How to Tame a Silver Fox novel · Chapter 31 of 32

Chapter 31: Tamed

The crate came at ten, on a flatbed, with two men in gloves and a clipboard that wanted my signature three times.

They set it in the middle of the studio floor, a plain pine box, nailed shut, with my mother's initial burned into the lid.

A single small C.

Arlen found a crowbar in the tool chest and held it out to me, handle first.

"Your door," he said.

I took it, and I did not use it right away.

The lid came up with a long shriek of nails.

Inside, packed in grey tissue gone soft with age, lay a small painting and an envelope with my name on it.

I lifted the canvas out.

It was a girl on a flight of stairs in a nightgown, nine years old.

Her knees were drawn up, and a silver locket hung from one hand.

The lid of the locket had a dent in it the shape of a thumbnail.

She was looking up the stairwell at someone just out of the frame, and she was laughing.

My mother had painted me the winter I dropped it, laughing.

I didn't remember her watching.

"Willa," Arlen said gently.

I opened the envelope.

There was one sheet inside, in her narrow slanting hand.

My darling girl, if the crate is open, you have your own door.

Kick it, it sticks. Make a mess.

Whoever you let in, make him earn the key. Love, C.

Arlen read it over my shoulder and turned slightly away, so I would not see his face.

I leaned the painting against the easel from the lobby and stood back to look.

Keep reading free with an account. Start How to Tame a Silver Fox from Chapter 1, then sign up free to read the rest of this chapter.