Page 80 of Bound to You

It’s quiet on Main today, a few people are out and about, walking the streets this morning, but that familiar air of peace has settled over Ruby Cove today.

I open the glass doors into the gallery and there’s a new painting on the front display as I walk in.

My painting.

My breath catches at the sight of it, my painting on display like that. My friends are in front of me once again and it immediately takes me back to last night, and that’s exactly what I’d hoped for. For the viewer to be caught in that exact moment in time, for them to feel like they’re sitting right there in that room.

I can hear a faint humming drifting in from the studio space. I walk through the gallery and around the corner to see Nora behind the easel as usual. She’s got a bottle of wine on the table beside her and a paintbrush tucked behind her ear.

Her little old radio is playing Mazzy Star, and she’s humming along to the familiar tune, completely oblivious to my presence.

I knock my knuckles on the door frame. “Ciao,Nora.”

“Oh, Isla!Come va, tesoro?” She turns the knob on her radio, so we don’t have to yell.

“I’m good. How are you?” I’ve picked up a few pieces of Italian in the last six weeks.

“Good darling, good.” She places her paintbrush in a jar of water. “What brings you by?”

“I thought maybe I’d come work on something new today.”

I see pleasant surprise in the crinkles in her face, she quickly gets up pulling a stool over to the easel across from hers. “Take a seat.”

I sort through the canvases, picking one similar sized to the one I painted last night.

“Hey Nora.”

“Hmm?” She says, focused back on her painting.

“Why did you hang my painting up on display?”

“I’m sorry darling, I hope you don’t mind, I can take it down if you like. When I came in this morning and saw it, I just thought there was something special about it and thought it was a shame for it to be sitting there in the shadows.”

“No, it’s okay, I think it looks good there.” I’ve never had my art displayed anywhere, unless you count college showcases. It might be one of the only times my art is in a gallery like this, so I don’t want her to take it down, not yet at least.

“I’ve had many people inquire about the artist this morning,” she raises her eyebrows at me over the top of her work.

“Wait, really?” I halt mixing up my colors on the palette beside me.

“Quite a few actually, asking if the piece is for sale, or if there were any others in the gallery.”

My heart nearly stops in my chest. I can barely believe that one piece would attract so much interest.

A little furnace burns in the core of my heart imagining people walking into the gallery and taking the time to look at my painting, let alone inquire if it is for sale, and it only stokes my craving to get my brush on the canvas in front of me.

“But I obviously had to turn them down, I didn’t know if you’d be back, but I couldn’t help but put that piece up. Even though I knew the chances of you selling that one were slim, it feels like a special piece.”

“It is.” That piece will always hold the essence of that night, something I never want to let go of, no matter my future here.

I grab the pencil from the cart beside me, mindlessly sketching out a rough form on the canvas, giving me something to go off.

I feel like a shovel just got pushed into my brain, pulling up the root of doubt from my past. I’m finally starting to believe that maybe I could do this, maybe I could just stay here. That feels scary to even think, but this place fuels the fire in my soul, it’s infused with magic.

It’s like Ruby Cove has a spellbinding hold over me, maybe I could just stay here, paint, bartend, live, love?—

Love.

The word floods my mind as I sit here, and I can’t stop the swell. I wouldn’t be at this point without Caio backing me, hell I probably wouldn’t be here today if not for his paint-n-sip idea for last night. Okay, I for sure wouldn’t be here today.

---