Page 49 of Hot for the Hockey Player
She snickered, then teasingly pressed her finger to her lips to tell me to shush.
The next hour and a half went by quickly.And despite how kooky Sage was at times, she was a great instructor, and I had already learned a lot from her.Next to Honor and Laurel, my painting was a hot pile of garbage, but they’d been doing these classes for nearly a year.So I refused to let my ego get too bruised.
“Well done, friend Maverick,” Sage said, as we packed up our stations—the painting supplies in front of us would be ours only for the duration of our sessions.“Is this the first time you’ve done watercolor?”
“First time I’ve picked up a paintbrush in nearly twenty years,” I said matter-of-factly.
“You have a gift.”She rested her hand on my shoulder as she peered over me and inspected my piece.
“You can tell those are evergreen trees swaying in the wind, right?”I asked, glancing up at her.
“Of course I can.I canfeelthe wind.I canseethe wind.You have a real gift.”She glanced over at Laurel and Honor.“And you’re sitting with two of my most accomplished students.I’m sure they can teach you more than I can.”
The girls beamed.
“I tried not to copy them,” I joked.“But even when I did copy them, theirs still came out better.”
“Comparison is the thief of joy, friend Maverick.Focus your energy here.”She pointed to the canvas.“And here.”Then she pressed her palm into the center of my chest and closed her brown eyes for a moment.
The girls giggled.
I nodded and shifted awkwardly in my seat.Was she hitting on me?Or was this just her hippy vibe and she acted like this with everyone?“I’ll do my best.”
Sage opened her eyes and smiled placidly at me before removing her hand and focusing on the class.“See you all next week,” she said, her voice a little louder as she stepped back from me, but kept her gaze on mine for another couple of heartbeats.
I took Laurel and Honor’s cue and got up from the bench, following them to where we stored our art supplies, then out the door and down to my truck.Not until we were all safely in the cab, and the engine was on, did I risk asking the question.“Is she like that with everyone?”
“What do you mean?”Honor asked from the backseat as she buckled herself in.
“Flirty.”
“She was flirting with you?”she asked.
“Wasn’t she?”
“I dunno.I’m nine.”
Laurel snorted.“That’s just Sage.She’s weird with everyone.Mom calls her ‘touchy-feely’.Which Mom hates, because she’snottouchy-feely at all.”
No, Gabrielle Campbell definitely wasn’t the touchy-feely type at all.To be honest, when she hugged me that first day, it shocked the crap out of me.
“I don’t think she was flirting,” Laurel added.“I mean, unless you think she flirts with me too.Because she’s said the same things to me, and put her hand on my shoulder and in the center of my chest.”
I glanced over at her and smirked as I reached the end of the long gravel driveway and turned onto the road that would take us back to the vineyard.For eleven, Laurel was incredibly smart, and very well-spoken.“You’re probably right.”
“Isn’t Sage also married?”Honor asked.
“Yeah, she has a husband and a wife,” Laurel replied.
My brows shot up for a quick second.“Oh!”
Like it was no big deal—because it really wasn’t—Laurel shrugged.“Yeah, her wife—Roz—makes soap, and her husband—Miguel—is a firefighter and spins wool from their sheep.”
“Quite the power throuple,” I murmured.
“What’s a ‘throuple’?”Honor asked.I glanced at her in the rearview mirror.The way she wrinkled her nose was cute.“Is that like a couple, but with three people?”
“That’s exactly what it is,” I said.
