Page 115 of Love Among Vines

“He said it himself. He doesn’t have time for a relationship. He’s so fixated on work?—”

“For the record,” Cindy interrupted, “I have never seen him take this much time off of work. Ever.”

“He probably just can’t resist a damsel in distress. And I am the most distressed,” Jade said quietly. “Every part of my life is up in the air right now. Do I move to the Bronx? Do I find a new career? How am I going to finish this mural?”

“Easy. Move to Hammondsport, be my office manager, paint some airplanes and wine bottles on the wall. Boom, done.”

Jade looked at her. “You’ve seen how badly I have mismanaged my own life. I would burn your clinic to the ground.”

Cindy grunted noncommittally. “I still think you should move here. No matter what, you’d have us.”

“And what if Rett falls in love with someone else and I’m right back to square one? Broken-hearted and completely unable to paint again?”

Cindy shook her head. “You didn’t lose your ability to paint because of that twenty-four-karat dildo. You lost it because you had two horrible traumas back-to-back. A man does not control your ability to create. You just have to get out of your own way.”

Jade paused. Cindy had a point. While Rett had been the subject of her first breakthrough sketch, it hadn’t been because Jade was in love with him. Maybe time had finally started to heal the wounds. But even so, she didn’t have time to dawdle and see if her dabbling would turn back into the art that had made her semi-famous.

“Besides,” Cindy said, “don’t people say that the greatest art comes from a place of suffering? I would bet anything there’s a whole MOMA exhibit barely dammed up in there.” She poked Jade in the chest.

Jade heaved a sigh. “I don’t know what to do. I wish my mom was here. She always had the best advice.”

“I think she’d want you to be brave. Take him on a date. Talk to him. Then you can figure out everything else.”

“Fine,” Jade muttered.

Thirty minutes later, they strolled back to a dark house. Everyone was gone but Tom and Rett.

They looked up like they had been caught stealing something.

“What’s going on, boys?” Cindy asked.

“Nothing,” they said simultaneously.

“Sure. Come on, get the esky,” Cindy said. “We need to get home and let Branson out.”

She leaned over and hugged Jade. When she pulled back, Jade’s heart was full. This is what she had been missing for so long—friendship. And Cindy had given it to her willingly, openly, even though she knew her time here was temporary.

Tom hugged Jade too, then they left.

Jade collapsed onto Rett’s lap and slung her arm over his shoulders. Penny settled at their feet.

His expression was still cloudy. “You were gone for a while. Is everything okay?”

“Yeah, we were just chatting. I’m taking you on a date tomorrow.”

He seemed to debate for a moment “After closing.”

“Fine. Now how about a shower?”

Rett stood up, Jade clasped in his arms. “Thank god. I’ve never felt so disgusting in my life.”

“And you drank warm chardonnay from a bag.”

He looked up at the sky as if expecting to see a disapproving celestial grandmother above him. “Don’t remind me.”

CHAPTER THIRTY-SIX

RETT

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