Page 45 of Billionaire Unexplained: Kaleb

We’d finally hit the area where items were laid out for the auction.

Millie’s painting was on a stand in the middle of the auction area, with other items laid out on various tables around it.

The painting was larger than the one I owned, and I decided immediately that I had to have it. I hadn’t gotten outside that much at the cabin after the storm had cleared, but I’d immediately recognized the small valley and some of the trees I’d seen before Kaleb and I had hopped into his helicopter.

“Bluebells In The Valley,” I said as I read the title of the work. “I’d say that’s pretty appropriate.”

The valley was lush and green, dotted liberally with so many bluebells that it was absolutely breathtaking.

No wonder Kaleb’s mother and father had loved their retreat so much. Gazing at the picture made me wish I’d been at the cabin when the bluebells were blooming.

“I’m bidding,” I told him.

“Don’t,” Kaleb said in a low voice. “I always win my mother’s paintings every year. How do you think I got the ones hanging in my house? I’ll gift this one to you if you want it. There’s no sense in us trying to outbid each other.”

“I’ll pay you the winning bid price,” I insisted.

“Not happening,” he said gruffly. “Take it as a gift or we’re getting in a bidding war. And I guarantee that I can afford to outbid you.”

I whacked him on the arm playfully. “Why do you have to be so stubborn?”

He grinned at me, and my heart tripped. He looked so gorgeous in jeans and that damn T-shirt that lovingly hugged his muscular body. “I come by my stubbornness honestly,” he told me in an amused tone. “You’ve met my mother, and my father was just as ornery when he had his mind set on something. And I have my mind set on gifting that painting to you right now.”

I gave up because I recognized that stubborn look on his face.

“Thank you,” I said sincerely. “It would be the most amazing gift I’ve ever received.”

He nodded, obviously satisfied that he’d gotten his way, and we moved on, perusing the other items.

“It feels so strange to be normal like this,” I confessed as I fingered a beautiful scarf that was handmade. “Doing normal things.”

“You’re pretty damn good at being a normal person,” Kaleb told me. “Nobody has even questioned your identity.”

“I didn’t grow up a pop star,” I reminded him. “I was just a weird girl who liked music and didn’t socialize well with most of my classmates. I told you once that I was always different. I never really fit in well in school. I had friends, but they were different people like me. I wasn’t good at sports, and I never tried out for cheerleading. All I really wanted to do was play the piano. I was constantly composing music in my head, even as a child. My mind was always somewhere else, and most kids my age thought I was peculiar.”

“You are,” Kaleb teased. “But only in the best of ways. You’re unique, Anna, and you’re talented. I think I’d rather stand out as peculiar than to follow the herd. But I get it. When you’re a kid, you just want to fit in.”

“I fit in better as an adult,” I told him. “A lot of musicians are a little eccentric.”

“Like Devon?” Kaleb asked drily.

“He’s really talented,” I said to Kaleb honestly. “He plays the guitar like a professional, and he’s really creative musically.”

Kaleb’s brothers had dropped by last night, and Devon and I had ended up in the music room after he’d offered to help me with feedback on a song I was writing.

He’d picked up a guitar and sat next to me while I was playing the song on the piano. We’d finally worked out the parts together that weren’t quite coming together for me.

“He was a lot like you in school,” Kaleb commented. “If he hadn’t been so interested in business, I think he might have majored in music in college.”

“He certainly has the capability to be a professional musician.”

“Just like Tanner could have been an artist and made a good living at it,” Kaleb said thoughtfully.

“And you could have been a furniture maker,” I observed. “But you all ended up being powerful tycoons instead. Sometimes it’s strange how much our lives are forever impacted by our choices when we’re younger. I don’t think I ever realized just how different my life would turn out when I decided to cut that record in Los Angeles. Now that I look back on it, that was a really pivotal decision. I’m not sure where I’d be if I hadn’t done that. I’d definitely still be playing the piano, but I have no idea where Juilliard would have sent me after that.”

“You said you have no regrets,” Kaleb pointed out.

I shook my head as we walked together back toward the food booths. “I don’t really,” I answered. “I’d do the same thing all over again if I had the choice, but that doesn’t mean I don’t miss being a regular person sometimes. If I did have to do it all over again, I think I would lean more toward writing pop music than actually performing on huge tours. I’ve written songs for other artists, and it’s something I love doing. I’ve never needed to perform a song I wrote myself to feel like I’ve accomplished something. It’s the creative process I love, and then hearing it come to life. That’s why I do what I do.”

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