Page 49 of Blown

“But surely you must have some exciting new collection in process,” Jake pressed. “Your last new exhibit was last summer, wasn’t it?”

“It was,” Hélène said, narrowing her eyes at him.

“Undoubtedly, you have something new in process,” Jake went on. “Are you working on a conceptual piece or something more practical?”

“Jake,” Rafe hissed, his face pink with irritation.

“Is there a meaning behind these questions?” Hélène asked, sitting straighter and looking offended. “Are you making some sort of accusation?”

Jake nearly gasped in triumph. No one who was completely innocent reacted with so much offense to a simple question about their work.

His buzz was dampened a moment later when Rhys Hawthorne said, “Come on, Jake. There’s no need to give the woman a hard time.”

Just like that, Jake was back to feeling like a hunted animal in the crosshairs of someone’s family.

“I don’t understand why she can’t answer the question,” he said. “Unless she has no ideas of her own and has come looking for them somewhere else.”

“What are you saying?” Hélène snapped. She brushed crumbs from her lap and stood. “Are you making accusations?”

“I might be,” Jake said, standing as well.

“Please, sit,” Robert appealed to them, distress lining his face. “This is meant to be a friendly picnic.”

“Friendly? Ha!” Hélène barked. “I have been insulted.”

“Jake didn’t mean it,” Rafe said, standing and looking like he would step between Jake and Hélène to physically avert a fight. “We were out late last night and I’m sure he’s just tired.”

Jake’s eyebrows lifted incredulously as he stared at Rafe. “I’m trying to help you,” he said.

“I will go now,” Hélène said, picking up her bag from the grass and carefully slinging it over her shoulder. “I have not been so insulted in years.”

“Please don’t go,” Robert said. He started to stand, but Janice put a hand on his leg to stop him. “I’m sure we can sort this.”

“Jake should be the one to go,” Rhys said. “He’s the one being inhospitable.”

“Maybe that would be a good idea,” Nick agreed, wrestling a wailing Macy into his arms. “The kids are upset.”

Jake wanted to protest that he had nothing to do with that since he’d just arrived, but it seemed futile. He’d been a fool to get comfortable with the Hawthorne family. Families had always turned on him, starting with his own. He had to protect himself. It was him against the world, just like it always had been, and as usual, he was losing.

He was about to open his mouth and invent some elaborate story custom-designed to turn the Hawthornes against Hélène when Rafe raised his hands and said, “Jake isn’t going anywhere. He’s just being curious and cautious.”

It was like finally being able to breathe after being underwater for a long time. So much so that he didn’t know what to say.

“This whole thing has been blown out of proportion,” Rafe went on, shifting to stand closer to Jake. “Hélène, I am grateful for your interest in our work and I look forward to working more with you in the future. Today hasn’t been the best day for a visit since Jake and I were out late last night and neither of us are in best form today. I understand if you need to leave.”

Hélène looked slightly appeased. She shrugged her free shoulder, hugged her bag, and said, “I have to return to Paris this afternoon anyhow.”

“It was wonderful to have you here,” Janice said, her smile not quite as enthusiastic as it was earlier as she stood. “Do you need someone to show you to your car?”

“That would be lovely,” Hélène said with a smile. Now she was the one flirting with Janice. Jake would have given anythingto know what the conversation between the two women had been like when he and Rafe had been bickering.

A round of goodbyes was said which seemed tenser than it should have been and unsettled the kids, and then Janice and Hélène walked off.

“I’m not sure that went well,” Rhys said, giving Jake the side-eye as they all sat down again.

“Everything is fine,” Rafe grumbled. “Don’t worry about it.”

Everything was not fine and the rest of the Hawthorne family seemed to know it. They continued with the picnic, but it was the least fun and most fraught picnic Jake had ever been to. He could barely eat his sandwich as he sat silently by Rafe’s side. Neither of them said a word to each other, but Jake felt like there was so much that needed to be said.

---