“It’s perfect.”
It was going to all be perfect.
Chapter Eight
It was fun, Lara could admit. She’d been a little…jumpy at the start. Ty had called her beautiful so earnestly it had done something to her. Rewired something. And that was silly.
Silly.
They’d walked to the restaurant and he’d and put his big, warm hand on the small of her back to guide her into the restaurant. It had felt too…datelike. Too much like something was different. Changed.
Still silly, but a little more concerning.
But then they’d sat and ordered and talked about their respective days and it had settled back intothem. Friends. Best friends. Just like always. Just like it wouldalwaysbe.
“I told you they’d be excited to have you,” Lara said, sipping the wine Ty had insisted on with dessert. She wasn’t at all surprised he’d already gotten the job offer. Even if there were hoops to jump through, he’d do it easily. “And I think you’d be great working in a school.”
“Yeah, I like the idea of it. And if it doesn’t work out, I can always try something else. No harm no foul.”
“Exactly.”
“Now, you’ve been avoiding it, but dessert is done. There’s no more putting it off.” He leaned forward in the low light of the restaurant. His blue gaze was direct, intense. Just like the feeling his concentration onherwhipped up inside her.
Luckily, his words managed to dull a lot of that buzz. “Spill on the paintings.”
Shehadbeen avoiding telling him about the paintings. Working the conversation to focus on him and baseball and not…what had happened at the gallery today.
“Well…” She didn’t want to say it out loud. She didn’t want to admit she was wrong, but it was bigger than that. It wasn’t just about being wrong it was about…well,changeagain.
Believing in her paintings required a shift in perspective. It required a kind of hope. It meant trusting something to not go sideways.
And she didn’t wantanyof that, but she’d walked into that gallery and…
“She wants every single one at the gallery,” Ty said. So sure. So confident in her abilities.
It made her want to cry. The way he was just so certain she was good with absolutely no factual evidence. Except, now therewassome. “No,” Lara replied, because it had been even more than that, somehow.
And she didn’twantit, but she’d been forced. Forced to take this step and now there was noun-takingit.
“She’s taking four out of the five for the gallery,” Lara had to tell him, because it was going to happen. Even if she’d gone back to the cottage, locked herself in her room, and had a panic attack.
No one ever had to know that part. And she could hardly tell the lovely woman at the gallery that she’d changed her mind about displaying her paintings for sale. It was happening, so people had to know.
“Four! That’s amazing, Lara.” He reached over, grabbed her hand and squeezed. “See, I told you. Four out of five is hitting it out of the park.”
His grin was infectious. His excitement didn’t make her panic. It made her feel like she’d really accomplished something amazing. So she ended up telling him what she’d told herself earlier she wouldn’t tell anyone.
“And she bought the fifth for herself.” The picture of poor, weeping Lissy had moved the gallery manager so much, she’dbought it. Lara still couldn’t quite believe it.
Ty leaned over and engulfed her in a tight hug. Right here in the middle of the restaurant. Leaning his chair toward her, all enthusiasm and support.
“I knew it,” he said in her ear. “And nowyouknow it.”
It was all so…
His excitement made her happy. It made her feel proud. Worst of all, it actually made her excited about the prospect. None of that panic from this afternoon. Like he steadied something inside of her, even in the face of change.
He released her, still grinning. She had to blink a few times to keep the tears in her eyes.
