by Jill Sanders
After less than five minutes walking around the massive backyard, he had to admit, the woman knew how to garden. Most of the flowers were covered or dead after the snowstorms they had already seen this year, but he could imagine what the garden would look like in full bloom.
There were three small fountains. One fountain had a statue of a small boy riding a creature that looked like a cross between a dolphin and a mermaid.
There was a large statue in the center of the yard, and he made his way towards it slowly on the stone pathway that cut through the bushes and grass. Off to the side there was a small pale blue building, and he made his way over to it. On one side was a large covered patio area with chairs and a table. He imagined that the vines that hung overhead would bloom with flowers come spring, blanketing the area and shielding it from the sun. It would be a beautiful spot to sit and read on a summer evening.
He tried the door of the building and frowned when he found it unlocked. Stepping inside, he flipped the light switch on and held in a gasp when he saw a fully functional art studio. The room was around twenty by twenty, and it was almost completely filled. A large comfortable white sofa sat under large windows on the back wall that let natural light into the space.
More than four dozen brightly colored canvases leaned against the walls. Every single one spiked his interest, giving him a deeper look into Crystal’s mind. The colors and shapes were mesmerizing even though they were of nothing in particular. Each painting drew him further into her psyche. Time and place were lost as he felt his entire body surrender to the beauty of her work.
“Do you like them?” Crystal asked from the doorway.
He turned towards her. She was dressed in bright blue leggings with a long flowing cream top over a tight matching blue tank top. Her hair was still wet, but she’d tied it up away from her face with a deep purple bandana. She had matching blue earrings and a necklace that lay between her perfect breasts.
She looked as good as her paintings. He’d never wanted anyone as badly as he wanted her at that moment.
Chapter 7
The way Rory was looking at her made her heart skip several beats. It had been a long time since a man had looked at her like that. It went beyond attraction.
She could see in his brown eyes that it went deeper than that. Her paintings had touched him.
“They’re amazing. You’re amazing.” He motioned around the room. “Why don’t you sell these in your store?”
She shrugged. “They’re personal. It’s hard to expose your soul to others.”
His eyes were on a piece she’d titled Blue Nights. He picked it up and set it on the edge of her worktable.
“This is by far some of the best work I’ve seen in years.”
“Thank you.” She moved beside him and looked at the mass of color on the canvas. She’d painted this piece shortly after discovering that her lover at the time had been cheating on her with a woman half her age.
Despair, loneliness, betrayal. It was all there in plain view.
“Sad,” he said after a moment of stillness. “But yet…” He motioned to the white and yellow spots. “There’s still hope.”
She smiled. “Serenity is the big one and Aurora the smaller. Well, that was before Ben came along, but see…two more small lights. Three in total.”
“For?” He glanced sideways at her.
“All my grandchildren.”
“You know this… how?”
“I have my ways.” She crossed her arms over her chest and looked at the painting. “I’m thinking of renaming it.”
He tilted his head as his eyes ran over it. “Hope,” he finally said.
“It’s perfect.” She took the canvas and turned it over. While he watched, she pulled out a paintbrush and dabbled a little royal blue on the tip and wrote, Hope above her name on the back.
“What about selling some of these? You could open a back room at the store and have a gallery there. Maybe even get other local artists to show some of their work.”
She took a step back and cleaned her brush. Inside she felt fear, but hearing the excitement in his voice, she quickly agreed.
“I can help you set things…” He dropped off and blinked a few times. “I… I’m sure you can manage.”
She laid a hand on his arm. “You have a love for art I hadn’t noticed before.”
“I appreciate…” he started, but she could tell he was backpedaling.
“Don’t.” She shook her head. “Art is beautiful and should be shared. I’ve been selfish with my own, until now. Thank you for showing me that.” She reached up on her toes and placed a soft kiss on his lips. It was meant to be nothing more than a friendly kiss of appreciation, but when their skin touched, she felt a zing rush through her entire body.
His hands reached out and touched her shoulders, holding her steady.
He blinked a few times, then a slow smile formed on his lips. “What do you say we try that again?”
Rory dipped his head towards her as the space between them disappeared.
When his hard body came up against hers, she moaned. Then his lips covered hers and her eyes closed with pleasure.
It had been over twenty years since she’d been kissed like that. The comparison to Johnathan made her stiffen.
Rory noticed it instantly and broke the contact. “I… I’m sorry.” He shook his head.
“No.” She reached for his arm, but stopped herself. “It wasn’t you…” She closed her eyes as more memories of her one true love surfaced. “I just… It’s been a while.” She met his eyes again, hoping he’d understand. With no other man had she ever felt the need to compare them to Johnathan. She’d enjoyed many lovers over the years and not once had she had issues. Until now. Until Rory.
His eyebrows shot up. “You… but, Ben said you’ve dated…”
“Not that, I mean, it’s been a long time since I’ve felt this much for someone.” She moved closer. “I can’t explain it, but… this”—she motioned between them— “it’s something I haven’t felt in a very long time.”
