Katie looked dumbstruck. Awestruck. Completelywhat the fuckstruck.
“But… are you sure? This is what the band wants? I mean… they’re not just agreeing to this because they think I’m your girl?”
“Yes, it’s what they want. We had a conference call about it while you were on the plane.”
She blinked at me again. “And Elle too?”
“Yes, cherry pie. Elle too. Last I checked, she was in the band.”
She shook her head, like she couldn’t fucking believe it. “But… they haven’t even seen my work.”
“Actually,” I said, “they have.”
CHAPTER 38
KATIE
Jesse wouldn’t tell me where the fuck we were going. By the time we got there I was bouncing around in the passenger seat like a dog.
He parked us in front of a long, white two-story building in a commercial neighborhood, just a few blocks from Devi’s office. The building was free-standing and took up half the block.
He let us in with a key and disabled the alarm.
Inside was a big, open room with a small kitchen built into one corner. There was a set of stairs to a loft above and a big skylight streaming light down in the center. It was clean and empty—except for my paintings, the ones I stored in Becca’s basement, leaning against one wall. A few of them were propped up on easels too.
All myunfinishedpaintings. Because I never finished anything anymore.
I hadn’t finished a single painting in the last two years.
I walked over and started flipping through the canvases that were leaning against the wall. They were all in here; everyone I loved, or had ever loved. My parents, my sister, my brother-in-law and the kids. Devi. Some of my other friends. The paintings, while portraits, were experiments in texture, color and emotion. No two paintings had quite the same style, but the aesthetic was always my own, something I’d been exploring before I pretty much gave up on it.
And Josh was here, too.
Even when he dumped me, I didn’t have the heart to throw him out.
It really didn’t matter what I painted anyway, or who, since no one ever saw it. But it mattered to me. In fact, it should’ve matteredmoreto me. I could see that now.
Maybe that was what Jesse was trying to show me.
There were tears in my eyes when I turned to him. “What is this?”
“It’s yours, if you want it.”
“What do you mean?” I was in shock again.
My whole life had suddenly become awhat the fucksituation.
“You went to see my sister,” he said. “I went to see yours.”
Shit. He knew about my dinner with Jessa?
I didn’t know how to feel. So many emotions fought for dominance. Embarrassment. Sorrow. Joy. More than anything, though, I was humbled. No one had ever done something like this for me before.
“We used to use it as a rehearsal space for the band, but we have a new one.”
“You own this place?”
“Yeah. It’s a great neighborhood.”
