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“Ross.”
They both laughed. Ross carefully raised the coffee to his lips as he turned a corner.I wonder what he’s working late for.A memory swam through her mind at the smell of it. “I used to use coffee for paint,” she said.
“Oh? There’s a woman in Germany who does that. You never struck me as a watercolor person.”
“I’m not. I’m happy for everything you bought me today.”
He flushed with pleasure. “Good. Just don’t let ‘em sit in a drawer somewhere.”
“I wish I still had those paintings.”
“You’ll make more,” said Ross confidently. He took an aside look at her. “Actually, Angel, I have a confession.”
“What?”
“I submitted your sketches for the auction.”
Angel’s eyes widened. “What?”
“You can keep all of the proceeds— it’s your art, your money. But it will put your name out there. Use what those supplies to start a real portfolio…”
Angel opened her mouth but couldn’t speak.
“Hell, don’t cry,” said Ross. “I wanted to make you laugh!”
“Ross!” She covered her mouth tightly and looked out the window. She didn’t speak for the rest of the drive to Roman’s house. But as they rolled over endless green hills she formed an idea in her mind for a painting. Using real color this time.
12
EPILOGUE
SIX MONTHS LATER
Angel saton the edge of a high white wall caressed by overgrown bougainvillea vines. She wore a pair of silk panties and a breezy top. Even this time of day the heat of the sun was no joke.
A cool trade wind caressed her face and brought the smell of hibiscus flowers and salt to her nose. She closed her eyes and inhaled. The bougainvillea vines spoke to each other in rough, excited whispers. She liked the wind, even though it made her puffy hair try its hardest to escape her scarf.
In front of her was a many-faceted Caribbean sea, and glimpses of its true color were beginning to emerge as the sun rose up over it to make another day. Ross was asleep— she’d woken up at the crack of dawn and had been here ever since with the tea she now drank every morning.
She put a hand on her heavily pregnant stomach and watched the great waves pounding at the edge of the beach. The baby turned over inside her and pushed at her flat palm with its hands and feet. Angel had no woman in her life to tell her what to do, but she accepted this challenge without fear, holding onto her faith above everything.
Every new experience expanded her mind, and in the last few months she had so many of them she could barely process it all. Sitting up here was a new experience, too.
She stared down at the water, hypnotized. She had never seen something so giant, but soalive.Each motion, the sea attempted to reclaim the land. Sometimes it made it as far as the retaining wall of giant stone that kept Ross’s villa from plunging into the sea. Ross said that with the state of the world it might not be long before that happened. But for now each effort fell short; the separation between them would never be overcome.
Well, little baby, I tried to give you a better life than what I had.
All her life living in L.A she never went to the beach. Now she was in Aruba, the Caribbean. This was better than anything she could have imagined. She had nearly cried the first time Ross brought her to this place, where they would be spending the next three months. Three months had become six…
She loved it here. Unlike Virginia it was hot all the time, something she missed from Cali. Mostly though, she loved the beach. The beach here was clean and empty as the first day God made it. The sand was white, and the water was blue and fine.
She could strip naked and run down there without a care in the world. Today Ross was going to teach her how to swim, baby and all.
“Up early?”
Ross came through the glass doors, surprising her with his soundless movement.
His thick curly hair stuck up in every direction, and his mean-mugging face had tired lines under the eyes, but he was the most handsome man she’d ever seen. She had agreed to lay down and make a child with him in exchange for money but somewhere along the line it turned into real feelings.
