AllFreeNovel
Share Us
Of course, his father had taken one look at it and said, “Ambitious.”
He’d also said gorgeous, but that had been the second word. Because his father also got it.
“Okay, so, have a seat and tell me about what you do, where you go, etc.”
“Oh, okay!" She took a deep breath as if centering herself. "I've been studying woodworking since I was twelve. I started with my granddad when he came over to live with us, making these little animals for my dollhouse which I had absolutely no interest in."
“In the little animals?"
"No, the dollhouse. The animals were awesome." She reached in her bag, pulled out a small frog, and put it on the table between them. “This is the last one my granddad and I made together."
Cam reached out for it and stopped. "May I?"
She gave a little nod and he picked up the frog, turning it in his hand.
"How old were you when you made this?"
"I would've been fourteen. You can see the places he would've cleaned it up a little, but he was big on not perfecting anything for me.”
“You had a really good sense of proportion even then." Cam handed her back the animal.
"You should've seen the first version. Its feet werehuge." She laughed at herself. "So my parents weren't thrilled about my addiction to woodworking…"
Their conversation went on from there with her walking him through her education and training.
“I have to tell you, you're one of my inspirations."
Cam snorted. Jamie probably would've believed her and got allof course I am, but Cam was used to being overlooked in the world of art.
“No. Really. You were my final project. I’m doing an internship after the fact because of my dual school schedule.” She opened her portfolio to a page with a collection of small sketches.
“We had to study an artist who we’d want to work with—some people seemed to think they could do dead artists, which seems stupid since we couldn’t work with them.”
“So was I your fortieth or fiftieth choice before taking the dead people out.”
She grinned. “You were still pretty high.”
He turned the portfolio to find a study of sketches of some of his pieces. “Wow, these are great.” But then he saw she’d removed handles and done a second set of drawings with them hanging on a wall. “Okay, talk me through this.”
The next forty minutes flew by as she explained the adjustments she made for the assignment and he gave her some praise and corrections.
“I can’t believe I’m saying this.” And he couldn’t really, but as she’d talked, he’d realized she was gold in the making. She’d shown the ability to research, sketch out ideas, shift those ideas, and do detail work. He’d be a fool to pass on this. “You’re hired.”
“Oh my gosh! I can’t believe it! I wanted this so much I didn’t think I’d get it!” She threw herself into his arms. “Thank you! Thank you! Thank you! You won’t regret it.”
Cam awkwardly patted her on the back. “Sure.”
Behind him, someone cleared their throat. “I hope I’m not interrupting anything.”
Vivian stood in the doorway, arms crossed, looking annoyed.
Cam’s first instinct was to panic.
His second instinct was to let her wonder. Annoyed jealousy looked good on her.
“Oh! You must be Vivian.” Emi rushed her and wrapped her in a tight hug. “I’m so excited to see how the mechanical and the artistic come together. Cam says you’re the best. I can’t believe I’m going to get to study under you both.”
“Um, yes.” Vivian obviously didn’t know what to do with this level of enthusiasm and appreciation.
