Luke grinned when the subject of compensation came up. In all honesty, he probably would've done it for free, since it was a fun job and he got to be with his mother, but he'd brought it up before and if he was getting money for it, so much the better. There was no way he'd turn it down. "Long as I'm not paying taxes on it, I'm happy." Luke responded, grinning. "And I'd be grateful if you didn't charge me for all those diapers." Or the meals. Or the clothes.
let the roller hover over the pan a few seconds so the majority of the drops would fall before picking a section of wall and beginning to meticulously apply paint to it. Painting a room was obviously a completely different skill set than painting on a canvas, but Luke didn't really mind. He still got to be surrounded by the smell of paint, which he loved, even if it was pink. At least it wasn't the most horrendous shade it could've been. No one but five-year-old girls (and... maybe Mao) would step into it if Lily had decided on something brighter.
He'd rolled about three strokes before his mother's odd tone made him turn around, his eyebrows raised. Luke might not have been the smartest kid when it came to school, but that didn't mean that he wasn't perceptive, at least when it came to certain things. Like, for example, the state of his parents' relationship. Luke had never been his father's biggest fan in the first place, but their relationship had entered a sharp, steady decline around the point where his mother had begun to show signs of her unhappiness. His heart quickened as she spoke, and he brought the paint roller back to its tray, setting it down there for a moment as he began to circle the studio, clearly looking for something.
"Mom, hang on. Where is it?" he asked, his back to her as he spoke, opening an old gym back.