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“Okay.” He walked over to a stack of blank canvases leaning against the wall, pulled out a small one, and propped it up on an easel. “Here you go.”
She stood in front of a blank canvas and stared at it. “Okay. Now what?”
“What do you want to paint?”
“I don’t know. An apple?”
“How about this?” He picked up one of the gingerbread cookies off the plate.
She grinned. “Okay. How do I start?”
“First, lightly sketch the outline of the cookie on your canvas with pencil.” He picked up the pencil and made a quick sketch across the canvas.
“Wow,” she whispered, watching his fingers move.
“Then take your brush and start applying paint. It’s acrylic so if you don’t like the color, you can keep mixing and reapplying. What colors do you want?” She was so close to him he was finding it difficult to concentrate.
“Brown?”
“Great.” He squeezed some brown onto the palette, then some white and some tan and quickly mixed them, then added the paint to the canvas in quick and easy strokes. Then he handed her the paintbrush. “Like that.”
“Okay.” She smiled and tried to emulate what he’d done. The paint went on easy and a smile lit her face. “You’re right. I can just keep adding and adding.”
He set up an easel next to her, put the tin on the table between them, and started applying paint to a small canvas. The painting was coming to life quickly and easily. He had to admit, this might just work.
She made a little groan and bit the end of her brush.
“What is it?”
“I can’t get the eyes right. I keep painting them over and over, but no luck.”
“You’ll get there. Just move on to some other part of the painting for a while and then come back to it.”
He went back to his own work and before long was humming a tune. A Christmas tune.
He quickly looked up at her and caught her smiling at him.
“You know, I think it’s time for you to admit that you’re starting to enjoy Christmas.”
His eyes widened. “Never.”
“Yep. You are. You just haven’t admitted it yet. Pineville is working its magic on you.”
He smiled and leaned close. “No, I think you’re working your magic on me.”
Their eyes met for a long moment. She smiled, then looked down as color filled her cheeks. “I hope so.”
Suddenly, she leaned down and dug into her bag and pulled out her wooden discs. “Forget this gingerbread. I need to turn this wood into a peppermint.”
“Okay.” He quickly sketched in the lines for a peppermint onto her disc and placed it on the easel in front of her, then took her canvas and sketched a peppermint lollipop to put in the hand of the gingerbread man, with peppermint candies dancing in the background. “Will that be enough peppermint?”
“It most certainly will. I love it, but I won’t be able to paint all that.”
He nudged her with his shoulder. “Oh, you might be surprised. For now, start on your discs. We’ll save this one for later.”
She grinned. “Perfect.” She reached out to grab a cookie that was on the plate behind him at the same time as he turned.
He bumped into her and grabbed her by the waist. “Oh, sorry.”
