“I’m being respectful. They cut these samples for us.”
“For everyone.”
“I’m appreciating the effort.”
By the time we make it back to the villa, I’m warm, happy, and carrying a drink with fruit floating in it because I am on vacation. Javonte sets my new basket on the table, then props the wrapped painting carefully beside.
I go into my suitcase and pull out the travel watercolors I packed at the last minute.
His eyes light up. “You’re about to paint?”
“Maybe.”
He grins and drops onto the daybed on the terrace. “I’ll be quiet.”
“You don’t know how.”
“I can learn.”
I set up at the little table facing the water and stare at the water until I make the first stroke. From there, I move oninstinct. My logical and analytical mind quiet while feelings pour out of me through my hands.
For a while, Javonte really is quiet.
That surprises me.
He stretches out on the daybed with one arm behind his head, sunglasses on, pretending he isn’t watching me.
“You know I can feel you staring, right?”
“I’m admiring.”
“That’s staring with manners mixed in.”
He smiles. “Then yes.”
I laugh and swish my brush in the water.
The ocean is in front of me. Javonte is behind me.
Nothing pulls at me. Not work. Not worry. Not the question of whether this is too much too soon.
I paint until the sun starts to drop, and every time I glance back, he’s still in the same spot.
Quiet. Comfortable. Like being with me while I do something I love is enough for him.
I forgot how good that used to feel.
Chapter 31 Javonte
We’ve been back for two days, and I still feel like I brought some of that sun home with me.
Not literally. This heat has already lost its mind, and I don’t need any extra help sweating through my shirt.
But everything feels lighter. Lily and I are good. Really good.
The kind of good where she texts me pictures of her lunch because it looks terrible, and she calls me just to tell me something funny Edie said. We’re in a place where I don’t have to wonder if she’s going to answer when I call.
She always answers. She laughs. She says she loves me freely.
