Each day goes by rather smoothly. We have tourist in and out of the shop and sale several pieces. On the two days that the men show up in a suit, I kinda have an idea who they might be, so I just make my way to the back without making a commotion. On Friday, I kept feeling like someone was watching me but no one was in the shop. By lunch time, I walk up to Ember holding my stomach.

"I'm starving, do you want me to go over to the café to grab us a bite to eat?"

"I can go. What do you want?"

I roll my eyes back at him. I have a feeling that I will never ever be able to go anywhere in this town without him. I let out a small sigh before telling him, "Anything will do, I am starving here. Do you want me to lock up while you are gone?"

"No, I should only be gone for a few minutes. You should be fine for a little while." He looks up and gives me a quick wink. Yeah, he trusts me enough to be left alone in the store but not enough to go across the street.

He leaves out the front door and I watch him walk across the street to the café. A young couple comes in to look around. The woman starts looking at the smaller glass ornaments that we have hanging from an artificial tree. "Excuse me, I'm looking for something like this for a friend but do you happen to have it in blue."

The little dragonfly was one of my favorite pieces. I look around the tree thinking one might be hiding in there somewhere but there wasn't. "I'm sorry we only the green and this orange one. Ember will be back shortly and he can make you one."

She makes a disappointed face, while looking back at the guy she was with. "We don't have a lot of time." He in return shrugs his shoulders without saying anything. 

I really wanted to make a sale to prove to Ember and my pa that I can be of some help. If I didn't have it, I knew that I could easily make it if she didn't mind waiting. "These are pretty easy to make, I can easily make one in about an hour if you want to look around the town and then come back."

"Really...that would be so nice of you." She beams.

I pick out the right colors of shades of clear, purple, blue and black and make my way to the torch. Pa always let us practice with the smaller pieces when we were younger and I was always pretty good at making dragonflies, butterflies, bees and other little things. I'm in the middle of the tail, when I hear the door ding. I don't bother looking up because I assume it was Ember bringing back some much-needed food. Normally he would be yapping about something but for some reason the room seems oddly quiet. I glance up and the guy from the other day is staring right at me. I notice his eyes right off; how green they were almost like green sapphire.

I attempt to swallow the lump in the back of my throat. "Can I get you anything sir?" I ask quickly while looking back down to work on the dragonfly. I swear I felt his eyes baring into my soul. I wanted to look back up but I force myself to keep my eyes on the tail.

"I didn't realize you worked here now. That looks interesting; what are you making?" His voice his deep but sounds so sincere like he really wants to know what I am making.

My voice comes out just a pitch above a whisper. "A dragonfly. Was you coming back for a piece that you had in mind?"

He lets out a small sigh that had a little laugh at the end. "I would like to get your number if that is possible. I can't stop thinking about you from the other day."

I suddenly felt my cheeks heat up. "I don't have a number," I say quickly. And it is the truth, pa says there is no reason for us to have one of those and besides deep in the mountains it's not like you would get any service anyway.

"Ouch...can I at least have your name then, so that I can match it to that pretty face of yours."

I shake my head. These guys will do anything to get to know you. Heck he will probably even be gone in no time so why even bother. "Why do you need my name?" I ask without looking up at him. "I'm sure you will be leaving by the end of next week."

He pauses for a moment while playing with the rack close to him. "I'm actually staying for a while." He slowly glances up at me. "Come on, won't you at least tell me your name."

I was just about to when I hear my name from behind him. "Aura, I hope you like the sandwich I picked out for y..." I hear him stop in his tracks. "Hi sir, how may I help you?"

"I was just looking around at these little pieces. I think my mom might like one." He tells him but doesn't take his eyes off of me.

Ember walks around the counter and sees what I am doing but ask anyway. "What are you doing?"

I shrug my shoulders. "There was a couple that came in wanting a blue dragonfly she insisted that I get started on it. They will be back in about an hour to pick it up."

He looks over at the piece. I was waiting on him to make a comment about how it looked but he smiled back at me. "You are so much like him. He shows you a few times and you just pick it up like it is nothing. Looks good, Aura. When you're finished you can have the sandwich, I got you."

