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Renee giggled bashfully, her eyelashes nearly fluttering.Good lord.“You wants ta paint wiff me? I’m makin’ awt.”
I finally managed to form words. “I’m sure Trent’s really busy, doodle bug,” I spoke as I took her by the shoulders and pulled her back into me.
She deflated beneath my hands like a balloon leaking air. “Oh,” she muttered on a pout. “Okay.”
“Maybe I could make art with you some other time, yeah?” Trent said, apparently as helpless to resist Renee’s sad face as everyone else in the world. I couldn’t blame him. It was a powerful look.
“Okay!” And just like that, she bounced right back, having gotten what she wanted in a roundabout way. She spun on her heel and skipped back over to her little table to resume painting.
“Sorry about that,” I said, lowering my voice so Renee couldn’t hear. “She’s kind of hard to say no to.”
“Christ, no joke.” He chuckled. “That face hits you right between the ribs, like someone just kicked a whole litter of adorable puppies right in front of you.”
I let out a bark of laughter at his metaphor. “Oh God. That’s exactly what it’s like.”
“Oh shoot,” Luna chirped just then. “Would you look at that? My coffee’s gone cold. Time for a refill. Come on, shorty,” she called to Renee. “Let’s go get your Lu-Lu a refill, and maybe I’ll sneak you some sugar.”
“Yay!” Renee bounded away from her table, grabbing hold of Luna’s hand.
“Trent, you want a cup?”
“No thanks. I’m good.”
“Oh. Does your wife or girlfriend already have a pot brewing for you when you get back?”
I tried my best to stab her with my glare.Jesus, real smooth, Luna.
“No wife or girlfriend,” Trent answered, and I could hear the struggle to hold back his laughter in his voice.
“So you’re a bachelor then. In that case, you should swing by here for dinner one night. Or several nights. You probably haven’t had a homemade meal in forever, and Sawyer is anamazingcook.”
“I wish the ground would open up and swallow you,” I grumbled.
Trent lost the fight and let loose a husky laugh that made my skin pebble with goose bumps. “Yeah. I just might have to do that.”
“Perfect!” she exclaimed brightly. “Okay, well we’ll just be inside...” She hooked her thumb over her shoulder as she started walking backward, leading my daughter toward the house. “You know, out of earshot and all that stuff. See you around, Trent.”
“Yeah! bye, Tent!” Renee called out, skipping through the sliding glass door.
Trent watched them disappear before looking back at me, his eyes lit with amusement. “Your friend is... colorful.”
She wassomething, that was for sure. “She’s not really my friend. She’s just the town crazy lady. She doesn’t have very good people skills because she spends most of her time holed up at home with her twenty cats.”
“I heard that!” Luna yelled from inside. “And I haveonecat!”
“I’m so sorry she pulled you from your run and into her orbit of crazy. If you want to take off running, I’ll cover for you.”
He hit me with those dimples again and my knees almost gave out. “Nah, it’s all good. She’s entertaining.”
“She’s certifiably insane.”
“Like I said. Entertaining.” His gaze shifted over my shoulder. “What’s all this?”
“Oh.” I looked behind me into my workshop. “It’s nothing,” I answered, nerves fluttering around in my belly like a swarm of butterflies. Having the shop owners in town sell my pieces for me was one thing, but there was just something about witnessing people’s reactions to my art firsthand that left me feeling exposed. My creations were personal to me, my passion. I did much better taking my cut from the people in the stores who’d sold the items on my behalf. It was one of the reasons why I didn’t sell them right out of my workshop directly. “It’s just a hobby,” I said, downplaying what it really meant to me.
I watched, feeling itchy and tense as his gaze scanned the entire space before coming back to me. “You mind if I take a closer look?”
“Oh, um... sure.” I stepped to the side so he could come into my inner sanctum. Other than Renee and Luna, no one else had stepped foot in here, and seeing Trent in my space felt like an invasion. But I didn’t know how to explain it. It didn’t feel bad, necessarily. More like he was seeing deep inside of me.
