hi, I’m Justin Taylor and welcome to Edna’s Treasures!” Justin said with a bright smile. He had seen Celeste and Sam walk up to the front door. They looked as nervous as he felt although he wasn’t all that sure why he was nervous. Celeste and Sam were responding to Bree’s invitation, not the other way around.

Justin immediately stuck his hand out toward Celeste and then to Sam. Sam was a bit scary, tall and bulky with muscles like Ben and Drew but wider. He looked like he knew how to throw his muscle around. Celeste was just as Justin remembered her, blonde, pretty and petite with big blue eyes.

“Please come in; I’ll give you the tour,” Justin quickly added. He stepped aside to allow their guests into the main room of his cottage. Celeste shyly smiled as she followed Justin while Sam politely loomed behind her. Justin got the feeling that Sam was used to “looming,” using his bulk to intimidate. A handy skill when one was a police detective by trade.

It worked because Justin was quickly losing confidence in his deodorant.

“This is lovely,” Celeste exclaimed as she took a quick glance around the living room. “Oh!” she gasped when she spied the portraits over the fireplace. “Is that a JAB Kinney?” she asked as she stepped up to examine the large portrait more carefully.

“Yes, it is,” Justin confirmed. “It was part of a large collection of paintings found in my brother-in-law’s mother’s cottage.”

“I remember reading about it,” Celeste said as she looked at the other two paintings that bordered the larger one. “But I was a kid back then and what did I know from art,” Celeste said with a shrug of her shoulders.

Justin nodded. He was a kid back then too, but art was his life. So much was going on in his life when the paintings were found. When the Andersons were found. When Brian found the remains of this cottage and John transformed it. Justin mentally shook himself then went on to explain the other paintings that bordered the larger one.

“When Sidney Bloom of the Bloom Gallery in Pittsburgh had the Kinney paintings evaluated he discovered some unfinished canvases. Actually some hidden work.”

“Hidden?” Sam asked as he stepped up to the fireplace to get a better look. He was no expert but being a detective, Sam liked a good mystery.

“As you can imagine, artists’ materials are expensive. They call us “starving” for a reason. A tube of paint can cost more than thirty dollars depending on the quality and color. Same goes for brushes and canvas. Sometimes your decision on what to paint comes from what supplies you have on hand. I’ve always been lucky, but Kinney didn’t have that luxury. Like most artists, he reused canvases. One in particular had a sketch under the final piece. We found a partially completed sketch of Kinney’s lover, Patrick. Sidney had this idea for me to finish it.

“So he gave me a copy of the x-ray,” Justin explained the process.

“X-ray?” Celeste asked. “I use x-rays all the time to help me diagnose my patients.

“X-rays can be useful when trying to find forgeries,” Sam added.

Justin nodded. “They’re also helpful in finding the painting or sketch under the painting. With canvas so expensive, it made sense for the artist to reuse it when he wasn’t satisfied with a final product. You just scrape off the paint and start again but enough of the original is left behind to get an image. That’s how we discovered Patrick. Sidney transferred the image to another canvas and I finished the portrait.”

"And the other?” Celeste asked. “That’s you, not Patrick, although there is a strong familiar resemblance.”

“Yes, after some research and the discovery of a South American branch to my family, we found that Patrick and I do share a few genes,” Justin said with a blush. “Brian asked me to do a self portrait. Sort of me as Patrick.”

“It is quite amazing,” Celeste said as she stared up at the triad of paintings. “You know you haven’t aged since we first met,” Celeste murmured as she gazed at Justin. The filtered light in the living room surrounded Justin, making him radiate with youth.

“Neither have you,” Justin replied with a warm smile. With his skilled eyes, he could picture Bree in about twenty years time, still blond with her deep violet blue soulful eyes, and ageless.

“What is it?” Celeste noted Justin’s expression.

“I just saw Bree as an adult and she’s quite beautiful, just like her mother,” Justin whispered with a slight hitch in his voice. He glanced away for a moment. A part of him wished that Brian would come in and make things right. Just like Brian always did. Justin gave himself a good shake; he could do this.

“Tea? Coffee?” Justin showed Sam and Celeste into the kitchen. There was a basket of Emmett’s best muffins waiting for them.

 

*****
 

“Hey Squirt,” Brian called out as he approached the Wendy house.

Lucie was resting nearby while her pups were playing. Four of Lucie’s pups were slated for adoption. The lane inhabitants all agreed on keeping one male puppy to be the next generation of Beau. That left one puppy yet to be claimed, Juan. The little handful had yet to find someone who would love him.

“Hey, Dada,” Bree replied. Brian smirked. Almost from the time Bree began to talk, she picked up the boys’ habit of saying “hey.”

Brian approached the front door of the Wendy. Bree was just inside, sitting on a child sized chair, grey bunny in her lap. Brian scrunched down slightly to fit through the door then found a stool. He sat for a moment to consider his next words.

“Celeste and her husband Sam are here.”

“I know, Dada, Uncle John told me.”

“Don’t you think you should be inside greeting them? You are the one who invited them,” Brian stated reasonably.

“I know but I’m not ready yet,” Bree whispered as she looked down and hugged grey bunny closer.

“You can’t hide forever, Squirt,” Brian informed her. Bree seemed to contemplate her father’s words.

“Can I hide for a little while until I am ready?” Bree asked, her little face getting brighter than the forlorn look she had been sporting.

“Come on,” Brian said as he stood. He extended his hand, waiting for Bree to take it. “I think your father is going to give Celeste and Sam a tour of the lane. We have to be careful and stay out of sight,” Brian said with a wink.

