Page 63 of The Damaged Hearts Bargain

Lucy couldn’t even imagine such places. “You know, I’ve only been to London once.” She looked down. “As much as I wanted this residency, the idea of being in the city is a bit… overwhelming.”

“You’ll love it,” Cal told her, shuffling a little closer. “There’s so much to do, so much to see. And think of all the art works you can see.” She paused and looked down at Lucy who was lounging on the blanket. “You know, you’ve never shown me any of your work.”

“You’ve never asked to see it,” Lucy said.

“Give me a break, I’ve known you all of five minutes!”

Lucy laughed. “Fine. Let’s have this lovely picnic and then I’ll show you, deal?”

“Deal,” Cal said. She started opening containers. “And just so you know, I, uh, I can be around. In London, I mean. If that helps it not be so overwhelming.”

Lucy stroked her knee. “There’s no need to sound so nervous about that. We’ve already decided that I get another six weeks in London.”

Cal grinned at her, leaned over and brushed her lips against Lucy’s. “That’s true. We did decide that. And maybe we could even take the train one weekend to Paris. I mean, if you wanted to.”

“Are you kidding?” Lucy squealed. “That would be amazing. This is turning out to be the best surprise anyone has ever given me.”

Cal leaned in further, kissing her harder and Lucy’s insides warmed. She’d given herself a summer to find a girlfriend. And wouldn’t you know it? The fates had agreed.

She didn’t think she’d ever felt so happy. Happy and… hopeful. Cal gave her hope.

Chapter Twenty Six

The large canvases were stacked against the walls of the garage, and each time Lucy moved one, Cal gasped again as she saw the next. They were big, almost as big as her, but Lucy carried them as though they were nothing. And each was layered with color after color, the shapes abstract but the themes very clear.

“It’s the ocean,” Cal said as Lucy moved aside a canvas to reveal a new one. There was no beach, no promenade, nothing but blues and greens and whites swirling together into what was unmistakably the sea. It was what Cal imagined being swallowed by the waves would look like.

“That’s the last of these,” Lucy said. “And it’s getting late. Billy has to be up early to do his rounds and I don’t want to keep him awake by banging around in here.”

Cal stepped up to her, wrapped her arms around her torso and squeezed. “Thank you for showing me these,” she said.

In truth she was astonished. She’d been around, she’d seen plenty of so called art and was very aware that talent wasn’t doled out in heaping tablespoons to everyone. Not that she’d expected Lucy’s work to be bad. Just… not quite so good as it really was.

She hadn’t expected to be swept away by it, hadn’t expected tosmell wheat fields in September or the crisp sharpness of snow, or the salty bite of the ocean, all just from swirls of color on a canvas.

She hadn’t expected Lucy to be just so talented.

And now she felt… odd, different, like Lucy was even more out of reach than she was before. Which was ridiculous given that she was quite literally holding on to Lucy.

“They’re there to be seen,” Lucy said, pulling back a bit. “Not much point in painting things if no one sees them, is there?”

“I suppose not,” Cal said.

“You’re looking strange,” said Lucy, studying her. “You okay?”

Cal nodded. “I am. I just… they’re lovely Lucy. You’re immensely talented. Whatever this residency is, you sorely deserve it.”

“We’ll see,” said Lucy. “I mean, I can’t say that I know much about anything. I’ve never studied art, I don’t know much about the competition or anything. Probably there’s a hundred other people at the institute that are a million times better than me.”

“No,” Cal said, feeling Lucy’s spine through the thin material of her dress. “No, there aren’t, take it from me. These are… special. You’re special.”

Lucy shrugged, starting to look embarrassed. “Yeah, maybe, I don’t know. It’s hard for me to tell, I’m too close to them maybe. I just sort of paint what I feel. It seems to work for me.”

It was hard to believe for a second that she was allowed to touch someone who was capable of doing things like this. Cal felt a shiver go down her spine.

“Just to be clear,” Lucy said, drawing Cal in closer, close enough that Cal could feel her heartbeat start to speed up. “When I said I didn’t want to keep Billy awake by banging around out here, I meant moving the paintings around. I didn’t mean… any other type of banging that might occur.”

Cal’s breath caught for a second. “Oh, didn’t you?” she said, a smirk sliding across her face. “Though I’m not so sure I appreciate my well-choreographed seduction moves being classified as banging.”

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