‘Look…’ Jamie didn’t want to go down this line of enquiry. Sean obviously knew about Alicia, the whole village did, but that didn’t mean Jamie was ready to field questions about it, even from his closest family. ‘I brought these here to show to Dad. You getting to see them is a privilege, you don’t get the whole backstory as well, okay?’
‘Jings, okay.’ Sean held up his palms in mock surrender. ‘Touchy.’
‘Shut up,’ said Jamie.
‘Boys, come on,’ Amanda soothed. ‘Jamie, these paintings are beautiful. Your father will love them and I think they will look beautiful on the whisky bottles. What a wonderful idea.’
‘Thanks, Mum.’
‘What about this one?’ Sean tugged on the edge of another canvas, sticking out of an inside sleeve of the portfolio. Jamie narrowed his gaze. He wasn’t sure what that one was, and just as light dawned, Sean had fully removed the artwork from the sleeve and Jamie’s mother and brother were staring at a full-frontal nude of Jamie himself.
‘Oh shit!’ Jamie should have grabbed the painting, but instead he whacked his palm across his eyes as if shielding himself from what was happening. Quickly he regained his composure and flipped the painting over. ‘Sorry, Mum,’ he said. ‘Sorry.’
While Amanda was picking up another painting and trying her best to pretend nothing had happened, Sean was now doubled over in stitches.
‘Ah! That’s gold. Why don’t you put that one on the bottles as a limited-edition expression? You’ll have all the old wifies buying up casks in no time.’
Jamie wanted to crawl inside the portfolio and die, but he also saw the funny side.
‘Aye, well, obviously that one’s for the private collection. When I’m an old duffer, I’ll display it to remember my youth, but today it’s staying under lock and key.’
‘I don’t know if I can eat any lunch after seeing that.’ Sean sat down at the table. ‘I feel a bit nauseous.’
‘Don’t you mean jealous?’ Jamie countered.
‘Jealous? Nah. We’ve the same genes. I just didn’t need to see the evidence of it before lunch. Or ever.’
Jamie chuckled but his overarching sentiment in this moment was for Alicia. That his mum and brother had seen a painting of him in the nude mortified him. And these were two of the people to whom he was closest in the world. His perspective of what Alicia must have felt was turned on its axis. Ever since she’d told him about thenudes, he had carried pain for her, but now he had sampled a crumb of her experience of having her body exposed to the world without her permission. And it was not fun in the slightest.
‘So, this woman…’ Sean sidled up to Jamie as he stood at the French doors in the lounge, whisky in hand, gazing towards the sea.
‘How did you know I was thinking about her?’
‘Ach, come on.’
‘Aye, okay,’ Jamie conceded. Sean knew him well, and it wasn’t that difficult to work out. He and Alicia had walked about town, news about the fracas in the bookshop was on the Kinshore wires in ten minutes, and Sean could see Jamie’s contemplative expression in real time.
‘Her art is amazing,’ said Sean.
‘Aye, isn’t it? It’s incredible.’
‘I don’t know what it is, but she’s managed to capture something in those paintings – theje ne sais quoiabout the place.’
‘She’s captured theI don’t know what.’ Jamie nodded sagely. ‘Cancel that art critic who’s coming to town. Sean Butler is here.’
‘Aye, I’ve always been able to pinpoint what it is about things I like – and in French too.’
Jamie was truly grateful for Sean being able to cheer him up. But Sean could be serious too and insightful with emotions.
‘You must have had something together,’ his younger brother continued. ‘It takes trust to pose nude for someone like that and a connection for them to capture them so well, even if we could have kept itoff the lunch menu.’
Jamie turned and looked at Sean. ‘It does, doesn’t it? We did have a connection. I’ve never felt anything like it.’
‘So, what happened?’
‘She left. Thought I was still hung up on Katie and should be more honest with myself. Amongst other things.’
‘Oh. You and Katie are done, right?’
