***
After Victoria leaves, the kids announce that they’re going to spend some time in Lucas's room, helping him on a science project. Call it a sixth sense, but I immediately become suspicious. Possibly because Sienna and Lucas are exchanging guilty glances, and Chloe says science project with a self-confidence that tells me they rehearsed this, again.
"What kind of science project?" I inquire.
"You know, science stuff," Lucas says. Clearly, they weren't expecting me to question them.
"Buddy, my siblings and I invented the art of sneaking around. I know something's fishy here. Why don't you all fess up?"
"What's fess?" Chloe asks.
"Confess," Sienna and I say at the same time.
Lucas rubs the side of his neck, glancing at his older sister.
"Let's tell him," Sienna says. "Maybe he can help."
"What's going on?" I ask, already imagining worst-case scenarios. They're kids, goddamn it. How much trouble can they be? Well, if I look back at my own childhood, the answer is a lot.
"But it's our present," Chloe says.
Some of my paranoia vanishes at the word ‘present.’
Taking a deep breath, Sienna says, "We want to build a vanity table for Victoria."
“A what?” I ask blankly. "I didn't know she wanted one."
"A makeup table. We found some pictures of one in her office, and also some instructions on how to build one," Sienna explains.
"She didn't mention anything to me," I reply.
"To us either," Sienna says. "But ever since Mom and Dad passed away, she hasn't bought fancy stuff for herself. She buys us everything we need, but….”
I'm about to tell them that I'll gladly pay for a vanity table before building one when
Sienna continues. "I bought all the parts, and we have the instructions, but neither of us knows how to build stuff. Victoria told us you built the gazebo for your parents, so—"
"Let's get started.”
***
An hour later, we're knee-deep in glue, nails, and wood bits. We moved to the living room because Lucas's bedroom is too small for this ‘science project’. Sienna and I do most of the work, and I'd be twice as fast if I weren't looking at Lucas every few minutes, making sure he's not gluing together his own fingers or something. It was easy to find Chloe a job. I told her no gift is complete without a handmade card, and now she's furiously drawing one. But Lucas insisted he wanted to help, and gluing was the safest task I could find for him.
"How are we doing with the time?" I ask.
"Two hours to go until Victoria said she'll be back," Sienna replies, frowning in concentration.
"Okay. Plenty of time to finish this."
We focus on the vanity table for the next hour, exchanging instructions and trying not to mess anything up.
"Just so I'm prepared, do you guys want to build Victoria something for Christmas too?" I ask.
"We haven't thought about that yet," Sienna replies. "We still have two weeks." Chloe finishes her card, which she insists features a phoenix bird. All I see is a red mess. If I squint, it almost looks like a butterfly. But I smile and nod because I'm not a heartless bastard. Chloe proceeds to draw a second card—this one with unicorns—so Victoria can choose her favorite. Lucas has finished gluing everything there was to glue, so now he just hovers around, eyeing the hammer hopefully.
Nope. Not gonna happen. Not on my watch.
"Buddy, why don't you go outside and practice until Victoria comes back? Sienna and I have this covered."