Page 31 of Endlessly Yours
“The only reason I know any of the words you’re saying is because I watched The Great Pottery Throw Down,” I said after a moment. “And I don’t know much.”
“You know more than I do,” Ava put in. “But you know, you are the artist of us all. So I can’t wait to see what you’re painting turns out to be.”
I rolled my eyes. “I don’t paint on vases or teapots. And if I’m drinking, it’s not going to be too pretty.”
Maddie handed me a glass of red and grinned.
“This is a pinot noir, and you’re going to love it. And not just because I say so. And I want to hear all about your work. I’ve only seen some of it, but Ava here tells me you have not safe for work art? As in, the scenes from the books that I love? Tell me everything.”
I looked around the room at the Wilder women who’d joined us and a few friends of theirs and let out a breath.
I had been alone for so long because it was easier to do so, and I reminded myself that my sister had left, but now she was gone forever.
And I was out of my depth.
But with these women, maybe it wasn’t so bad.
Maybe I could figure something out.
So I sipped the wine that was indeed amazing and took a seat in front of a teapot.
“Well, I can’t talk about too much of the work I’m doing, except for one of them does have a dragon.”
“As in a dragon that the heroine rides? Or that the heroine rides?” Ava asked.
“Why not both?” Aurora said before she put her hand over her mouth. “I can’t believe I just said that out loud.”
Considering Aurora was sweet, and I thought innocent, I burst out laughing, shaking my head.
“It’s the former, but I have drawn something of the latter. This one, though, the hero and heroine are on top of a dragon.”
“I want to know everything, and I need to know the book,” Maddie said as she pointed at me.
“Now, let’s get to glazing, and tell me so we can add to my TBR.”
Laughing, I took a seat, knowing that I really wasn’t okay. Yes, I could laugh, I could smile, but something needed to change. Only I had no idea what it was going to be.
I continued to drink, ignoring the fact that I was probably having a little too much. But it wasn’t as if I was driving anywhere. I had a place to stay for the night, and then I would pick up the girls and figure out the next phase of this new life of mine.
And I was not going to think about Brooks or Callum. Because Callum was only flirting with me to annoy Brooks.
And Brooks wanted nothing to do with me.
I was the one who had been sitting on the sidelines, practically having an orgasm, just watching Brooks take off his shirt.
I was the lost cause and had been ever since that night in the airport.
By the time I finished my teapot and was helping the others with their different art pieces, I was feeling warm and happy and only partially drunk.
Not too drunk that I was going to make terrible decisions, but enough that maybe all of my worries weren’t so hard on my chest.
Or at least that’s what I wanted to tell myself.
“Knock, knock,” a deep voice said from behind us, and I watched as Elijah walked into the room, eyes only for his wife.
Maddie looked up at him, smiling wide.
“You’re early.”
