Page 55 of The Saint

I clamped my hands on the sides of her face and pulled her toward me, forcing her to focus on me instead of the stairs. She was stiff, brow furrowed and lips pursed. I smoothed my thumbs across her cheeks, smoothed away the frown that tugged at her lips. “Let her like me if she wants to,” I told her, voice low. “There’s only one person I’m interested in.”

All that hard, angry energy that was swirling through her floated away as I kissed her furrowed brow. Jael’s eyes fluttered shut, and I wanted to press kisses to her eyelids, to her nose, to take a taste of her lips. But the footsteps on the stairs had her eyes snapping back open, and she pulled away from me as she glanced that way.

Leonard Lovegood stepped off the bottom stair, his wide smile bright against his chestnut skin. He spread his arms as he closed in, welcoming me as if I were a long-lost friend. “Rolly, Rolly, Rolly. I wouldn’t have known it was you if Erika didn’t tell me. Look how much you’ve grown!”

I caught Jael’s eye before I extended my hand to Leonard for a shake, and she huffed at the smirk that crossed my lips.

“Good to see you. You haven’t changed a bit.”

Leonard smoothed a hand down his chest before he patted at his stomach. “Tell my daughter that. She keeps telling me I need to lose weight.”

As he gave a good chuckle, I dragged Jael closer, spreading my hand across her back once again. “This is Jael David,” I told him, and she reached to shake his hand.

“David?” He cocked his head, holding on to her hand as he studied her face. “Any relation to Devorah David?”

Her recoil was as obvious as the stiffening of her spine beneath my hand. Jael cleared her throat. “Yes, sir. That’s my mother.”

Unaware of the emotional screwdriver he’d just shoved in her gut, Leonard prattled on, “I can see the resemblance. Devorah often comes to our shows, though it has been a while.”

“Where would you like us to put everything?” I asked, hoping to squelch that conversation before it got any worse for Jael. She’d told me she hadn’t spoken to her mother since she left for Kansas a couple years ago, and it didn’t go over well. The last thing I wanted was for the day to be ruined because of this.

Leonard lit up, his wide smile widening further as he gestured toward the open space just past the desk. “Over here would be great. Do you need any help?”

“Just a dolly, if you have one.”

“Of course, I’ll go grab that now.”

With my hand on Jael’s back, I ushered her toward the front door. Outside at her SUV, I gripped her hand and pulled her close. “You okay?”

Her smile was tight, but the stiff set of her shoulders was gone. “I will be.”

I pressed a kiss to her lips, then let her unlock the back of the SUV. We pulled out the wooden crates full of my paintings, using Leonard’s dolly to bring them inside. I kept an eye on Jael, but with work to do, she seemed more relaxed than she had since we drove up. And the smile that worked its way across her face while Leonard gushed over my paintings distracted me from the swirl of emotions rampaging through my chest.

Erika came down from upstairs, studying my portfolio of drawings with a tablet in hand, occasionally turning to watch as her father went on about one canvas or another. When I held up a painting of the Manhattan skyline where the buildings looked like the bodies of different colored people, she spoke up.

“Do you have any more like that?”

“Like this?” I gripped the canvas tighter. As I dragged my gaze up from the painting toward Erika across the room, I caught sight of Jael. Her jade eyes were piercing, locked on my face, and it took everything in me not to react. I forced a smile, my gaze moving on. “I have a few.”

Leonard’s head whipped up from the painting he was studying, his ever-present smile gleaming. “You must bring them in. Even if you’re unwilling to part with them, they’re the exact thing that may entice our clientele to purchase more. Perhaps even order a commission.”

With a nod, I relaxed my grip on the painting. “I can do that.”

Once everything was unpacked, once the Lovegoods had gone through each and every one, Erika approached with her tablet, her pen already tapping on the screen.

“What do you think about the first full week of November? The New York City Marathon will just be getting over. If we market it well, we should be able to pull in some of the tourists who will still be in town. Get a better turnout for your show.”

“That’s eight weeks away.” Jael stepped up beside me, and Erika trained her gaze on her.

“That should give us enough time to get everything in order.” She looked to me. “I’m assuming you’d like us to frame your drawings? They present better that way.”

“Yeah. Yeah, that’d be great.”

Jael gripped my hand clamped on her shoulder as Leonard stepped away from the painting he was studying and came our way. And it felt like the storm rocking the boat I was standing on suddenly cleared, leaving a calm sea.

“Rolly, I absolutely love your work. I’d love to see more if you have it.”

“Yeah, of course,” I told him, and Jael squeezed my hand, releasing me as Leonard extended his toward me.