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Smiling sheepishly, she took the flower from him.
* * *
Carmine turned off the highway when they made it to Black Mountain, driving straight to the art center on Cherry Street. The sign above the main entrance of the gray building announced what it was, but as Carmine helped Haven out of the car, all he saw in her expression was confusion.
“It’s a gallery,” he explained, not knowing if she’d understand.
“Like a museum?”
“Yes, like that.”
Excitement flared in her eyes, and he knew then he had made the right choice. He took her hand to lead her inside. The place was dim, only a subtle glow of light throughout the building, shining above the scattered exhibits. “Come on, tesoro.”
She didn’t move. “Don’t you have to pay?”
“No.” He hadn’t expected her to ask that. “You don’t have to pay to look at the art.”
He stood there, apprehensive about what she thought. Now he started to feel bad bringing her somewhere that didn’t cost him a dime.
“This place is really free?”
“Yes.”
“Why?”
He never thought about it before. “Educational reasons, I guess. Artists are kinda like musicians and work more for pleasure than money.”
He had no idea if he was right or not, but it sounded good.
They walked around, pausing every few feet to check out exhibits—carvings and pottery, sculptures and paintings, drawings and photography. It wasn’t the usual thing he would find interesting, but anything was enjoyable with Haven around. She glowed the entire time, and he just stood back, listening with amazement as she analyzed and dissected the art.
“You need to go to college,” he said. “You’re too damn smart not to.”
She narrowed her eyes. “Is it appropriate to curse in a gallery?”
He laughed. “Fuck if I know.”
She shook her head. “Do you really think I could go to school?”
“Yeah, I do. And you know I could help you, right?”
“I know you could try,” she said playfully. “Whether or not it works is another matter.”
They went through the rest of the gallery, chatting casually and holding hands. Toward the end of their tour, Haven paused in front of a pencil drawing, a figure of a woman from the back with a vibrantly colored sphere hovering in the air beside her. Haven was transfixed by it, a smile gracing her lips as she reached out to trace the outline of the drawing. “I like this one. It reminds me of myself.”
“How so?”
“Well, the girl . . . she’s stuck in a life where everything’s bland and hopeless, but then this beautiful thing comes along and brings color into her world. Color she never expected to see.”
He stared at her, stunned, before turning back to the drawing. He had no idea how she had gotten something so deep from a pencil sketch. “You know, maybe we’ll see your work in a place like this someday.”
“You think I’m that good?”
“Of course I do.”
* * *
Carmine turned on a side road that weaved through the mountain, driving until the small cabin came into view. It was just one room, a bed and a fireplace, with a small bathroom built in. He parked the car in front as the sun peeked out from behind the clouds, casting light along the meadow surrounding it. Tucked in among the trees were some deer, and Carmine stared at them as one took a few steps in his direction, feeling like he’d been sucked into a Disney movie.