The corner of lips forms a slight smile. "Thanks." I can't recall a time that Ember actually made any good comments about my work. He always said that I had something wrong with it. It made me almost forget all about the guy standing on the other side of the counter, until he said something.

"So, your name is Aura." He says with a smile. "That's really pretty. So, are you two like a couple or something?"

We both look at each other and burst out laughing. Then Ember replies back to him. "No, she just helps out here at times. Is there anything I can help you with?"

He looks around and back at Ember realizing that he wasn't about to leave me alone. "I will just take this little yellow bumble bee."

Ember wraps it up and gets his money for the item. The guy places the rest of the change in the jar by the register that some customers give us for tips for watching us make pieces in the shop. I notice the quietness again and glance up at him. He nods his head and winks before leaving. When he gets to the door he turns around. "It was nice to meet you, Aura." And he was out the door before I could reply back.

I was hoping that Ember wouldn't say a word but I was wrong. "Who the heck was that?"

"I have no idea." Which was the truth. I didn't want to tell him that he had helped me the other day in the alley way. And apparently, he didn't remember him from the other day when he had followed me into the shop. I never asked the guy his name, so I wasn't really lying. I really didn't know who he was.

"I'm not sure I like him coming in here and asking about your name."

"Well, I didn't give it out to him. You did when you came in the door with the sandwich. By the way, I am starving so you should finish this piece for me."

Ember shakes his head and lets out a huff. "I don't think so. Once you start it, you got to finish it." That was something else that our pa would always say. You can't start a piece and not finish it because our way of doing it is not like the other. So needless to say, I had to finish making the dragonfly.

About an hour later I was just finishing it up when the couple walked back in. The woman was thrilled and smiled with delight. "Oh my...it is spectacular. You are amazing." She was even nice enough to pay in cash and gave me a really nice tip.

After they left, I held up the crisp extra twenty dollars in front of Ember. "I can't believe she gave me an extra twenty, wow would you look at that." I smile ear to ear.

"Yeah, well it did look really good. You did a great job with it. Maybe I need you up here more often." He tosses me my sandwich. "Here you need to eat."

I catch it and unwrap it. I was so hungry that I didn't even bother to see what all was on it. At the moment though, it wouldn't have really even mattered. I ate every single bit of it. While eating a few more people came into the shop and left. Ember took care of everyone. A part of me kept hoping that I might see the guy walk by the shop again. But I didn't see him again and I knew he wouldn't come back in considering Ember was back.

As it got darker outside, we start to close up the shop. I help with everything that needed to be done and the ride home was nice and quiet. No sooner than we walked in the door, Ember was running his mouth to ma and pa about my dragonfly. "Ya'll should have seen it. The lady that bought it was so excited; what did she say...oh yes that it was spectacular. She even gave Aura a nice tip."

"Oh really, a nice tip you say." Pa looked over at me and then back at Ember.

"Yes twenty dollars, can you believe it?" He kept talking with excitement.

"Wow must have been really good. So why were you making something?"

I looked up at Ember while biting my bottom lip. Pa said I could go help at the store; he never said I could actually make anything. I was about to tell him but Ember got to it before I did. "Well, we were hungry and I walked across to the café to get us something. It was just for a few minutes and when I got back, she was already working on it. Pa seriously it looked really good, you would have been proud of her."

"I am proud of my girl. It's just we talked about helping out in the store, not making things. But apparently since it was so good, I guess it will be alright for both of you to make pieces. Maybe we can get more sold."

"True, and it would help some days when we are super busy."

"Ok...then it is settled then. Aura you may go with Ember more and help out with the cleaning and making piece. However, I still what him to deal with certain customers that will be coming in to get the items that I send with you. I also don't want anyone know that you two are related do you understand. These men are not nice people and I don't want you involved. Do you understand?"

"Yes pa, I understand."

The rest of supper we all talked about our day. I was so glad that Ember never brought up the guy in the store that wanted to know my name. They guy who said my name out loud. I kept replaying it in my mind the way my name left his lips. I'm not sure why I like the way he said it, but I did.