Page 60 of Sheriff's City Girl

“I’d love to see your room,” I said to her, gesturing that I would follow her. I found her attitude welcoming, rather than I’m too cool for this, and as I followed her down the hallway, I found myself relaxing.

“I redid it last summer, and Dad let me paint it whatever color I wanted. I love to paint, so I actually did a mural on one of the walls. My dad is really good at art, but he won’t admit it,” she added, looking back at me and laughing. “You should try and convince him to paint a picture of you. He did one of me when I was a baby. I’ll show it to you.”

I nodded, following her through the door into her room. I caught my breath as I took in the detailed mountain mural painted on the wall behind her log framed bed. “Oh my goodness… This is absolutely amazing.” The crests of the mountains were shaded with white, and the trees were detailed beyond anything I had imagined for a sixteen-year-old. “You’re incredibly talented.”

“Thanks,” she beamed before grabbing an eight by ten frame from the top of her matching dresser. “Here’s the picture that my dad painted.”

I took the wooden frame from her and scrutinized the painting of baby Jess with her big blue eyes and dark hair. She had a bright one tooth smile, and it was as if it was a photograph—that’s how detailed it was.

“It’s really good, huh?” Jess urged as I found myself lost in the portrait.

“Oh yes,” I agreed, my heart swelling at the sight of Jess as a baby on top of everything—would my baby favor her? I blinked back the emotions and handed her the picture back. “It’s clear where you got your talent from.”

“Thank you,” she said softly, her eyes sparkling under the light. “Cody never pays any attention to my art—he says it’s nerdy.”

“Well, that’s not very kind of him, first of all, but also, he’s insane not to recognize the talent you have. You deserve someone that sees all of you.”

She nodded, letting out a sigh. “You’re right. I don’t really know if I still wanna be with him to be honest.” Jess looked up at me, meeting my eyes. “He never shuts up about how much money his dad has, and how he’s gonna own the whole town. He doesn’t care about anything but himself.”

“Sometimes people are just… selfish,” I said, trying to choose my words carefully. I didn’t want to say anything that might cause her to feel like I don’t support her. Being a teenager was such a fragile time in someone’s life—and I wanted to tread lightly with her.

“Yeah, they really are,” she agreed, before shrugging her shoulders. “Maybe he’ll grow out of it one day, but I don’t have high hopes for him.”

“Dinner!” Mason called from the dining room.

“Coming!” Jess replied, grabbing my hand and leading me out of her bedroom. “Hopefully you like it. Dara is coming over to study for a test tomorrow in like an hour, so we have to eat fast.”

I chuckled as I let her lead me to the table, meeting Mason’s curious gaze as we entered the dining room. “She showed me that portrait you painted of her when she was a baby,” I said to him.

Mason raised his brows. “Really? I haven’t painted in a long time. I don’t have a lot of time for it.”

“Or maybe you just don’t have any inspiration,” Jess said, sitting down and grabbing up her fork. “I think you need a new muse… Someone like?—”

“That’s enough,” he cut her off, his cheeks growing a slight shade of crimson. “We don’t have to play matchmaker tonight.”

Jess shot him a dirty look, but then looked down at her plate. “I like Emma.”

I smiled to myself but dropped my head to hide it.

“Well, I happen to like her, too. Maybe more than you,” Mason said to Jess. “But we don’t have to make it awkward for her.”

“Good point,” Jess laughed before turning to me. “Sorry for making things awkward for you. We keep doing that.”

I waved her off, cutting into the pork chop. “Well, I don’t mind. A little awkwardness isn’t so bad.”

“Good to know that’s how you feel, because things are always a little awkward with us, I think,” Mason laughed.

We spent the next forty-five minutes eating and laughing—mostly about unimportant things. Jess told me about her strange art teacher, her class work, and where she wants to go to college. Mason didn’t really talk much, spending it talking about Jess and the things she’s interested in. It was… nice.

The three of us worked together to clean up the dinner that Mason prepared, and by the time that Dara burst through the door of the cabin, we had finished all of the dishes, having put them away.

“Whoa!” Dara said when she saw me, her eyes going wide. “I was not expecting you to be here.”

Jess rolled her eyes but smiled anyway. “I told you she was coming tonight.”

“Did you? Because all you said was that your potential new mom was coming over tonight,” Dara teased her, and I pretended not to really hear.

“Shut up,” Jess mouthed.

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