Total pages in book: 117
Estimated words: 108362 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 542(@200wpm)___ 433(@250wpm)___ 361(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 108362 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 542(@200wpm)___ 433(@250wpm)___ 361(@300wpm)
“Oh, Roan, please don’t tell me it’s a painting of—”
“Just come see before you say anything.” With that, he took hold of her hand and led her to the other end of the gallery. I followed behind them, once again green with envy that he could so casually hold her hand. That used to be me.
Roan stopped in front of one of the smaller pieces, and my breath caught as soon as I saw the painting. I’m buying this one. No one else gets to have this. It was an up close portrait of Shannon, her hair pulled over one shoulder, the background empty, making her the focal point. There was something about the image that held the viewer captive. Shannon always tried to fade into the background wearing dark, monochromatic clothes, but her clothing told a lie because on the inside she was every colour of the rainbow, just like my cousin had captured.
“My goodness, Roan,” Shannon exclaimed, her expression half flattered, half self-conscious. “I don’t know what to say.”
“It’s beautiful,” I murmured, standing next to her.
Her cheeks reddened as her gaze flicked my way, then returned to Roan. “Thank you.”
“It’s how I see you,” he said, then rather self-consciously he asked, “Do you like it?”
Shannon gave a soft chuckle. “I would rather you’d warned me I was going to be a subject of one the paintings you were showing, but yes, I do like it. No one’s ever …” she trailed off, her gaze once again catching on mine. My parents appeared then, saving her from finishing the sentence.
No one’s ever what? Captured her in a work of art? Well, I knew that was bullshit because I’d written countless songs about her. I had a feeling she hadn’t heard any of the newer ones because Zara had mentioned something about her mam never listening to my music anymore. Our biggest hit in recent years was Her Heartbeat. Every single word in that song was about Shannon, and she likely hadn’t heard it, not even once. It cut me to the quick, but I’d come to understand her reasoning and even taken hope from it.
If my songs made her feel an emotion strong enough to avoid listening to them, then that meant our connection was still alive in some way. If she’d completely moved on, the music wouldn’t bother her anymore, surely?
My parents proceeded to greet Shannon before telling Roan what an amazing collection of work he’d put together. I left the group momentarily to find the gallery manager who was standing by a table in the back. I quickly slid my card to her, paying for the painting of Shannon and then returning to the group without anyone having noticed my absence.
My gaze found Shannon as she quietly joined in the discussion on Roan’s paintings when suddenly a gentle hand touched my elbow.
“I can’t believe you’re okay,” a voice gushed, and I turned to find a young woman with red, shoulder length hair gazing up at me. She looked about my age, but I’d never seen her before in my life.
Her blue eyes watered with tears, and a bad feeling took hold as I replied, “I’m sorry, what?”
“The car accident in Japan. I know your management wanted to keep it quiet from the press. Honestly, after how you described it, I thought you were going to be in much worse shape, but you look great.”
Her reference to an accident had a sick feeling taking over because I’d been in that wreck with Cai all those years ago, and it haunted me to this day. But there’d been no accident in Japan. “Car accident? I don’t—”
“Jace, it’s me, Alison.” She motioned to herself like the very notion of me not recognising her was preposterous. “I know you wanted to wait a little longer to meet in person, but I was so worried I just had to come find you, make sure you were all right.”
What in the ever loving hell was going on here? “My apologies, Alison, was it? But I have no idea who you are.”
Several emotions passed over her face in rapid succession: confusion, disbelief, more confusion. Then anger took hold. “We’ve been talking online for over a year. You said you were in love with me. I can’t … I can’t believe this. I took the bus all the way from Waterford to come here tonight. I even booked a hotel room I can barely afford, and now you’re pretending not to know me?”
Her outburst garnered the attention of those standing close by, and I was momentarily clueless as to how to deal with this. My eyes caught on Shannon, who was looking between me and the redhead in concern. Then my dad appeared, and I couldn’t have been more relieved.
“Hello, darlin’, is everything okay? Can we help you with something?”