“It smells amazing in here,” Nellie practically moaned, picking up the menu. She flipped it open, her eyes scanning the options. “I don’t know what I want, it all sounds so good.”
“I’m going to go with an order of beef chimichangas,” I told her. “I’ll share, if you want to order something else to try.”
“Chicken enchiladas?” Nellie asked, looking up at me hopefully.
“Sure. They give you massive portions, so we’ll be able to split everything and still probably have leftovers,” I chuckled.
Lucia chose that moment to reappear with our two ice teas. “Have you decided what you’d like to get?” she asked.
“Sure have, Lucia. We’ll take a plate of beef chimichangas, and the pretty lady will have chicken enchiladas. Extra sour cream, guacamole, and salsa, please.”
“Coming right up,” Lucia said, finishing taking down our order and heading to the kitchen.
“The mural is so beautiful,” Nellie said, taking in the beautiful artwork on the walls.
“Freyja Durand painted it. She owns the art gallery in town and has done a lot of the murals around Hartwood Creek. She painted the one in the alley, too.”
“That’s so cool!” Nellie’s face lit up with excitement. “Is it open today?”
“I’m sure it is, she usually offers classes on Saturday mornings and evenings. We could go check it out if you’d like.”
“That would be great. I love art.”
“Are you an artist?” I asked, thinking about the elaborate makeup she’d done for her Halloween costume.
“I wouldn’t say that.”
“Could have fooled me, your costume makeup was incredible. So incredible, I had a hard time recognizing you without it.” I smirked.
“I mean, I’m decent with face painting, special effects, and makeup, but I don’t draw or paint or anything. I just…like art, I guess. Guelph had a lot of art galleries near where I used to live, and sometimes I’d go to shows to do something. They always had wine and cheese, and I could pretend to be cultured for an evening.” Nellie’s lips twitched, fighting a smile.
“Well, we’ll check it out.”
* * *
Nellie
* * *
After lunch, we put our leftovers in Noah’s truck and walked around downtown. Noah gave a more guided tour than the one I’d gotten from Sage. She’d mostly shown me her favourite stores, but Noah gave me a thorough history lesson on the businesses and the people of Hartwood Creek.
Our first stop was the art gallery since it was closest to where we parked.
Before we went inside, Noah filled me in on the history of it. It was apparently opened by Mrs. Durand in the nineties, who happened to be Sage’s neighbour in the apartments above the hardware store. I hadn’t met her yet, but Sage had shared a few funny anecdotes with me. Her grandniece, Freyja, ran it now that Mrs. Durand had retired.
It was open, and Freyja was busy cleaning up from her morning art class with kids, and preparing for a paint night class. She came from the backroom when the door chimed, drying her hands on her smock.
“Can I help you? Oh! Hi Noah.”
Freyja’s face lit up at the sight of Noah. He gave her a returning smile and put his arm around me.
“Freyja, I’d like you to meet Nellie. She wanted to come check out the gallery after she found out you did the murals in Juan In A Million. Nellie, this is Freyja. We went to high school together.”
“And middle school, and public school.” Freyja laughed.
I smiled at Freyja. “It’s nice to meet you. Noah’s right, I was admiring the murals. You’re very talented.”
“Thank you!” Freyja flushed at the compliment and held out her hand to shake mine. “It’s so nice to finally meet you, Nellie. I’ve heard a lot about you.”
