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"Why are you asking me that?" She asked him.
"Because I'm curious. Are you comfortable?" He asked.
"I must admit I wasn't in the beginning," Nicole said.
"Is that so?" He asked.
"Yes, it just felt like something I had to endure to massage your oversized ego," she said.
"Hmmm, that's strange. Why didn't you like it?" He asked and blew some charcoal from the sketchpad.
"The sounds. They riled me up at first. The crickets and the wind and…everything in between," she said. Austin smiled at that.
"I thought it was easy for you since you grew up in the outdoors and because you're more or less a bear sometimes, so I thought that checked out. After the second day, it did become easier, and it was almost like the things that irritated me before, started making me feel better. The noises turned from disturbing to soothing, and the noises in my head quieted. I didn't realize how slower everything was out here until the third day, which was yesterday. Now I ask myself why I have never done this before," she said.
"Hmm,"
"Is that all you have to say?" She asked.
"It's just that out here is where I feel like my mind can be clear, and I can be…free. There are no expectations and laws, and not many people either, so that's a plus. I make these sketches when my mind is that calm. Looking at them when I'm away from here brings me peace. I looked at them the most when I was in the army," he said.
"You needed peace, then?" She asked. He smiled and said nothing for such a long while that she thought he was back to ignoring her. Austin looked at the woman who was turning her face to the breeze, her eyes shut, and her hair blown in the wind. Her skin was honey, and her hair was night. She had a small smile on her face.
"Being a lawyer…you don't get to know about these things," she said. Austin nodded.
"There are many things’ lawyers don't know, but they somehow feel like they knew everything,"
"And I was starting to feel like we could understand each other," Nicole said.
"Oh, we do, we do. You just don't see it yet," he replied.
"Are you nervous?" Nicole asked him, and he gritted his teeth.
"About the race?" He asked.
"Yes. Are you nervous?" She asked him, and he shook his head.
"Can't say that I am. I just haven't really thought about it in all the time that I have been here. There are many other thingsto think about, many other things to admire, and they have occupied me for the time I have been here," he said.
"You don't worry about him?" She asked. Austin looked up and blew breath through puffed cheeks.
"Why would I worry about him? That is just a waste of energy. We will go out there on that day, and we will work. That is just what it is to me…work" he said.
Austin knew that Nicole didn't believe him, and he wasn't even sure that he believed himself. She looked at the sketch he was making, and she smiled.
"That is a beautiful sketch. Didn't know you were an artist," she said. He shook his head.
"Aren't we all?" He asked. She laughed.
CHAPTER TWELVE
LENANEE'S POV
She stared at his broad back, and the way he hunched over with his head bowed and his elbows resting on his knees. She wanted to say something that would make him feel better, but the truth was that she didn't think there was anything that she could say at this moment that he would truly listen to.
Lee walked to the end and sat beside Hayden, who somehow felt bigger, more intimidating. Except from the very beginning, she had never considered him to be intimidating. He sat there with his teeth clenched and his eyes so focused and hard that it seemed like he wasn't the same person anymore. She didn't like this feeling, didn't like what this was doing to him.
"Are you alright?" She asked. It seemed like he was snapped back into noticing that she was there then he inhaled deeply and shrugged.
