Page 98 of The Summer Swap

“Apparently so.”

Kristen rubbed her hands over her arms and turned back to Cecilia.

“When you discovered it, why didn’t you call me? Do you have any idea of the value? People have been asking.”

“You mean Jeff,” Cecilia said flatly. “Jeff has been asking.”

Kristen’s eyes widened and streaks of pink touched her cheeks. “What do you know about Jeff?”

“I know he has an extraordinary interest in this particular painting.”

“Is that surprising? Its value must be huge.”

“That isn’t why he’s interested. And no one outside this family is ever to know the painting is here, particularly not Jeff.”

Kristen shook her head, trying to clear it. “You have so many of Dad’s paintings that you display openly. What’s different about this one? If it’s from early in his career, then it has both interest and value. Why wouldn’t you want to share that with the world?”

Cecilia stared at the painting. She didn’t know where to start.

“I think I can answer that question.” Seth spoke quietly. “The reason your mother doesn’t want this painting out in the world is because it wasn’t painted by your father. It isn’t a Cameron Lapthorne.”

Kristen glanced at him with a frown. “Of course it is. Granted, it isn’t his usual style, but it’s an early work.” She pointed to the initials. “CL.”

Cecilia felt Seth’s arm settle around her shoulders.

“In this case CL isn’t Cameron Lapthorne.”

“But—”

“It’s Cecilia Lapthorne,” Seth said. “The Girl on the Shore wasn’t painted by your father. It was painted by your mother.”

19

Kristen

“We never intended to deceive anyone,” Cecilia said. “We were young. There was a competition locally. One of the galleries invited local artists to display one work in a summer exhibition.”

“This was the exhibition where Dad was discovered?” Kristen ignored the pastry that Todd had put in front of her. “Are you saying Dad submitted The Girl on the Shore? That doesn’t make sense. He must have had paintings of his own. Why submit yours?”

She’d taken a shower and changed into a cool linen dress. She felt tired, but slightly more human than she had when she’d arrived. And she was too captivated by the story unfolding to think about her own feelings right now. The questions were stacking up in her head. She wanted to know why Lily was here. She wanted to know what was happening between her and Todd (she’d seen the way their fingers had brushed and the way they looked at each other), and she wanted to know more about Seth.

But first she needed to know more about this painting and the secrets her parents had been keeping.

How was it that the people closest to you were sometimes the ones it turned out you knew least about?

“He didn’t submit it,” her mother said. “I did. And there was a mix-up. The initials were CL. The gallery thought it was Cameron’s. It was a big exhibition. They were dealing with a large number of paintings.”

Kristen was struggling to absorb it. “But when they made the mistake, why didn’t you correct them?”

“We didn’t know about it. We dropped off the paintings and went back to doing what we were doing, which was mostly painting and doing up Dune Cottage, which had been sadly neglected. We went back to the gallery two weeks later for the opening night of the exhibition, and the award presentation and that was when they announced Cameron as the winner. When we realized which painting had won, we were completely thrown. We didn’t know what to do, and there was no opportunity for reflection. There were photographers and people wanting to interview him and see more of his work—it was crazy. Impossible to describe.” Cecilia shook her head. “Suddenly he was the focus of all this fuss and attention and we couldn’t find the right time to tell them that it wasn’t his painting. It would have created so much complication. You’re probably thinking it would have been easy to just tell them they’d made a mistake, but at the time it didn’t feel easy. We were trapped in the moment. I don’t expect anyone to understand.”

“I understand,” Todd said. “Sometimes circumstances force you to make an on-the-spot decision that you later regret. It happens.”

Kristen glanced at her son. Was he talking about his engagement to Amelie? They’d get to that later. Right now, her focus was her mother.

“Exactly.” Cecilia sent Todd a look of gratitude. “Anyway, the whole thing spiraled. An important gallery owner from Boston asked to see more of his paintings, so Cameron showed him his work. It took off from there.”

Kristen thought about The Girl on the Shore. “But his work was so different from yours. They didn’t question it?”

---