Sommer Marsden - Once Bitten Twice Shy

‘Kelly –’ Jack growled.

‘What? I’m only speaking the truth.’

He talked about her? August wrapped her hands around her paper coffee cup to keep them from trembling. He talked about her, and the fact that he did so set off what felt like bright white fireworks in her stomach. And lower.

‘You’ll embarrass her.’

‘More like you,’ Kelly countered. She touched August’s hand again. ‘But seriously, it’s not every day I get to meet an honest-to-God artist. I’ve had delusions of grandeur about being an artist for years. Let me follow you like a stalker in the art store. You’ll make my week.’

August’s face went hot again but she really liked Kelly. And despite the yammering, negative part of her brain that wouldn’t shut up, she enjoyed being around the two of them. Their energy.

She couldn’t help but hear, in her mind’s ear, Carley egging her on. She knew damn well what her friend would say. ‘What have you got to lose, August? Your loneliness? Your hermitude? Your fear?’

‘OK,’ she said, before she even knew she was going to say it.

When Jack’s face lit up and he smiled at her, she felt those fireworks spread up into her chest and her heart gave what could only be a joyous little kick. Either that or she was going to stroke out from fear.

‘So you like white, black and red?’ Kelly said, following August patiently through the store.

‘I do. They pop the best. Sometimes, if they have a deep purple or a vibrant blue. But I am…boring, I guess.’

‘Oh, my stationery is anything but boring,’ Kelly said ‘The pack Jack gave me, I mean. It’s your stationery but now…that pack is mine.’ She winked and August laughed.

Jack had wandered off into the woodworking section and it was just the two women. August had a million questions she wanted to ask Kelly about what she’d said about her brother, but the questions didn’t seem to want to come out of her mouth. She got lucky, though, because Jack’s sister was nothing if not talkative.

‘What I said is true, you know,’ she said, picking up a packet of pale-pink stationery and then putting it back.

August’s heart skipped a beat, but she tried her best to keep her voice light. ‘What is?’

‘That he’s talked my ear off about you. August is an artist…August does the most amazing canvases…August seems to like lilacs.’

August laughed and picked out a packet of mini cards. She’d been considering doing a line of gift tags. Charging two bucks a pop for something that took her about ten minutes to create was a good thing, she thought. A low-priced item that people would gravitate to when trying out a new online shop, and a reasonable payoff.

‘I do like lilacs,’ she said, softly. And I like your brother… But she left that part unsaid.

‘August is coming with me to Alice’s show on Monday. But just as friends!’ Kelly mimicked, throwing her hands up as if to ward off argument. August assumed she was imitating Jack.

‘Yes,’ August said. ‘Just as friends.’

Kelly pressed her lips together and looked as if considering her words. Finally, she said, very softly, ‘You know you’d put him over the moon if it weren’t just as friends.’

August felt her guard go up. It was an involuntary reaction like sneezing, and she regretted that’s how she was wired when Kelly’s happy expression dimmed. ‘I’m sorry. I’m not…dating at the moment,’ she said. She focused on the paper again.

‘Oh, sure. Sure,’ Kelly said, hurriedly. ‘I get it. I wasn’t prying.’ She picked up the pale-pink paper again and turned it over. Then she grinned. ‘Well, yes, I was, but I wasn’t trying to be a pain in the ass. I was just…well, I just wanted you to know that my brother is an amazing man. A good man. He’s kind, he’s funny, he’s…well, not to sound gross, because he’s my brother and everything, but he isn’t hard to look at. And I guess I just wanted you to know that he thinks the world of you. Already. And that’s odd, because Jack usually wouldn’t run his mouth about someone he has no shot with. In fact, I can’t really remember him running his mouth like this about anyone.’

August bit her lip to bring her mind into focus. To distract the girl, she grabbed the paper and said, ‘You really like this pink, don’t you?’

Kelly laughed. ‘I guess. Why do you say that?’

‘It’s the second time you’ve picked it up and held it. What about some personalised stationery? On me. To make it up to you that I soaked you in apple cider. What theme would you like?’

‘Oh…’ Kelly pretended to think. ‘How about irises?’

August shook her head, smiling. ‘Something tells me I can handle that request.’

‘There you are!’ Jack said and they both jumped as if caught in the act. Of what? August wondered. Talking about him.

‘Here we are!’ Kelly said.

‘I have wood glue,’ Jack said, waving the bottle. ‘You two need more time?’

‘No,’ August said quickly, though it didn’t escape her that she’d really enjoyed her time with the Murphy siblings. It had completely rerouted her mind from the panic attack over her false Kendall sighting. ‘I have to be getting home. I have a lot of art to do and limited time to do it.’

August made herself a cup of tea when she got home. She unpacked her market purchases and tried to still her mind and her heart. Both were racing.

The walk back to the car had been full of banter and fun and she’d truly felt an ache in her chest – the part of her that had once been truly alive, no doubt – when she’d said her goodbyes and driven off.

Now, in the safety of her own home, she faced a wall of canvases in various stages of completion and sighed. ‘I have to finish you. All,’ she told them. Her eyes were drawn, due to the emotional turmoil of the day, to the canvas depicting the fiery water that represented her loss of Aaron.

She remembered Jack’s fingers hovering close to the paint and then him reading her body language perfectly and stopping before he touched it. He was in tune, she thought. He was observant.

She changed her clothes, tied her hair up and rolled up her sleeves. Then she dipped her brush in a paint so deep purple it was nearly black, and went back to her iris. This one was in shades of deep purple, black and hints of grey and white. It was her favourite so far and she threw herself into giving it her full attention.

In the background Jack White sang of dead leaves on the dirty ground and she let her tea go cold as she worked. When the doorbell rang, the sky was a shade of purple found in her iris and she realised not just the tea was cold. The house was. At six the heat was set to automatically dip to 62 degrees unless she kicked it up. She usually remembered, but she’d been so lost in her art she’d forgotten.

‘Coming!’ August yelled. Then she pushed the button until the digital readout said override and turned the heat up to 69. Then she hurried to the door, frankly expecting a nosey and peppy Carley on the other side.

‘Oh!’ she said, softly, when she opened the door to Jack. Jack looking sheepish. Jack with his hands tucked deep into his pockets against the cold.

‘“Oh”? That’s bad. Sorry, I shouldn’t have come,’ he said. ‘Sorry.’ He turned on his heels as if to go and, without thinking, August reached out and snagged his jacket sleeve.

‘I’m sorry, Jack,’ she said. ‘I was expecting Carley. She’s the only person who stops by without letting me know. And it just threw me is all. I hope I wasn’t rude.’ August noted with satisfaction that her hands were steady and her breathing almost so.