other restoration experts might think she was being excessively precious with her paint process, but this was the way she’d learned to do it, and she was determined to do the best.
“The paint is my favorite part, but I do all the restorations for these buildings. I have a team that helps me with brickwork, windows, ripping out carpet, and updating all materials and lighting fixtures inside, to start.” They were contractors she hired job per job, though she was going to need to bring them on full time when her big job began next year.
He listened intently, and then followed her from the office as she locked the door behind them. They walked in companionable silence to the theater, except for the constant buzzing of Liam’s phone.
He kept checking it and typing something back, again and again, until the companionable silence felt more like she was a third wheel to a conversation she couldn’t be a part of.
“Work?” she finally asked.
“Yeah,” he said absently. “Technically, I’m on a leave of absence, but I found a loophole this morning.”
“A loophole?”
“The manager in Albuquerque is new and has no idea that his contact person for the time being is Fiona. I reached out to see how things are going, and we’ve been messaging ever since.”
“You’re like an addict,” she told him.
“Hmmm?” he asked, distracted.
She let out a short, annoyed breath. “We’re here.”
He paused typing on his phone to stare up at the building. “It’s kind of creepy.”
“In a good way, though.”
He lifted a skeptical brow. “Is there a good way to be creepy?”
“Yes, and that doll is it.”
She followed his gaze through the display window, deep into the theater, where the top of the doll’s head could be seen.
“Uh, I hadn’t seen the doll head before. That’s worse.” He shuddered.
“Did the doll come with the sale of the building?” Viola asked as he removed a key from his pocket and unlocked the door.
“Everything inside is mine now,” he replied. “I actually haven’t been in the building yet.”
“Too freaked out to come in by yourself?” she teased.
He tapped his nose like she got it exactly right, and she laughed.
Dust motes danced in the light coming in from the few uncovered windows, and a thick layer of grayish dust covered the green, velvet curtains pushed to the side of the front windows.
“A bit of a fixer-upper,” Liam said.
The ticket counter was chipped, a pile of left-behind tickets still sitting in an open drawer. An old, black register—missing several keys—was open and empty. They walked into the lobby, where Viola turned in a circle and gasped. The murals and the hand-written movie quotes on the wall were stunning. She’d completely forgotten that this was here, but her mind caught on an image of her young self being awed by the vibrant walls. It was like a treasure in and of itself. It had all faded over time, leaving everything muted and grayish.
“It sad to see it like this,” she murmured, tracing her finger on one of the cracked words on the wall. “It used to be so vibrant and full of life.”
When Liam didn’t reply, she turned to him and found that he was typing on his phone again. Anger rushed through her. It reminded her of Hawaii, bringing back all those feelings of being abandoned.
She pushed past him to head into one of the two theater rooms. She walked reverently toward the doll, which sat like a lone child in a theater chair, staring toward an empty screen. The doll had brown, braided hair, a blue calico dress, and a few hairline cracks on her face and arms.
Viola turned from her, fighting the shivers that wanted to erupt on her arms. She counted the velvet chairs instead—eighty—and walked toward the long, dusty curtain at the front of the room. She pulled it aside to reveal a movie screen. When she turned toward the back of the room, she spotted the projector up high.
Scuffling behind her told her that Liam had come into the room too.
“Incredible, isn’t it.”
“Hmmm,” he replied, still distracted by his texting.
A burst of hot anger rushed through her. Before she could think too much about it, she snagged his phone straight out of his hands.
“Viola?” He blinked as though coming out of a trance. She marched over to an open vent and dropped it in, both of them hearing the clanking as it traveled all the way down the duct toward the basement.
The anger cooled in an instant, as the