Page 17 of A Deception of Massive Proportion

The room filled over the next few minutes, and Riley took a seat after putting a fresh bottle of water on the table beside his paints. She gave him two thumbs up when it was time for him to start the class.

He tugged at his black shirt. Why did it feel like it was constricting his neck? It had fit fine earlier. He picked up his brush and turned to the class. “I’m so glad you all came to my class today. We’re going to paint a landscape. So, first thing we’re going to do is paint the sky.”

Sky would be easy, right? He dipped his brush in the blue and began spreading it back and forth. The paint was creamy, and it spread easily. He painted the entire top half of the canvas blue before he realized he probably wanted some different shades. Most paintings didn’t have solid blocks of color. He pointed to his painting. “Now, we’re going to add in some shading.”

He dipped into the white and began spreading that around, but it didn’t blend into the top parts because the paint was too dry, so he ended up adding more blue, and then more white. What he ended up with looked more like a mess than a well-blended sky. He fumbled with his water bottle to get the cap off. “Well, this isn’t as easy as Bob Ross makes it look, is it?”

The crowd laughed, and he grinned at them, glad he could at least add some levity to the room. “Hopefully your sky is more blended than mine. Let’s move on to the land part.”

He spread brown around the bottom half of his painting. His brush slipped as he was painting, which make it look like a blob of paint was sitting on the ground. A brown blob. Dang. He tried to fix it by painting the ground higher in that area. It looked bad, so he created an arc to make it look smoother. He couldn’t say that looked any better, but at least it didn’t look like a dog did his business in the middle of a muddy field. Happy accident his foot. Bob Ross was a liar.

“Feel free to make your land green if you’re wanting a grassy hillside. Mine’s looking more like it’s a large mound of dirt.” Again he got laughter from the crowd, and he decided the only way he was going to get through this was to make everyone smile and have some fun.

“If your land has flowers, dab on some color. I’m going to add on some red and yellow.” He dipped his brush into the water and added the colors. Except it didn’t look anything like flowers. It looked like lemon drops and blood splatters. He studied his painting. “Okay, I’m changing this into an abstract painting.” He turned it upside down and added more red and yellow to the messed-up sky. That got more giggles.

“I like it!” someone yelled from the back of the room.

“Thank you. A pity compliment, but I’ll take it.”

He spent the rest of the time splashing colors on his canvas until it looked like a complete mess, but the crowd seemed to love it. When the class was over, he let the students take selfies with him in front of his painting. Then he signed the painting and held a drawing to give it away.

After everyone had dispersed, he turned to Riley. “Don’t say it. I know I should have listened to you and planned this better.”

She shrugged and laughed, pulling the strap of her bag over her shoulder. “It turned out great. Everyone loved your humor.”

“Yeah, but no one learned how to paint.”

“No, but you were right. They weren’t really here to learn to paint anyway.” She motioned to his outfit. “They were here to spend time with Shadow.”

He slowly nodded, suddenly feeling unsure of himself. It hit him that no one cared about Jalen, they only cared about Shadow. The persona he’d imagined up had become famous, but no one knew his real self. It was a bit unnerving. He decided not to think too much about it. “Are you ready to go to dinner? I thought maybe we could walk down the restaurant district and look around. Whatever looks good to you is fine with me.”

“Perfect.”

Before they left, he opened the door and pulled his security guard aside. “I’m going to take Riley out to eat. You don’t need to come. Just stay at the room and make sure no one does anything funny.”

The guard raised his eyebrows. “Are you sure?”

“Yeah.” He was sure. He wanted to be alone with Riley tonight.

“Okay.” The guard ducked out of the room.

He felt like a teenager on his first date as they left the resort and headed down the sidewalk along the beach. Riley was such a different kind of woman. She cared about others. He was curious what made her tick. It hadn’t gone unnoticed that she’d evaded his questions about her father, which probably meant he was seriously ill. He hoped she would open up to him about it. He liked her and wanted her to feel like she could trust him.

Chapter 9

Soft music played as Riley took the last bite of her lobster tail dipped in butter. It was amazing, as was everything they’d eaten at Today’s Catch, the restaurant they’d discovered at the docks. They were seated at the window, and a spectacular sunset was displayed outside which set the mood.

A young girl, probably around eleven, tentatively approached their table. “Excuse me, can I have your autograph?” She held out a piece of paper that looked like it had been ripped from a grocery list out of her mother’s purse. The poor girl’s fingers trembled.

Shadow smiled and took the paper from her. “Of course. What’s your name?”

“Candice.”

“That’s a nice name, Candice. You like music?”

“Oh, yes. All kinds. But you’re my favorite artist. All my playlists have your songs in them.” She blushed and looked down at the carpet.

“Thank you. Are you here for the extravaganza?”

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