Total pages in book: 72
Estimated words: 65354 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 327(@200wpm)___ 261(@250wpm)___ 218(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 65354 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 327(@200wpm)___ 261(@250wpm)___ 218(@300wpm)
“Of course, I do, Ryder. He’s the gallery manager and did everything for this show. We only talked about that and art. I didn’t want to upset anything.” Her eyes were wide, and it looked like she was going to cry.
“What’s happening here?” An older woman who looked a lot like Elyse appeared beside us, followed by Tori. There was a tone to her voice that reminded me of the officer in front of Elyse’s house that night.
“No, I was setting things straight.” I stared her down as I responded. Elyse started rubbing her upper arms.
“Let’s all calm down,” Tori suggested with a strained expression. She reached out a hand to touch my arm, and I bristled as Justin stepped behind me.
“Come on, buddy. I got you another beer.” He managed to pull me away from Elyse, and the older woman hugged her as Justin cleared his throat.
“Calm the fuck down, Ryder. This is her night.”
“Who is that guy?” I hissed as someone approached our group to talk to Elyse. She bounced back and smiled as Justin led me away.
“He is the manager. He helped Tori with this entire night. I agree that he’s a little handsy with Elyse, but Tori said nothing has happened between them. He’s just set his sights on her.”
I stared at him, and Justin met my gaze evenly.
“She’s overwhelmed, Bells. This is a big night, and Tori said she’s not the type of girl to speak up.”
“I saw him down the hall with her. They were attached at the fucking hip,” I growled, and he held up his free hand.
“I get it. I’d feel the same way if I saw that with Tori, but they are two different women. It’s all good,” Justin said in a low voice. “Seriously, Bells, how much trouble do you think someone could get into at an art show?”
“Fuck. I haven’t felt that way before. It seemed like she was hiding us.” I pinched the bridge of my nose and closed my eyes, telling my heart to stop racing.
“Elyse is overwhelmed. Let her finish this thing, and we can get drinks. You can talk this out.”
“Who’s the woman?” I muttered.
“Tori said that’s Elyse’s aunt. Apparently, she’s pretty much all that Elyse has in the way of family now. They are close, and I guess she got defensive. It happens in things like this.” That made a lot of sense since they looked so much alike. I suddenly felt like I knew so little about Elyse, and something knotted in my stomach as I remembered the woman’s expression when I was caging Elyse in. It was well beyond protective, and I felt like she’d been through something substantial at that moment. “We can all talk later. It’s all going to be okay.”
“Yeah,” I said, but I didn’t know who I was trying to convince. I sipped the beer and calmed down slowly, stealing glances at Elyse as she dazzled the crowd. She still appeared shaken, but was able to focus on the reason that we were all here. I even walked around to verify that the tags indicated what was sold and picked a painting meant to be an image that looked like Elyse. It was in shades of blue and green, and she seemed to be looking over a calm ocean with an expression of remembrance.
Ironically, I had to deal with the asshole to make the purchase. He was polite at best, and I handed my credit card to Lucas, paying six hundred for the painting as asked. I kept my gaze locked on him until we finished, and he finally shrugged.
“Look,” he said in a low voice. “She didn’t tell me about you. I swear to that. She didn’t tell me much, to be honest. Elyse is beautiful but hard to get to know.”
I nodded, knowing he was right.
“I’m not going to interfere with the two of you, as much as I’d like to. Just take it slow with her.”
I had the maturity to keep from him just how slow we were going so far. That was a shit move. We shook hands, and he thanked me for the purchase before walking to a back office. I left and made my way back to the front area of the gallery, seeing that the bar staff was cleaning up. It must be ending soon. I scrubbed my hand through my hair and looked around to see Elyse talking closely with Tori. I hoped that Tori was reasoning with her to stay with me, as pathetic as that sounded.
The crowd trickled out, and Tori and Elyse spoke briefly to the manager before Elyse looked at me. I approached them, not touching her as Justin joined us. “Drinks?” he asked as he looked around the group.
“That sounds great. We have some celebrating to do.” Tori beamed at her best friend.