Page 73 of The Love Ambush
I stare at my painting, but it’s hard to see beyond the awkward stroke I made in the far corner of the sunset and the way I couldn’t get the cherry blossoms quite wispy enough. But I do know how I felt when I painted it. “Lonely and scared.”
Holly squeezes my shoulders. “See. Talent. Maybe you didn’t have it when you were in school, or maybe your professors are idiots. Were they men?”
“Mostly.”
“Right,” she says. “Idiots.”
“I don’t know—”
She strides into the gallery. “Is your friend on his way? I have someone waiting at home, and they’re not very patient.”
“He should be here any minute. I’ll wait outside.”
“Great.” She grabs a business card from the desk as we walk past and hands it to me. “Text me your contact information. I’ll be in touch.”
I step out into the crisp, chilly night air, and my stomach growls like it’s awakening from a long winter’s nap. My cheeks ache, and I realize I’m smiling. I’ve probably been smiling for hours. I can’t remember the last time I felt this light and happy.
“Want me to wait with you until your friend gets here?” Holly asks.
Brodie’s Range Rover pulls up to the curb with Levi behind the wheel. “This is him.” I turn to Holly and, overcome with happiness and gratitude, I throw my arms around her and hug her tight. “Thank you. This has meant so much more to me than I can ever say.”
She goes stiff, not hugging me back. “Get me some more of your paintings and never hug me again, and we’ll be even.”
I let her go and step back, right into Levi. His warm palm lands on my lower back. “It’s a deal.” Though I can’t imagine when I’ll have time to paint again.
“Have you already locked up?” Levi asks. “Should we pick up the painting tomorrow?”
Holly sighs and looks at me. “You explain it to him. I have a well-warmed bed to get back to.” She turns and walks away before I can answer.
“Wow,” Levi said. “She’s… brisk.”
I turn to him, practically overflowing with happiness. “She’s going to hang my painting in her gallery, and she’s going to ask eight hundred dollars for it. It’ll never sell, but one of my paintings is actually going to be hanging in a gallery.”
His grin is radiant. “That’s amazing, honey. Can I see it?”
I pull my phone out of my back pocket and scroll to the picture I took after Holly said she was going to sell it. I doubt she’s going to ship it all the way to Virginia after it doesn’t sell.
Levi studies the picture for several long moments. “Cute hedgehog. It’s rare to find one in a tree.”
“Hedgehogs don’t climb trees.” That was the whole point, I realize. The hedgehog is stuck in a situation it doesn’t belong in with no safe way out.
“Sure they do,” he says. “Cash was obsessed for a while with an animal rescue site that posted all these videos of hedgehogs they’d saved. There was one that loved to climb.”
“Ugh. That ruins the painting.”
He studies the painting again. “How?”
I’m not about to get into that with him. It’s bad enough that Holly seemed to see straight into my soul through my painting. “We should probably get back to the house.”
Before I can jump into the car, he grips my shoulders and stares me down. “How does it ruin the painting?”
“The hedgehog has to be stuck in a situation it doesn’t belong in for the painting to mean anything.”
He studies my face, then looks back at the painting on my phone screen. “Maybe the hedgehog is in a place most hedgehogs don’t go, and it’s not very happy. But it’s going to figure everything out and get back home safely.”
I laugh. “You’re forgetting about the alligator.”
“The alligator is a vegetarian. That’s why there’s a cherry in its mouth. The alligator and the hedgehog are going to be best friends.”
