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She squeezed his fingers while reaching to cup his jaw with her other hand. “You trusted me enough to bring me here. Just say it.”
Seconds ticked by until he finally asked, “What if no one likes them?”
“People will love them,” she argued with a smile. “Your artwork is beautiful.”
“You’re only saying that because you know their mine.”
“I said that before I knew this was all yours. I thought for a moment it was a collection of paintings by different people, because you have very diverse subjects. It wasn’t until I looked closer I noticed the similar abstract style that ties them all together.”
A corner of his mouth twitched, but then he went serious again as his gaze dropped, those thick, dark lashes of his hiding his eyes. “What if people think I’m a hack? Or worse, what if they patronize me simply because my last name is Diamond?”
“Who’s going to do that?”
His lashes lifted as his eyebrows arched.
Right, some idiots might. But then again... “Did anyone do it when you were looking for a job?”
“That’s completely different.”
“I guess, but still, so what if they do? If they think you’re a hack, they’re not going to buy anything. Which is fine, because you’re not painting for them anyway, are you?”
“No.”
“And if they buy something for the sole reason of your last name being Diamond, you’ll have their money, so who’s the idiot then?”
His mouth twitched upward again. “I want respect. Not money.”
“To be brutally honest, honey, until you hit thirty and get your trust fund back, you could use their money.” She lifted their joined hands to flatten his palm against her belly. “Babies aren’t cheap.”
He smiled at that, then dipped his head and lowered his voice. “That’s okay, baby. You’ll be worth every penny.”
Mae felt a little flutter inside, and then a distinct kick visibly moved Merit’s hand. He jerked his head up, eyes wide in astonishment as he breathed, “Oh, wow.”
She grinned at the wonder in his face and put her hand over his as he added his other one to the other side and bent closer. “Do it again, baby. Come on.”
No more kicks were forthcoming, but Merit’s smile remained. “That was so weird. But cool.”
“Just wait. You ain’t seen nothing yet. Ian used to kick like crazy and keep me up half the night sometimes.”
“Had his days and nights mixed up?”
“Yep. And then he did it all over again at a couple weeks after he was born.”
“That couldn’t have been easy to deal with by yourself.”
“No, but we got through it.”
“You’ll have help this time,” he vowed as he wrapped his fingers around hers to tug her toward the door. “Starting with me getting you fed. Let’s get going.”
She was hungry, but oddly reluctant to leave. “What if we have something delivered?”
He frowned at her resistance against his pull. “Here?”
“Yeah. Like pizza, or Chinese. I haven’t had a chance to look at all the paintings yet.”
Surprise flashed in his eyes. “You really want to stay here?”
“I do. I want to take my time looking, annnd, I want to see what’s hiding behind that door.” She pointed to the closed door she’d stepped past a bit ago. Past that to her right was an open alcove kitchenette and another door that had to be for the bathroom.