“Like spies?” Bree caught on.

“Yes, like spies. We’ll have to keep our eyes on our target but not be seen at the same time so we’ll have to work together.”

“A partnership.”

“Exactly.”

“Dada, you’re tall, so you can be the look-out.”

“What will you be doing while I’m looking-out?”

“Figuring out our next moves.”

“So you’re the brains of our partnership.”

“Of course, Dada. I’m the girl!”

“Of course, why didn’t I think of that?” Brian said as he popped himself in the forehead making Bree giggle. “All right, General Squirt, what’s our next move?” Brian asked as he saluted.

“Daddy will show them the cottage and then the sun porch,” Bree said as she squinted and rubbed her chin.

“Where do you think they’ll go next?” Brian asked.

“The logical answer is...”

“The gardens,” Bree and Brian said together.

“Which means, we can either go to the stream to hide out for a while or...”

“The greenhouse,” they said.

“We need to go while they’re still inside,” Brian said quietly as he peered out the front door of the Wendy house. “The coast is clear,” he said motioning with his hand for Bree to get ready to run. “We can cut through the back of the yard close to the trees then travel low to the ground until we get to the arbor path. That should give us plenty of cover until we get inside the greenhouse. We should be safe there for about an hour.”

“Can we go now, Dada?”

Brian was on his toes keeping an eye for any movement in the sun porch. “What’s the hurry?” Brian popped his head back into the playhouse.

“I have to go to the bathroom,” Bree whispered.

“Ah. Okay, ready?” Bree nodded as she held grey bunny in one hand and Brian’s hand in the other. Brian peered out one more time. “Go!” he said as they both skirted around the side of the playhouse toward the trees.

They followed the tree line until it got close to the back of the greenhouse near the koi pond. They bent low as they crept toward the arbor. Using the arbor for cover, they snuck into the greenhouse unobserved. Once inside, they relaxed a bit, smiling with satisfaction at each other until Bree made a beeline for the bathroom.

 

*****
 

“And this is the sun porch. I use it as my studio,” Justin explained as he pointed up. He had several paintings hanging from the rafters. “And it’s our dining room and sometimes a family room as well as the bridge between the two cottages,” Justin said with pride.

“Yeah, about that,” Sam began as he looked at all the glass surrounding them and then out the door toward the garden. “Wow,” he said as he stepped toward the door, momentarily distracted.

“Not to pry but what’s up with the two cottages?” Sam asked bluntly. Celeste recognized her husband was entering into detective mode. She just shook her head from somewhere behind him and apologetically shrugged at Justin. Justin gave a slight nod of understanding; he too had experience with a blunt unapologetic spouse.

“Many years ago we found a book belonging to Brian’s father,” Justin began with the abridged version of finding the Anderson’s. “Hidden in that book were several documents that led us to John Anderson and his mother Claire. We then discovered that John and Brian are half brothers although to look at them you’d think they were twins. They quickly became very close and found they had several things in common.

“Brian found this cottage and had John renovate it for me,” Justin explained with a blush to his cheeks. “After a while we missed being near John and his partner Bobby. We had John literally move the cottage he was living in with Bobby to here.”

Justin pointed to the Anderson-Morrison side of the sun porch.

“John had already built the sun porch for my studio; he extended it so that the cottages connected. We live together but maintain the two separate households.”

“Don’t you find that weird?” Sam asked.

“Not really, I guess I’m used to it. Although it can get a little lonely out here...” Justin’s tone turned to a whisper as a realization came over him. He rubbed the small scar on his temple.

“What is it?” Celeste gently asked.

“I just realized something,” Justin replied. Celeste smiled, encouraging Justin to go on. It was that smile Celeste used on her patients to reassure them. “Sometimes the outside world gets a little too complicated, so Brian created a place where we can just breathe and not worry about what others think about us.”

Celeste seemed to understand but...

“So Justin, when are we going to meet Briana?” Sam abruptly asked as he crossed his arms across his chest.

“Um, soon,” Justin said as he showed them into the gardens. While they were wandering among the flowers Justin pulled out his phone to call Brian.

“This garden is magnificent,” Celeste gushed. Justin quickly shoved his phone back into his pocket.

“Thank you. It’s all Brian and Bree’s doing. The only way for me to have a green thumb is for me to paint my thumb green," Justin admitted.

“Bree likes to garden?” Celeste asked.

“Yes she does. Almost before she could walk Brian had her out here with him as he gardened. She’d be in her stroller as he planted or on his back in a carrier while he raked. When she started walking, he got her her own little tools and they’ve been doing the gardening ever since.”

“This is amazing. I admit I don’t have much of a green thumb either but my older sister does. She loves her plants and herbs.”

“Brian grows herbs in the greenhouse as well as many tropical plants. We’ll go see them,” Justin said. He was about to guide Celeste and Sam to the arbor path to the greenhouse when Bobby came outside. While Celeste was distracted by a clump of tall mums, Justin pulled Bobby aside.

"Where are they?" Justin asked Bobby.

"Hiding in the greenhouse while Bree works up the nerve to meet Celeste," Bobby said. "Brian called me," Bobby further explained.

"They better show up soon, I'm running out of things to say. And I was just about to take them there."

"Yeah, well, don't. I called Rachel; she said to bring them over for coffee. She wants to meet Celeste," Bobby said with a little smile. Justin understood. Rachel and Celeste had something in common.

Just then Celeste and Sam came back.

“Hi!” Bobby said cheerfully. “I’m Bobby Morrison and welcome to Edna’s Treasures.”
 

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