Page 61 of Deliverance

A soft gasp escapes his mouth when I begin to smooth the color over the spot I just covered with oil.

“Too cold?” I pause and flick my gaze to his face.

“Yes…no.”

“So which one is it?”

He smiles, and tiny lines fan out from the corners of his eyes. “I plead the fifth.”

“Too late.”

“It’s never too late for the fifth.”

Laughter bubbles up my throat and I remove the brush from his skin to avoid messing up the direction of the strokes. We stare at each other for a long moment. “You know you’re not what I thought you’d be,” I tell him, resuming painting.

“What did you think I’d be?”

An arrogant jerk.“Someone a bit more…pretentious.”

“Pretentious?”

“And cocky.”

“Woman, you’re killing me. You just totally annihilated years and years of hard work.”

“You had to actually work on being pretentious and cocky? People do that?”

“I play in a band that requires me to maintain an image of a hot asshole.”

“And a manwhore?”

“That too… Early in my career.”

I giggle and I’m not even ashamed of it.

“But seriously?” Zander’s voice takes on a heated tone. “What did you think I’d be like?”

“More inquisitive, I guess. About all this.” I wave a hand at my tools, then roll to the side and prop myself on my left hip.

“Don’t get me wrong. I am. I was kinda expecting you to do the same thing Hazel does.”

“She paints mostly from memory.”

“She does?”

“You didn’t know that?”

“Second thing I’ve learned from you today.” He pauses and watches the movements of my hand as I scoop up more oil.

“You really didn’t know?”

“No. I haven’t been around much this past year.”

“But you and Justice are close?”

“We are. We grew up together. My family had a lake house in Tahoe and that’s how I met him and Chance.”

Zander’s face darkens. I didn’t think he’d bring up their bandmate, but now that he has, dozens of questions rush through my head. “You miss him.” It’s a statement. I know he does. Just like I miss my father.

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