Hummingbird Lane Brown, Carolyn (libby ebook reader TXT) 📖

Sophie take you on a tour with her.” Leo followed him into the trailer. “And by the way, that Emma is going to be a star.”

“She’s a little shy like me, but she really puts heart and soul into her work.”

“The better the artist, the more temperamental,” Leo said and then stopped in his tracks. “I want that one.” He pointed at the drawing of Emma. “I’ll keep it for my own private collection.”

“It’s not for sale,” Josh said.

“Everything is for sale,” Leo chuckled. “Name your price.”

“Some things are priceless,” Josh told him. “You can have those two”—Josh pointed at the eagle and a drawing of a fox—“but that one will never be for sale.”

“It’s Emma, isn’t it?” Leo’s eyes never left it. “That’s your first work ever with a bit of color. It’s absolutely stunning.”

“Yes, it’s Emma,” Josh answered.

“Will you promise me that you won’t sell it to anyone else if you ever do decide to put it on the market?” Leo asked.

“I can do that, but I assure you, it won’t be sold,” Josh agreed.

“All right, then, can I talk you into putting just a touch of color into another one?” Leo turned away from the drawing. “The eagle is fantastic, and that mama fox with her babies will sell fast. What’s next?”

“Whatever hits my fancy, I guess,” Josh told him. “Maybe I’ll work on a black hawk. I saw a pair last week sitting in an old cottonwood tree.”

“I wish you’d do another one of Emma. That one of her sitting on the back porch with the wind blowing her hair is mesmerizing, but I can so see her in other settings. You could call it your MM period,” Leo pressured.

“I’ll let Em have her own MM period,” Josh said. “She is one of a kind and deserves to own her brand. I will think about putting a little color into a couple more this next month.” Josh glanced over his shoulder at the drawing. Folks might call him crazy, but he had told the image good night before he went to bed the night before.

Leo handed Josh a check for what had sold in the last month. “This little trailer park is the best-kept secret in the whole state of Texas,” he said.

“I think so, too.” Josh smiled as he put the check in his shirt pocket.

“Folks who buy all you folks’ art wish they could meet you.” Leo chuckled. “I tell them that you are all recluses, but they don’t believe me. I’ve even had some magazine editors call me to set up interviews.”

“Not interested in either.” Josh smiled. “We just want to do what we love, sell it, and live simply out here in our corner of the world.”

“I understand,” Leo said. “I’ll see you next month.”

“You should come around in the evening sometime and have supper with all of us,” Josh offered.

“Can I bring a newspaper reporter?” Leo grinned.

“Only if you want to die,” Josh answered.

Leo laughed out loud, picked up the two canvases, and in two strides was at the door. Then he turned around. “Does Emma know how you feel about her?”

Josh’s cheeks burned. “What do you mean?”

“Anyone who can make that”—Leo nodded toward the picture—“has feelings for the subject. There’s pain and love both featured there.”

“I’m not sure that I know how I feel about her,” he said. Just the thought of a relationship with Emma made him nervous, and yet the idea of her leaving made him so sad that he wanted to cry.

“Well, when you figure it out, don’t be too shy to tell her,” Leo suggested.

When he was gone, Josh picked up the picture of Emma and carried it to his bedroom. He hung it on the only wall big enough to support it and then sat down on the end of his bed and stared at it. “Why would I tell her anything? It might just scare her away,” he whispered.

Emma was about to be all alone for the first time since she left her college apartment. She’d told Sophie that she would be fine, but now she had doubts. What if she had another nightmare? What if more than the rape had happened, and it all came to the surface? She wouldn’t feel right calling Sophie in the middle of the night or waking Filly up, either. She tore into a bag of chocolate doughnuts and ate a few straight out of the bag for breakfast. “Will you call me when you get to Del Rio and tell me what all this big talk is about?”

“Of course.” Sophie put another shirt into the open suitcase on the sofa. “To tell the truth, I’ll probably need you to help me sort out whatever is going on.”

“You don’t think he’s about to break up with you, do you?” Emma asked.

“It’s crossed my mind. He’s always said that he wants a family, and I’m not sure if I do,” Sophie answered.

“Well, I’d think that’s something that you should definitely agree on.” Emma wondered if she should even think about children. Getting pregnant involved sex, and she wasn’t sure she could ever do that after what had happened. Maybe she should talk to a therapist about that sometime.

“You’ll be okay, right?” Sophie stopped packing and joined Emma at the bar. “I don’t care what time of day or night it is, if you need me, you call.”

Emma shoved the bag of doughnuts over toward Sophie. “I will, and you do the same. I’ll work every day until you get back to pass the time. I still can’t believe that I’ve sold two paintings. Well, not sold, but they are out on commission. What if no one likes them or buys them?”

Sophie ate a third tiny doughnut. “Since you’re a newbie, I wouldn’t be surprised if Leo calls you when they sell. He’s a good man, and he runs a really neat little store and gallery over in Terlingua. Maybe someday we can drive down there