Concern banished the smile from his face, and he shoved his chair back and started to stand. She waved her hand and croaked, “I’ll be okay. Just swallowed wrong.” Seizing her glass, she doused the flare of heat with several gulps of iced tea. Composing herself, she went back to their previous topic. “Do you have a recommendation on where I could stay in Sanctuary?”
Paul polished off the last of his drink and pulled out his cell phone. “You could probably afford to stay at the Laurels, but since you don’t have a car right now, how about someplace closer? There’s a nice country inn at the other end of town.”
“If you recommend it, I’m sure I’ll like it.” She hated to admit it, but making so many decisions had exhausted her.
“You’re very trusting all of a sudden.”
“Well, you haven’t murdered me yet.”
He laughed and tapped at his phone’s screen. She listened as he bantered with whoever answered. Her fingers itched for a pencil to sketch the sharp edge of his cheekbones and the slash of his brows over those luminous eyes. She hadn’t lied about his bone structure: his face was a study in angles. She thought about carving it out of stone, but there was such a fierce intelligence animating it, she decided stone was too heavy a medium.
“You’ve got the Robert E. Lee suite,” he said.
“Didn’t West Virginia fight on the union side?”
“Yes, but his horse was born near here, which is why it’s called the Traveller Inn. They even have his training saddle on display.”
Mrs. Bostic appeared with two whopping slices of pecan pie. “Dessert’s on me. I still can’t believe I have a picture by a famous artist on my order pad.” She shook her head as she walked away.
Julia picked up her fork and gave him a cocky grin. “I think I could get used to being a celebrity.”
Chapter 5
IT’S VERY…QUAINT,” Julia said, turning slowly as she took in the Robert E. Lee suite.
The wavy glass of the Civil War–era windowpanes gave soft edges to the blocks of sunlight on the faded Oriental rug. An overstuffed sofa with rolled arms upholstered in indigo brocade stood in front of a fireplace ornamented with fluted columns painted robin’s-egg blue. Through the connecting door she could see a four-poster bed covered by a handmade quilt splashed with yellow, peach, and green. She knew most people would find the suite inviting, but the fussy details and haphazard colors made her long for the streamlined modernity of her studio.
“I’ll put this in the bedroom,” Paul said, hefting her battered duffel bag, which they’d collected from the gallery. “The bathroom is a little old-fashioned but it’s functional.”
“Does it have a shower? That’s all I care about right now.” She felt like she’d been on a four-day camping trip in a desert. Following Paul, she stuck her head into the bathroom to see if the innkeepers provided toiletries and sighed with blissful anticipation when she saw the L’Occitane labels on the little bottles sitting by the antique marble sink. Her duffel hadn’t been intended for an overnight stay; she had planned to change her clothes in a restroom before going to the gallery to meet Claire.
As something pinged, she turned to find Paul frowning down at his cell phone. “Do you need to call someone back?” she asked. “I feel bad about taking up so much of your time today.”
“No, it’ll just take me a couple of seconds to answer this.” His fingers flew over the touch screen before he looked up at her. “Claire texted too. She says to bring you to her house for dinner, and she won’t take no for an answer.”
“I’d love to, but I can’t ask you to drive me any more places.” A certain tension in his stance made her add the last caveat. The recent text seemed to have disturbed him.
His shoulders relaxed. “I wouldn’t miss it for all the barbecue sauce in Texas. They’re getting takeout from the Aerie.”
“Wait! I read about the Aerie before I came here. Doesn’t it have its own helipad so people can fly in to eat there? A place like that does takeout?”
“Only for Claire’s husband. Tim’s the local vet, and he saved Adam Bosch’s German shepherd after the dog was attacked by a bear. Adam owns the Aerie, and he’s very attached to his pet.”
Julia wanted to laugh out loud at the whimsy of it. She couldn’t wait to explore this brand-new place with its quirky residents, like the restaurateur who loved his dog to the point of cooking gourmet takeout for his vet. Carlos didn’t understand how much she needed fresh experiences. “God, I should have done this years ago.”