I squeezed his hand because I didn’t know what to say to that admission.
“Did you always want to be an artist?” he asked.
I shook my head. “No. I didn’t even really do much more than doodle until my freshman year when my art teacher put a paintbrush in my hand, and then everything clicked.”
His eyes widened. “You’d never painted before then?”
“Nope. My family is the real outdoorsy type. We surfed, hiked, camped, and basically lived in nature. Bailey, my sister…she hated it from the get-go and begged Mom to enroll her in dance classes. So, she had an entire life filled with dance competitions and cheerleading, while I just continued to do whatever my parents wanted to do. Don’t get me wrong. I had friends, and we hung out, but a lot of times, they’d actually come with my parents and me.”
“I can’t even see you doing any of that,” he said honestly.
“I didn’t hate it. I liked being around my parents. I was never one of those kids to revolt.”
He nodded. “You were a good girl.”
The smirk that accompanied his words had me shoving my shoulder into his.
“Not that good.”
He growled softly, pulling me into him and nibbling at my ear.
I flung a look in Marco’s direction, but the man seemed to be completely oblivious to anything happening behind him. Or at least, he was trained to ignore it. I wondered if he’d had to ignore more than just an ear nibble. Then, I squashed that thought. I already knew there was a long line of people who’d come before me. It didn’t matter. It only mattered what happened from here forward.
“So where does Bailey live now?” he asked.
“She lives in Florida, takes care of her triplets, and throws elaborate get-togethers for her husband’s architectural firm.”
“Holy hell, triplets? Does that run in your family?” He looked shellshocked, and I chuckled.
“No. She did in vitro when they couldn’t conceive.”
“Are you two close?”
It hurt, the ache that I’d somehow lost my sister in addition to my grandmother. “We were fairly close, but we’ve never had a shared interest that really brought us together. Still, we talked a couple of times a week before January.”
“What happened?”
“She’s still angry Grams left me everything and her pretty much nothing.”
“I’m sorry,” he said.
His hand rubbed along my palm before twirling my wedding band with his fingers. It had me swallowing hard. The tenderness toward the symbol of my love for another man. It caused tears to hit my eyes that I refused to let loose on a day filled with goodness.
“If she knew what a mess Grams had left everything, she probably wouldn’t be jealous,” I said sarcastically.
“Why haven’t you told them? Your family?” he asked.
“It felt wrong…to be like all, ‘Hey, you know all this stuff Grams left me? Guess what? I need your help with it all now.’”
He was quiet for a moment. “Do you really think they’d feel that way?”
I liked that he challenged me. That he wasn’t just accepting what I’d said at face value, and it did make me wonder. Maybe I wasn’t giving my family enough credit. Maybe they would dive in and help, like Brady and his team had. But then it would just be one more thing I’d had to be dug out from under.
“Maybe not, but I wanted to be able to do this on my own. It’s ridiculous, because I’m not. You’ve been the one saving the day every step of the way.”
“Throwing money around is easy to do when you have it.”
“But it hasn’t just been money. You’ve been teaching Grams’ students, and I know you showing up at the city council meeting went a long way to them approving the permits, money or not. You do more than throw money at things, Brady. You’re here helping Cassidy. That’s not money. That’s you and your time.”