When he remained silent, she wondered if he would take off at a sprint, like most men would have.
“For me as well,” he said after a moment. “Come on.” He held out his hand. “How about we go in and have some more of those muffins and tea?”
She smiled. “Sounds perfect.”
He glanced back as they walked out. “You should really start locking up. I don’t see any cameras out here.”
She frowned as she looked up. “You’re right. I’ll have Rowan install one today while we’re at the store.”
He nodded. “Your nephew does a lot around here.”
“He’s a good boy. Besides, he likes projects he can work on with his son, Connor James. They’re coming over tomorrow night for dinner. You’ll enjoy meeting them and Kayla.”
“She’s the one who found the missing money?” he asked as he held the back door open for her.
“Yes, she’ll be at the store today. I asked her to meet us there so she can go over everything with you.”
“Wonderful.” He held her arm until she stopped and looked up at him. “I meant it. I’ve never felt this much, this quickly before. There’s nothing I want to do more than explore this, but I want you to know that this”—he nodded between them— “has nothing to do with my job.”
“Of course it doesn’t.” She smiled. “Numbers and finance have nothing to do with sex and attraction.” She chuckled as she walked over to get them the muffins.
This time, as they walked towards the store, they talked about more personal things. He itched to reach out and take her hand, but doubted they were at that place yet.
The kiss had completely knocked his socks off. She was everything he’d dreamed of in the past… Who was he kidding? His entire life he’d been dreaming of someone like her.
Seeing her art had done something to him. He’d picked up a paintbrush a few times in his life, but nothing good had ever come from it. But s
till, she’d been right, he had a deep appreciation for art. It was one of the main reasons he loved travel so much.
Everywhere he went, he made a point to hit galleries along the way. He’d seen every piece of art he’d ever dreamed of seeing in his youth. He had his parents to thank for his passion. They’d taken him to museums and galleries as a child.
In their house, the finest pieces they could afford hung on almost every wall. He had a few himself, but he tended to stick to local artists he knew and liked. Not that his pocketbook couldn’t afford some of the more expensive pieces. At one point when working for Elite, he’d brought in almost triple what he was currently making.
Still, he’d used his money wisely, making sure to tuck a huge chunk away to start his own business. He had spent the rest on travel.
“Tell me some of the places you’ve been?” Crystal asked when they’d entered her office again. Kayla wasn’t scheduled to arrive for another hour, and he’d decided to take one more look at her numbers while they waited.
“I suppose I’ve been to every continent except for Antarctica.”
“Where was your favorite place to visit?”
“Brazil,” he answered quickly.
“I would have thought Paris or Italy.”
He chuckled. “Paris and Italy are fine and don’t get me wrong, there is a ton of amazing art in both places. But I’m a color person. Like with your work, it’s not alive unless it shouts at you.”
She chuckled and he wished he could soak in the soft sounds and hold onto them forever.
“This from a man wearing tweed.”
He looked down at his jacket and shrugged. “This from a woman who lives in a house like you do.”
Her laughter stopped and she nodded. “My home goes beyond me. It’s been in my family—”
He held up his hand. “No need to explain. Their memories run deep, and you honor them. Brazilian art goes beyond what’s on canvas. It runs through the people and the culture.”
“I’d love to go someday.” She sighed.
“Why don’t you?” Before she could answer, there was a light knock on the door.
“Come in,” Crystal answered.
A blonde woman with short hair and blue eyes walked in. She was wearing brown leggings and a large silver sweater.
“Kayla.” Crystal stood up and pulled another chair up to the desk. “Come on in. This is Rory. Rory, my niece-in-law, Kayla.”
After he shook the younger woman’s hand, everyone sat back down.
“Now, why don’t we get started by telling me exactly what you’d found.”
Over the next five hours, including a quick lunch break, the three of them talked about everything Kayla had found in the books for Serenity’s Attic.
From what she’d told him, he was pretty sure that someone had had access to the computer system directly.
“What does that mean?” Crystal asked after Kayla had left for the day. They were back in her office and he was once more hunched over the screen.
“It’s good news. It means you weren’t remotely hacked. Meaning, it’s someone you know and trust.”
“That’s the good news?” she asked.
“It does narrow the field down.” He glanced at her over the screen. “Once the cable arrives…” Just then, there was another knock on the door.
“Yes?” Crystal called out.
Olivia, the worker he’d met yesterday, poked her head in the door. “This package just arrived.”
Rory smiled. “Perfect timing.”
“Does this mean you’ll find out who did this?” Crystal asked, taking the package from Olivia and handing it to Rory.
“It means I’m one step closer to finding out. Still, it could take me days to go through all the data.” He pulled out his laptop and her old hard drive and plugged them together.
Crystal stood behind him. He glanced over and smiled. “It could be hours before I find anything.”
