Page 6 of Forgiving Paris
“No.” Alice was screaming on the inside, but her voice was only a whisper. “Not Benji!” She rolled onto her side and buried her face in her pillow. “Not Benji!”
“He had identification on him. We… were able to notify his parents. Benji is home, Alice. He’s finally home.” The nurse stepped away from the bed. “I’ll leave you alone for a bit. When I come back, we’ll make a plan to get you better.” She hesitated. “Your baby needs you, Alice.”
Benji’s baby.The child who would never know a father now, all because Benji had asked the police officer to save her life over his own. She pictured Benji, holding her, caring for her. He would do anything for her, and he had. He had given his life for hers. For hers and the tiny baby he had known nothing about. Alice’s tears came then, and sobs took over until her sides heaved. Poor Benji. He had never made things right with his family, never found his way past the drug.
But there was something Alice hated even more than that. The man who had been her friend and lover had died without hearing the words Alice had always meant to say. Her true feelings for Benji.
She loved him, she did. But she had never told him.
And now it was too late.
CURRENT DAY3
Ready or not, Ashley Baxter Blake was finally going to have an art show in Paris. She and her sister Kari had been out shopping for a suitcase, and now they walked up the front porch steps of Ashley’s Indiana home and made their way inside.
“All you have to do now is get those paintings shipped and pack.” Kari’s eyes sparkled. “You must be practically bursting, Ash. Paris! Can you believe it?”
Ashley didn’t say anything. She led the way into the kitchen and leaned against the counter. Then she turned to her sister and made a few circles in the air with her index finger. “Yippee.”
“No.” Kari’s smile faded. “Not again, Ashley. Please.” She set her purse down and came closer. “You and Landon are celebrating eighteen years. This trip, the art show, it’s all happening at the perfect time.”
“Yeah. Maybe.” Ashley sighed. “Maybe if I get the paintings shipped.” She motioned for Kari to follow her. “Come look at my paintings. I have to send twenty of them out tomorrow.”
“Yes.” Kari sounded optimistic. “That’s the spirit. You need this trip, Ash. You do.”
Ashley nodded. She’d been dodging the issue of how she felt about Paris ever since the gallery called and asked her to do a show. She could still hear the woman’s voice.
This is Emilie Love, owner of Light of the Seine art gallery in Paris.The woman had explained that the shop used to be called Montmartre Gallery, where Ashley had worked twenty-three years ago. Now it was in the Marais district in the fourth arrondissement.We’d love to showcase your work.
They were words she hadn’t heard since she had lived there.Montmartre… Marais… arrondissement.Ashley had taken the call out to the front porch, so she could catch her breath. The woman continued talking, her English perfect. Something about how the Montmartre Gallery had a different name now.Light of the Seine. A nod to the City of Light. “I’d be honored to showcase your work, Ashley. You are very, very talented. I’ve been through your offerings.”
Of the hundred questions that had raced through Ashley’s mind, only one mattered. “How… did you hear about me?”
“My customers ask about you.” There was a smile in the woman’s voice. “Several have requested a show.” She paused. “You paint from the heart. Everyone can see that.”
You paint from the heart?The previous gallery owner had told Ashley that she had no talent, that she’d never make it as an artist. She had been forced to gather her fewpaintings and take them back to the small room she had rented that year. So they wouldn’t mar the good work of true artists.
That’s what she’d been told.
“You’re thinking about it again.” Kari followed her to the basement. “Trying to remember why you said yes in the first place.” She tapped Ashley on her shoulder. “Am I right?”
Ashley looked back and allowed the slightest laugh. “Okay… maybe.”
“You said yes because the people of Paris love your work.” Kari reached the basement floor and waited until Ashley faced her. “Yourwork, little sister.”
“Right.” Ashley nodded, but her anxiety pressed in. She walked Kari to the first of a line of paintings. “This is what I’m sending. At least I think I am.”
“These?” Kari looked down the row of art pieces lined against the wall. “Ashley… you can’t sell these. I want them.”
This time Ashley’s laugh was genuine. “That’s the whole point of a show. You sell the work and start over again.”
Kari shook her head. “Please… tell me you aren’t selling the one of Mom and Erin and the girls.”
That particular painting hung just outside the bedroom Ashley shared with her husband, Landon. Where it would always remain. Ashley’s tribute to the people she loved, the ones who were in heaven together. “No, Kari. That one’s mine.”
Ashley had given a version of the work to each of her siblings. Kari and Ryan kept theirs in their office. Brooke and Peter had theirs in a spare bedroom, Luke and Reagan’s hung near the front door. And Dayne and Katy kept Ashley’s heaven painting in their California house.
Some things would always be too sacred to sell.
