Page 63 of A Scottish Lighthouse Escape

I slid him another look. This was ridiculous. But then again, Ruth Mangan had sneered at Reece and me when she’d discovered my grandma had been the painter behind those gorgeous pictures. I wanted to find out why. Then there had been her bitchy comment about publishing being subjective.

‘Rosie? Hello?’

I pulled my attention away from the car windscreen and the view of the stormy, ghost-grey sky outside.

Knowing my grandma like I had, all this would’ve made her laugh. A smile tugged at the corners of my mouth when I thought about her, and about the fact the exhibition would be on her birthday too. It would have been her eightieth birthday. What if Mitch was right? What if we decided not to go ahead with this and didn’t get another opportunity with another gallery? I’d be sitting, kicking myself that I hadn’t taken this chance. After all, that was what Grandma did. She didn’t put herself out there and take a chance, and she’d spent the rest of her life regretting it. I could feel myself wavering. What if this was the only opportunity we had to have Grandma’s art shown to the public?

I angled round to Mitch. ‘You promise me that as soon as it’s opening night, we come clean and tell Ruth Mangan the truth.’

‘Oh, don’t worry, we will. I’m bricking it in case she or anyone else starts asking me about perspective and tonal aspects.’

I ignored a warning voice whispering in my ear that I could very well be launching myself into an embarrassing situation. No, scrub that. In all likelihood, I was launching myself into an embarrassing situation. But the way I saw it, what other choice did we have?

‘So, we’re going to do this?’ Mitch asked.

‘Yes. Okay. I’ll tell Reece, but no one else. Don’t you either.’

‘Don’t worry, I won’t. I’ve given Ruth my contact details, so she’ll be in touch shortly with more information on how everything will pan out. We have free reign to have whatever sort of opening night we want.’

Mitch fired up the ignition.

My stomach somersaulted when I thought about what we were doing. Perhaps getting what you wished for wasn’t always a good thing.