Rafi shrilled in the background, “Tell me!”
“Kari has been hiding work from us. Fourteen paintings, plus her new ones.” A pause. Then he told Kari, “Rafi is now prostrate on the floor.”
“I have no idea if any of these fourteen are up to exhibition standards,” she cautioned. “I just felt a special bond . . . something. I wasn’t ready to give them up, so I kept them hidden. You’ll need to come up and decide for me.”
“We would like nothing more. You’ll be able to complete the others in time?”
“I can’t say for certain. But things are going so well, I might have them finished. When do we leave for Miami?”
“Three days. When can we come up?”
She breathed around the enormity of it all, then said, “Does tomorrow work?”
* * *
Kari carried her phone into the bedroom and settled on her pallet, her back against the side wall. Sienna padded over and climbed into Kari’s lap as she placed the next call.
Ian answered, “Hello?”
“It’s me.”
“And?”
“I’m going.”
“Wow. Kari.” A silence, then, “Are you okay?”
“I have no idea.” Kari stroked the purring kitten, the world a distant silence beyond her closed door. “I’ll probably come down with the screaming meemies in a little bit. Right now . . .”
“Yes?”
“I want to go finish a painting. Maybe two.”
He laughed. “I’d take that as a good sign.”
“This rushing forward, it ought to terrify me. I’ve spent so long holding tight to one little space.” In the quiet moment, voices sounded in Ian’s background. “I took you away from something.”
“Kari, nothing is as important as . . .”
“What?”
“Being there for you.”
She formed a silentwow.
“Did that sound totally lame?”
“No, Ian. It sounded nice.”
“Did they say where you’ll be staying?”
“The Ritz Carlton, on some beach.”
He laughed a second time. “You’re staying at the Ritz Carlton South Beach?”
“Is it nice?”
“At two thousand a night for the standard room, it better be.”
