Bedding the Billionaire (Book 3) (Legacy Collection) (26 page)

The room was charged with emotion.
Even the babies seemed to sense that something important was happening and were subdued as they dunked their fingers into the edible paints and
mixed colors onto the papers before them.

Lil chose
colorful art sticks.

Jake chose black charcoal
pencils
.

Lil dove into
drawing
with bold lines and bright colors.

Jake
’s moves were more precise and calculated. He
drew himself on top of a mountain surrounded by several doors.
Behind each door was a path that led to a different destination.
One led to a cliff.
One led to a place of order and straight, bold lines.
A
nother led to a much less clear
picture.
Jake reached over and borrowed a few of Lil’s
art sticks even though he could have easily used his own.
He drew
a
simple
woman with a child and surrounded both with a wild assortment of colors.
It was the only place where color touched his sketch.

He caught Lil watching with fascination and actually blushed.
“Th
at’s how you make me feel,” h
e said simply.

Lil
almost knocked over her box of supplies, catching it at the last second
.
She looked at her own sketch and wondered what he thought
of the fact
that she hadn’t included him in it at all.
She had drawn herself
,
serious and determined
, looking
miserable
with
Colby clutched in her arms
while she chased
Abby.
She wasn’t even entirely sure what
the scene
meant, only that it had poured out of h
er and now stared back at her,
revealing something she wasn’t sure she wanted to discuss with Jake.

Jake studied her sketch for a moment and said, “
Don’t take an office job, Lil.”

She searched his face.

“
You’re already the mother Colby needs.
”

Lil looked quickl
y at her child, who was licking
the green paint off one finger, then back to Jake. “I’m not, Jake.
I haven’t been the person
I need to be
,
but
I am changing that.” She thought about how part of becoming a better person had involved killing any chance that something real could develop between them. Forgetting
,
even for a
moment
,
that
her friends were
using this time to access
Jake’s private account
s would only lead to more heart
ache.
She had to remember that none of this was
real
.
“
The
older I get the more I wonder if anyone has the answers or if, like me, they are just doing the best they can and praying every day that it’s enough.”

The seriousness of her response set
Jake
back on his heels.
He opened and closed his mouth without saying a word.

Carmen
had gone
from mother to mother and discussed each creation with the novice artists,
until she came to
Jake and Lil. She correctly interpreted the tension between the two and took them by surprise by reaching out and taking each of them by one hand.
For an uncomfortable moment, she simply held them and then nodded without saying anything, giving each hand a comforting squeeze before letting go.

Carmen
returned to the
front of the group
and began to share
her observations, but Lil wasn’t listening.
She was lost in her reaction to Jake’s sketch and
in
his response to hers. Of course, someone like him would think she had options besides takin
g a job she already dreaded,
but that only highlighted how little they had in common.
A
lthough it was flattering to be considered someone who added color to his life
,
s
he’d already made her choice.

His picture would have been quite different had she confessed the real reason they were together that day.
Would it have shown her being led to the
gallows
? Or, just as painful, would she simply
not have
shown up at all?

How
did
betrayal look in charcoal?

Colby let out a cry of frustrati
on and Lil had never been so ha
ppy to have an event interrupted.

“She’s probably hungry,” Lil said as she headed toward her child.
She used the supplies provided to clean Colby off a
nd put her
back in her stroller,
then
gave
her address to the instructor who said the artwork would be mailed to her.

The visiting artist
approached her.
“Lil, right?”

“Yes,” she said, not really wanting to engage in a conversation with someone who had seen more than she showed most people.

“
Your work was very moving,
”
Carmen said.

Lil dismissed the
comment as polite small talk
. “Thank you. I’ve always enjoyed sketching, just for fun.
Nothing serious.”

Carmen continued, “You captured a lot of emotion in just a few crisp lines. You have a gift
. You might want to explore it.”

Anger flooded in and added bite to Lil’s words.
“I’
m taking a different road;
one that I’m happy about.
”

The artist
did not waver
.
“Honor the
message you heard today,
both from yourself and your man.”

“He’s not…”

C
armen smiled and shook her head.
“
Art never lies.”

Unlike me
, Lil wanted to say.

Alethea
and Jerem
y had better be fini
shed whatever the heck they were do
ing because she needed to end
this date.
It was simply too painful.

Lil was
double checking that she had everything she’d come with
when Jake walked over to join her
.
Lil said,
“Well, this was…” She paused.
Pai
nful?
Awful?
Torture?
“N
ice,” s
he finished lamely.

He rolled one of her loose curls around his finger.
“When I imagined this date last night, you were smiling at this point.”

Lil tried but failed.

Confusion swirled within her.
Was she hoping Jake was innocent so she c
ould believe the side of him
that he was showing her today?
Or that he was guilty so she would feel less awful about
what
she
’d
done?
Neither outcome held much comfort for her.

He put a
n
arm
gently around her waist and together they thanked everyone
and exited the room.
Jake guided her out of the building and onto the sidewalk.
“
Are you ready for lunch
?” he
asked
.

“I really should be getting home.
Colby will need a
bottle and a
nap…”

With his arm still around Lil, Jake
said
,
“Just one more place. Then I promise to deposit you back at your penthouse. Do you have formula with you?”

She considered
making an excuse why she couldn’t go, but today was already more of a lie than she could stomach.
“
Yes
.”

“Let’s walk
then
,” Jake said
.

They stopped in front of the
Is
abella Stewart Gardner Museum, the once
private home of a woman who had collected art from all over the world and donated the building along with her collection to the city.
Although the building had undergone renovations and modern additions had been added, Jake led her to an old entrance.

“Have you been here before?” he asked as they entered the
museum
and we
re instantly met by someone who
ushered them down
a dark hallway and
through various rooms that were filled with an eclectic and mostly unlabeled art collection.
Normally
Lil
would have asked
to stop to savor some of the many works
, but she was determined to end this day at the first opportunity.

When
the inner courtyard came into view she
almost forgo
t everything beyond its beauty.
Stepping into the long, rectangular courtyard revealed the true
an
Italian-styled
palazzo that had once been nothing more than a private home of a very eccentric and wealthy woman.
The garden
was a
visual feast of flowers, statues, and old world architecture.
Elegantly dressed staff met them as they entered the area and led them to a sole table set up at one end of the courtyard, hidden from public view by flowers but positioned so that once seated they would still have an incredible view of the area.
Candles lit what would have otherwise been a darkened corner.