As she approached the door, she moved the baby shower gift to her left hand and opened the door with her right. She stepped onto the plush, olive-colored carpet and turned toward the spa, where Tracy, with stomach protruding, was finishing up a cut and color before her party started.
Skye stopped.
The baby rattle inside the gift bag jingled as it dropped to her feet.
Slowly, she took a step toward the first row of gilded paintings, her eyes wide. The waves crashed onto the sand of the Seattle coastline, the marine life beneath a seafoam green sea, the boulder and its crop of trees protruding just off the shore in the midst of the sea. She’d completed and sold this series years ago. Her finger traced her own signature along the bottom edge. The black plaque beside it with gold lettering announced:Display Only.
How?
She looked down the wall, counted. One, two, three, four, five.
At the end of the hall, Tracy turned the corner and grinned when she spotted Skye. “There you are! I just finished up. Ready to go?”
Skye drew up her finger at the largest painting, felt her mouth hanging open like that of a codfish. “How did these get here?”
Tracy raised a brow. “You didn’t know? I assumed you knew. Theo brought them in two weeks ago.”
“Theo?” Skye’s throat was drying fast. “But how? How didhe have them—?” She squeezed her eyes shut for a moment, finding the questions coming faster than she could process.
Tracy shrugged. “All I know is that I saw him in here meeting with the manager with one of your paintings one day, and the next they were replacing all the old displays with yours.”
Chapter 16
Theo
Theo rubbed his eyes, weary from hours of exposure to lamplight and computer screens. The office had long closed up for the day, and yet he sat, logging in the numbers on the Excel sheet in the still room.
The Barter ticket sat on his desk, unused, while outside the street was lined with the parallel-parked cars of Barter visitors. It was opening night forKing Lear, but tonight, like every night the past three weeks, he had work to do. Things to prepare.
Unbelievably, Ashleigh had returned to him that evening three weeks prior. Turned her headlights around. Listened and braved a conversation about mending fences. And for a millisecond, he had considered it. But as he did he realized he couldn’t maintain a conversation about building their relationship while keeping one eye on the door, with one part of hisheart hoping to hear Skye’s knock. He couldn’t do that to Ashleigh, who deserved much, much more. And despite his mistakes, he couldn’t do that to himself. He couldn’t let Skye go. Not again.
So he resolved then and there to do something about it.
To take that risk Skye needed.
Theo sighed and leaned back in his chair, back aching from the day’s load of sitting through meals and meetings and reports. His legs ached with the desire to move, to pedal, to run. Perhaps he’d actually go on a run tonight before packing the last box. He glanced out the window to the dark street.
A light flashed into his eyes and he blinked.
He frowned, looked out the window again.
A light blinked again, this time covering the whole of his window with its light. A moment later it ceased, then flicked on again.
Was that...?
Theo pushed back his chair. Stood.
The light continued blinking on and off as he moved to the foyer, then turned the knob on the front door. When he opened it, he was certain.
“Skye?”
Skye, standing on the brick sidewalk beneath the maple, clicked off the flashlight. Her hand fell to her side as he strode toward her.
She smiled slightly as he stepped onto the sidewalk.
He glanced down at the flashlight. “I hate to be cliché, but what are you doing here?”
“I, um . . .” Skye looked from his eyes to his jacket pocket and up again. “I wanted to apologize. I know everythingabout my dad and . . . I wanted to say I’m sorry. I thought you wouldn’t do anything like that and yet . . .” She shrugged. “I was wrong to think it. I was wrong about a few things. And for what it’s worth, I was wrong to expect you to take all the risks.” She took a step toward him. “And maybe you have a girlfriend now—”