“Could you… retrieve something else from the hard drive?”
“Such as?”
“Pictures?” She kept her eyes glued to the screen.
“What kind of pictures?” He meant it as a tease, but she glanced his way and smiled.
“Not those kind. I wouldn’t be ashamed if I did have some naked pictures of me on there.” Her smile fell away slightly. “A few years back, Serenity scanned some old photos she’d found at the resort. Photos of Johnathan and me when we first met.”
“Sure, where were they?”
“A folder on the desktop.” She sat on the side of the desk. “If you can email them to my new email address…”
Half an hour later, after more than a dozen old photos of a very young and attractive Crystal with Johnathan Harrison were emailed off and backed up to Google Drive, he opened her old accounting software and got to work.
Several hours later, Crystal broke into his work.
“I can go get us some dinner?” Crystal asked, causing him to look up from the screen for the first time in close to two hours. He hadn’t realized he’d been sitting in the same place for that long and when he moved, his body was stiff.
“I can shut down and take this back to the house.” He saved the spreadsheet on his laptop and shut the computer down.
“I didn’t want to bother you.” She smiled. She’d come and gone in that time, but not once had he looked up from the screen. “Did you find something?”
“Some small discrepancies, but so far, nothing I’ve come across has shown where the bulk of the money has gone to.”
“You’ll find it,” she said, picking up a jacket. “It started raining again.” She held out his coat.
“No snow yet?”
“Maybe tomorrow. How about stopping off at Ed’s Pizzeria for a pie and a beer?”
“A woman after my own heart.” He pulled her close before she opened her door. “Maybe after, we can talk about this…” he said, watching her eyes as he moved closer to her. When he saw attraction and acceptance behind those blue eyes of hers, he closed the space and took what he wanted.
He couldn’t get enough of her soft lips. Her body melted next to his and he felt himself fill with desire too quickly.
Dropping his hands from her tiny waist, he took a step back. “Okay, we may need to limit the dosage.”
She chuckled and nodded. “Agreed, at least until we get someplace more… private.”
Chapter 8
All through dinner, Crystal’s eyes kept going back to Rory. The man was pure sex. His eyes had cleared up in the past few days, and she was happily surprised when he’d agreed to order a large veggie pizza to share and had limited himself to one beer. She’d downed her own beer long before he’d finished his.
“So, how do you read tarot cards?” he asked when the pizza was almost gone.
They had talked about so many different things over dinner: travel, the future, the past, children, pets, and even past partners.
She felt like she’d gotten to know Rory Sinclair more in the past hour as they sat in a dark corner booth at Ed’s than she knew about people she’d known for years.
They’d played a simple game she liked to call A Million Questions.
One person asked the other the first question that came to mind and the other person had to answer with the first thing that came to their mind. Then it was the other person’s turn.
She’d learned he’d lost his virginity at the tender age of fifteen with a girl who had been seventeen and the captain of the cheer squad. He’d first fallen in love with a redhead back when he was eighteen. She’d broken his heart when she moved to Oregon to go to school. He’d almost gotten married once in his early twenties, but his bride-to-be had left him at the altar, after which he’d joined the army. He didn’t say much about his service, but she got the hint that after his time served, he’d never allowed himself to get close to anyone again.
They asked each other some of the same questions, but his answers were more exciting. By the time they were wa
lking back home, she realized that for a person everyone liked to gossip about, she was really a dull human being.
She’d never jetted off to London for an affair or found a lover in Madrid. She’d never spent a day painting on the Thames.
She’d locked herself in Silver Cove and had thrown away the key when Johnathan had died. She’d given up much more than just her heart that day. She’d given up her life.
Part of her felt frustrated that she’d allowed so much time to go by without pursuing her dreams. The other part knew that she’d had a wonderful life regardless and that she still had plenty of time to explore places she wanted to go.
She was happily surprised when Rory reached over and took her hand as they made their way back to the house. The rain had stopped, leaving the streets glistening and everything smelling freshly washed.
“Did Rowan add the extra camera today?” he asked as she opened the front door.
“Yes, he added another one too, on the back garage where I park my car.”
“You have a car?” He smiled as he asked.
“Yes, the garage is there.” She motioned to the side of the house. “Would you like to see it?”
“Sure, why not.” He set his laptop case inside the door.
They walked to the side of the deck, and she motioned to the garage a few feet away behind some large bushes. He would have never known it was there.
“It opens to the side street.” She sat on the porch railing, her leg swaying as she leaned back against the house. “My grandfather built it when he purchased his first Ford.”
“I don’t suppose that’s still in there.”
She laughed. “No, but I do still own my father’s ’52 Chevy truck. It’s bright green and needs a new engine.”
He nodded. “Too bad. I know a little about cars, but not enough to replace an engine.”
“Rowan tried once.” She crossed her arms over her chest. “Got Serenity involved. They were determined to make it into their make-out car.”