AllFreeNovel
Share Us
She headed for the back of the gallery to confer with Moni and was surprised when Moni excitedly grabbed her arm and leaned over to speak near Nina’s ear. “Levi Roth ishere.”
Levi Roth was an art critic for the Times, and Nina’s heart raced as she searched the crowd. “Where?”
“Over there — by the redhead,” Moni said. Nina tried to look casual as she scanned the room, training her eyes on Judith’s photo of a redhead walking in the park. “Bald, navyjacket.”
“Oh my god…” He was standing in front of the photo, notebook in hand as he looked at the picture. “I think I’m going to besick.”
Moni laughed. “Don’t be silly. It’s fine. Every piece in the collection is alreadysold.”
“Are you serious?” Ninaasked.
Moni held up two fingers as a pledge. “As a heart attack. Whatever Roth has to say now doesn’t matter — and I’m willing to bet Judith would have felt that way even before any of her piecessold.”
“You know what else she’d say?” Ninaasked.
“What?”
“Of course, they sent aman.”
Moni laughed. “She’s not wrong.” She squeezed Nina’s arm. “I’m going to talk to Janet, see how she’s coming with the newpieces.”
Moni disappeared into the crowd, and Nina headed for the drinks table and checked in with the staff from Brown’s catering to make sure the champagne was still flowing. Then she made the rounds for what felt like the hundredth time, making a point to chat up the latecomers she hadn’t spoken toyet.
When she felt like she’d adequately covered the room, she took a pass of both walls to confirm what Moni had said: every one of Judith’s photographs was already sold, a red sticker affixed in the lower corner of each plaque describingthem.
She forced herself to breathe, trying to contain her excitement when all she wanted to do was jump up and down. It was a big deal for a gallery as small as Stockholm to sell out the first night of a show, a big deal to sell even a majority of the photographs on display. It was all thanks to Judith’s mystique, and to the coverage it had bought them in publications like the Times, but it could be a huge turning point for the gallery going forward, and Nina couldn’t help but feel like Judith was sharing in themoment.
“Nina.”
The voice came from behind her, a voice heard in her memory and in herdreams.
She turned around. “Liam.”
She hadn’t seen him since the day she’d received Judith’s package, the day she’d watched him walk down the street, resisting the urge to run after him. He still had the rugged good looks that had made it hard to breathe the first time she’d seen him, his blond hair a little long on top, the faintest hint of five o’clock shadow darkening his pronounced jaw. She’d always wondered if she was embellishing the blue of his eyes in her memory, but now she knew it wasn’t true. They were as piercing as she remembered, as blue as an Octobersky.
“How have you been?” heasked.
She’d forgotten the way he looked at her, like she was the center of the universe. “Fine. Good,” she said. “I’ve beengood.”
He smiled and nodded, turning to look at the photographs on the wall. She took advantage of the opportunity to survey his shoulders, broad under a gray blazer, the taper of his waist, his muscled thighs under the tailored fabric of his navy slacks. She had a flash of him naked, cradling her face in his hands as she straddledhim.
“This is your show,” hesaid.
“How’d youknow?”
“Read about it in the Times. And Moni toldme.”
She laughed. “Right.”
“But I would have known anyway,” he said. “They have you written all overthem.”
“How so?” sheasked.
He hesitated. “I can feel you in them. Like you’re on the periphery, watching whoever’s taking the picture take thepicture.”
“I was in a way,” she said. “Some of themanyway.”
He nodded and turned to look at her. “I read about your friendship with Judith. She sounds like a speciallady.”
