Page 76 of Bargaining

“We can arrange something for you? You could come back here tomorrow and paint?”

I swirled my feet in the pool, tracing circles with my toes. “I don’t do that anymore.”

“Paint? Why not?”

The trickling water from the fountain grew loud. Something hot rose in my chest. Panic, or maybe irritation.Please don’t press me about it. “I just don’t.”

“Never? You used to love it.”

“That was before.”

He opened his mouth to ask a follow-up question, but some crazy impulse seized me and I splashed a little cold water from the fountain at him. The spray landed across his chest.Oh God.My stomach dropped. The air around us stilled. Bird trills from the surrounding trees grew deafening in the tense silence. Cole’s inscrutable gaze dropped to the wet stain on his expensive-looking shirt and rose to lock with mine.

“I’m sorry.” Heat blistered the back of my neck. “I don’t know what I was thinking. I didn’t mean to—”

A laugh erupted from him, cutting me off. It was a rare and genuine laugh, causing his eyes to crinkle at the corners. “What was that for?”

Relief flooded me.Thank God.He wasn’t bothered. “I just ... I didn’t know how else to shut you up.”

He shook his head in amusement. “So you splash me?”

“It worked, didn’t it?”

The silence grew loud again, and I wondered if he might splash me back. The old Cole would have. The old Cole wouldn’t have been able to resist retaliating. But he didn’t. He stood and offered me his hand. “Come on. What do you want to see next?”

Heat spread through me when I took his hand and let him pull me to my feet. “The Maritime Theater? It’s a little island with a drawbridge that Hadrian built so he could be alone when being so filthy rich and important got him down.” I flashed a teasing grin. “I think you’ll appreciate it.”

We spent the day strolling the extensive picturesque grounds, and maybe it was the sunshine, or being somewhere so beautiful, or just doing something impulsive for once, but I had a new sense of lightness. I hadn’t clowned around in forever, but it had always been fun on our teenage excursions, trying to crack Cole’s serious visage and amuse him. Getting him to laugh so unselfconsciously was like finding a cheat code on a video game and unlocking a fun new level. I needed more of it.

As we walked around, I gave the statues silly names and imitated a few poses, pretending to be a goddess or a water nymph. It didn’t take long for Cole to join in with the fun in his own way. Hemade up outlandish facts about the ruins and teased me for taking so many photos. Of course, I reminded him how rich it was for an obsessive workaholic to accusemeofnot living in the moment.In a shady spot, we ate the takeout picnic the hotel had given us, and then walked back to sit at the edge of the pool.

“Am I safe sitting by water or are you going to splash me again?” he asked, turning his face up to the sun.

“It depends on how annoying you plan to be.” I held my hands up in mock surrender. “I’ll try to resist, but no promises.”

A companionable silence fell between us, until he shot me a curious glance.

“What about sketching? Do you still sketch?”

Not this again.We’d been having a perfectly lovely day. I pulled my feet out of the water and held them out to dry in the breeze. “It’s almost like you’re begging me to splash you.”

He smirked. “You wouldn’t dare do it again. When was the last time you sketched?”

I sighed. “Shall we look at something else? This place is huge.”

His eyes traveled over my face. “How did you like art school? You never talk about it.”

“Seriously, let’s move. We only have half an hour before the last bus back.”

His compelling gaze bored into me. “I remember you always had a sketch pad tucked under your arm. You took it everywhere.”

A flush rose in my cheeks. “Don’t. I looked so pretentious. I’d spend so long in the woods painting the bluebells. Days and days. I don’t know what I was thinking.” I slipped on my sandals and stood. “Let’s carry on.”

He peered up at me with a hand over his eyes to shield his handsome face from the sun. “You could never be pretentious. That’s not part of your nature. You have a gift. Something really special. Roy thought so, too.”

My jaw tensed. I just wanted this conversation to be over, and I knew Cole too well. The more I tried to change the topic, the more he’d dig in.

“It’s true. He told me often how proud he was. He had that sketch you did of your guinea pigs framed on the wall in his study.”