“I guess I just wanted you to know that I had nothing to do with what Conrad was doing. If I’d known, I would have warned you and tried to stop him.”
Stella took a sip of the coffee. “It’s not your fault. You know that, right? None of this is your fault.”
“It’s just…you’ve helped me so much. Maybe if I’d been paying more attention to him at work, I would have spotted it.” Avery lowered her head.
Stella set her coffee cup down and crossed the room. She rested her palms on Avery’s arms. “You aren’t responsible. You have a lot going on with your family, Avery. This isn’t on you. Conrad needed psychological help. He killed people. He was making me sick. He needs more help than any of us could have ever given him. It’s on him, Avery, not you.”
Avery lifted her gaze. “Then why are you leaving?”
“I’ve got my own family drama going on. You can relate, right?” Stella said, returning to her coffee. She took a sip.
“I don’t want you to go. Painting with you and the others is my only outlet away from all the crazy.”
Avery and Stella were similar in so many ways. Painting was their outlet, and they couldn’t help their family dynamics.
“Well then, don’t stop.” Stella set her cup down and grabbed her purse off the counter. She took out the key to the gallery. “I’m going to need someone to look after the gallery while I’m gone. You can keep painting. It will give you a safe place to go. There’s a cot set up in the backroom from when I used to pull all-nighters. Use it.”
“I couldn’t possibly…”
“Yes, you could, and you will. For now, I have the building leased through the end of the year. Maybe you could sell your own paintings and take over the lease. You’re gifted, Avery. It would be a shame if you didn’t share your talents with the world.”
“You were one of the few people that believed in me. Everyone else thought I was crazy.”
“Takes crazy to know crazy,” Stella said and walked into the dining room and opened the credenza door. “I experienced it first-hand.”
She pulled out the soul mate drawing that Avery had made for her. The man drawn on the page was the spitting image of Ashton Bennett. Avery had drawn it a year prior, after they’d met. She’d given it to Stella as a gift. It was only after Stella realized she was looking at a man she knew well that Avery came clean about what exactly it was that she could do. Seeing a person’s soul mate was a gift Avery couldn’t explain.
Avery’s cheeks pinkened again. “I remember that. I didn’t know you actually knew the guy. Most of my drawings for the tourists on the boardwalk are of people that the recipients haven’t met.”
Stella turned the portrait around for Avery to see. “And look at how spot-on you were about my soul mate. You’re gifted, Avery. Use it for good.”
Stella returned the drawing to the drawer and eased it shut. Ashton wouldn’t have even come to town if Grant hadn’t asked.
“What will you do? Where are you going?”
She shrugged. “I don’t know, but what I do know is that my brother won’t have any influence over whatever I decide.”
“Your brother?”
“It’s a complicated story,” Stella said, not wanting to get into it.
“Well, you were the one constantly drilling into my mind that my family may have flaws but they’re still family, flaws and all. I have the right to decide not to be like them.”
“Exactly,” Stella said, holding true to her beliefs. Her decisions were her own, regardless of how much her brother would love to control them.
Avery crossed the room and pulled Stella into a hug. “I’m going to miss you. You’ll keep in touch, right?”
Stella hugged her back. “I’ll call you wherever I land on my feet. You take care of yourself.”
“Be safe, Ms. Stella,” Avery said, releasing her hold.
Stella walked her to the door and waved from the stoop just as a patrol car pulled up and Ashton got out.
He jogged up the steps and kissed Stella like he hadn’t seen her in days. “What was Avery doing here?”
“She was just checking on me. She felt bad about not realizing what Conrad was doing.”
“That was sweet of her,” Ashton said as Stella opened the door for him to walk inside.
