Page 39 of Family Affair
“Dan? Painting pansies? I don’t think so.” His expression was that of mock horror. “How well do you know Dan, anyway?”
Coco laughed, the sound a little breathless, not at all like her normal self. “Well enough to know he doesn’t draw.”
She caught him looking at her. Avoiding his eyes, she let her own gaze slide past his ear and fixate on the cabinets behind him.
“Do you draw?”Great, Coco, you already asked him that.
She was desperate to keep the conversation going, anything to avoid silences between them. Those silences filled up with meaning, and she didn’t want to acknowledge the nature of her reaction to him.
“No. I think we’ve already established that,” he said gently.
“You’re right, I remember. Are you staying with Dan now?”
“Yes, for a while. I try not to overwhelm my brothers with my presence, so I spread it around.”
Coco nodded, and her breath hitched, and she couldn’t come up with anything else to say. Oh, why was she all out of sorts?
“This one is well done.” Cade pointed at her open portfolio. “Doesn’t look like Georgia, though.”
His tee was close fitting. It covered the chest hair and the scars, but did nothing to conceal how sturdily he was put together. His nearness unnerved her.
Coco took a tiny step back to put more distance between them.
“This is a collage, of sorts,” she rambled away, desperate to hide how much he disconcerted her. “Before my parents divorced, we lived in New Mexico. Very dry, sandy areas, hardly any water. But there was this little creek, down in the valley by Rio Grande. I have a photo of me with my mom standing by it. It’s very picturesque. I drew the creek from the picture, and then embellished it with the snow and flowers.”
“Cool.”
He didn’t say anything else. She raised her head and found him looking at her. Into her.
Time stopped.
His eyes drew her in, their dark reddish brown color clear and mesmerizing. His pupils were slightly dilated, the black pushing the brown to the rims. His gaze hypnotized. Suspended in light and air, she couldn’t move, could barely breathe. She was airborne, floating in another dimension.
This feels like magic,she thought as a bolt of pure joy pierced her.
His eyes flared, taking her higher, pulling her deeper into the murky, seductive ether of his gaze.
Abruptly, he broke eye contact. “Fuck.”
The sounds and feelings returned, as if a mute button was disconnected.
“You want to call Dan to see if he’s coming?” Cade asked quickly.
Dan, yes. The portfolio. She needed to take the portfolio and get going.
She shook her head, coming down to earth from having fallen into his lovely gaze.
“I’ll catch him another time. I have to get back to the office.”
She turned around to escape his company.
He’d just done something to loosen her inner system, and she was afraid the damage could become permanent. “Thanks. I… will see you later.”
Her gaze fell on the photograph where the five boys stood frozen in time, the rock ledge eternally hard, the skies forever gray.
As before, the image of Frank stopped her in her tracks.
Cade came up behind her.
