Page 42 of Cruel Love

I shoved my phone into my pocket and positioned myself so that Riley and Sky blocked me from the professor’s view. “We have to hurry. They’ve already started judging.”

We dashed up the stairs, and I kept a firm grip on the railing. My klutziness was at an all-time high. It was unusual for me and did nothing but irritate me. I knew I would adjust—the only explanation was that the baby must have grown, throwing my center of balance even farther forward. Nothing else made sense.

I barely glanced at the other exhibits as we raced down the stacks and to the alcove where Max and I had chosen to set up earlier this week. It was the perfect space, with a window seat and an area to study away from the main rooms. We used the table to set up the smaller canvases, and easels were strategically placed along the walls.

Riley and Sky unpacked my artwork and helped me set it up along with the cards describing each piece. They whisked my leather portfolio tote bag away just in time then left to check out some of the other work, giving us space.

Max, Jaxon, and I stood to the side as Professor Potts and two other judges swept into our little area.

“Hello, Aspen, Max, and Jaxon.” Professor Potts nodded at us before averting her eyes to Jaxon’s work.

We returned the greeting and fell silent so she could study the canvas before her. I clasped my hands behind my back, suddenly nervous. As our semester final, this was worth a large portion of our grade.

Part of our project was to do a triptych transformation in watercolor for the first subject and oil for the second subject. The two sets were unrelated. My watercolor series images were of the shoreline before a storm, during it, and after. The other set was a football game. The first piece was an angled close-up depicting the two teams at the line of scrimmage, ready for the snap. I’d captured the determination in their facial features and the ready-to-spring-to-action tension of their bodies. Anticipation and determination vibrated off the canvas.

The second canvas showed the defensive line scrambling to contain the offensive players. The quarterback—Phoenix, of course—had his arm cocked back, ready to launch the ball into the air. I’d tried to capture movement, the players’ focused urgency, and their intense drive. It was the beauty of the game, the sheer force of the players as they did the jobs they were there to do.

The final canvas depicted victory after a receiver caught the ball and held it high in the end zone as the team celebrated a win. But it wasn’t only about the winning team. The opposition played an equal part in the hard-fought game. Exhaustion, defeat, and disappointment were stamped on many features, and their body language had shifted. The price of playing wasn’t always easy.

Those six canvases had taken me days and many, many hours to complete. I’d worked on the football ones with Phoenix. He’d explained the positions and what the specific players were trying to do in the pictures I’d taken of one of the games. That alone gave me insight I wouldn’t have had otherwise, and I’d transferred it onto canvas.

We’d had that assignment the longest, but it wasn’t meant to carry the most weight of our final. Those were positioned in the center of the table. I loved Max’s typography artwork. It was edgy and exciting. I couldn’t wait to see what else he did in that style.

Jaxon favored abstract. I adored his use of color and perspective. We were all very different, but I felt like there were hints here and there in each of our pieces that complemented each other.

Professor Potts nodded to us, and the small smile curving her lips gave me hope for our grades. When she and the other teachers cleared our area, the stiffness in our shoulders visibly relaxed. I laughed as both Max's and Jaxon’s dropped about an inch. I was sure mine did too. It was stressful.

“I’m so glad the worst is over.” Max swiped at his brow. “And you.” He pointed a finger at me while Jaxon’s mouth curved in a crooked grin. “You were almost late. I knew I should have escorted you over here.”

Jaxon’s gaze swung to where a willowy girl with rose-gold hair falling in long waves around her shoulders, lightening toward the ends, stood. The reds in their hair and similar green eyes were enough to connect them as family.

With a wave, Jaxon shifted his focus back to us then leaned down and kissed Max’s lips. He made excuses to show his sister around with that soft lilt he sometimes got. We watched silently as his large form took up the aisle, eclipsing his sister from our view.

“Do you know his sister?” She was stunning but standoffish, as she hadn’t come by to look at Jaxon’s work.

Max shrugged. “No. Jax hasn’t introduced me to her yet. He mentioned she’s going through something, and that’s all I know.” He slung his arm around me before dropping his forehead to the top of my head. “Girl, I don’t know about you, but I found that judging thing extremely stressful.”

“Same. Potts is hard to read. But I’m so glad that portion is over. Now, all we have left is the term paper.”

“Why? I was riding the high of being basically done with the class, and you have to bring that up?”

I laughed and lightly shoved him. I knew we should walk around, but I was in the same boat, sort of exhausted from those ten minutes or so when the professors scrutinized our work and took notes. I pulled one of the chairs out from under the table and sat. “Haven’t you started on it? I’ve got the outline done but no research yet.”

“No.” He laughed, and the nervous excitement had me sitting up and taking notice.

“What’s going on?”

“Jax and I’ve had some serious talks over the past couple of dates.” His finger tapped on the table in a fast staccato beat.

Whatever they’d talked about was obviously weighing heavily on his mind. I couldn’t imagine it was anything bad. Those two had been joined at the hip lately. “Serious as in exclusivity?”

“Yes.” His dark eyes sparkled with happiness, and his tapping ceased. “And he asked me to move in with him this summer.”

“Wait. Is he not going back home? Doesn’t he live in the dorms too?” How the heck didn’t I know this?

“He’s getting an apartment next year, probably with his sister. But his parents are loaded, so it’ll be big enough that the three of us aren’t on top of each other.”

I snorted. “So you and Jax aren’t always running into his sister?”

---