Page 40 of Another Girl Lost

“Wait until you get to know me.”

He laughed. “What’s the biggest challenge when you’re painting a portrait?”

Felt good to switch to a safer topic. “Getting the expression right is always tricky. The goal isn’t to just re-create a person’s face but to show who they are on the inside.”

“How do you do that?”

“I talk to them. Ask for ten favorite candid pictures of them.”

“Candid photos?”

“They can be shockingly accurate.” Maybe that was why I was never satisfied with Della’s portrait. I didn’t know the real person behind the mask.

The cheese and fruit board arrived, and I was relieved to have something to occupy us for a few minutes. The food was good. This restaurant was now on Luke’s Favorites list. Havarti cheese rocks.Blah, blah, blah.The platter bought me about ten minutes of mindless conversation, which I suspected Luke was also using to evaluate me. I understood he liked what he saw.

And I liked what I saw. But I had no idea what to do next.

I glanced out the window as a couple walked past arm in arm. Another loving couple. Shit. Were they everywhere?

A splash of red caught my attention, and I looked out the window. A woman wearing a red coat walked toward me on the sidewalk. She was the woman from the gym.

She looked up, her gaze meeting mine, and for a moment the eyes trapped me. I’d seen those eyes before. Not only in the gym today but also in Tanner’s van and basement room. I’d been trying for a decade to re-create those eyes. Della. She was no look-alike. She was the real deal.

My pulse quickened, and my stomach soured. Twice in one day. There was no way I was wrong about this woman.

“Everything all right?” Luke asked.

I rose so quickly, the table shifted, my wineglass tipped, and it would have fallen if Luke hadn’t caught it. Fumbling in my purse fora twenty-dollar bill, I stood. “I’m sorry. I need to go. I see someone outside.” I tossed the money on the table.

“Are you sure you’re okay?”

A sour taste settled in my mouth. “I’m fine.”

I hurried through the restaurant, bumping into a couple of patrons and nearly knocking into a waitress sporting a platter of drinks.

Outside, heavy, humid air rushed my lungs. The crowds on the street had thickened, and Della had vanished again. I hurried to the corner and looked left and right, but there was no sign of her. How the hell had she vanished so quickly?

A hand touched my elbow, and I whirled around to see Luke. His gaze was a mixture of curiosity, apprehension, and maybe some annoyance. “What’s going on?”

I carefully pulled my elbow from his grip. “I’m sorry. I saw someone I thought I knew.” Shit. I scanned the street again but there was no sign of Della. “I’m sorry.”

“Don’t be sorry.” He stepped toward me in a way that felt possessive, or maybe it was just concern.

When he reached out for my hand, I stepped back. “I can’t.”

“What’s wrong?”

As first dates went, this one wasn’t the worst, but it was in the bottom three. “Just rattled. Luke, thank you, but I need to go.”

“This doesn’t have to end now.”

“It does. I’m sorry.” Before he could speak again, I turned and hurried around the corner. I followed sidewalk after sidewalk down darkening roads until I found myself facing a dead-end alley near my warehouse. I heard a man talking to himself and saw shadows move toward me.

I rushed to my warehouse front door, unlocked the dead bolts and secondary locks on the metal screen door. Inside, I slammed the doors and closed my eyes. My breath came so quickly I thought I’d hyperventilate. I slid to the floor and buried my face in my hands.

“Della, why are you back?”

Chapter Eleven

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