Page 36 of Secrets Hidden In The Glass

Chapter Nine

Nate sat tipped back in his chair with his fingers laced behind his head, watching Callie staring through the telescope on his small rooftop deck. He’d been studying her for nearly two hours—the way her nose crinkled when she grinned or how she constantly grabbed hold of her hair with one hand, taming it against the wind with her long, slender fingers. Currently, his eyes kept gravitating toward the hem of the gray sweatshirt she’d borrowed from his closet and the tease of her excellent ass in snug denim as she bent forward.

“The image is so crisp.”

“If you’re gonna look at the sky, you have to do it right.”

She changed her stance, giving him a slightly different view to study. “From down here the moon looks so smooth and perfect. It’s easy to forget it’s covered with imperfections.”

“Perfection’s boring. The bumps and craters give it personality.”

She looked up and smiled, her eyes darker in the dim light from his emergency candles. When they’d headed upstairs to the outdoor table, he’d wished he had something better to offer her than the large white ugly chunks of wax, but what he had on hand was doing the trick.

She leaned back against the railing, resting her elbows on the dark-green-painted wood. “Right now, I wish I had my sketch pad.”

He smiled, loving the natural rhythm of their conversation—that Callie had been completely at ease since their ride back from the docks. “What would you draw?”

“You. The way the candlelight plays with the planes and angles of your face. You have a handsome one, you know.”

He shrugged, not overly concerned with his looks. “What’s it like having a gift like yours? To be able to put a pencil on paper and draw exactly what you see?”

She opened her mouth to speak and closed it, frowning as she shook her head. “I don’t know how to describe it. It’s always been there—something I take for granted, I guess.”

“You’ve been able to draw like that since you were a kid?”

She tilted her head to the side, clearly considering her words before she spoke. “For the most part, yes, but I took plenty of lessons to hone my skills. My instructors always told me I had natural talent. Several people tossed around the words phenom and genius, which I hated.”

“Why?”

She shrugged. “Why can’t a talent simply be a talent? Why do there have to be labels that set people apart from everyone else?”

“Most people strive to be different.”

“Individuality is one thing. Sticking out in a crowd is entirely another.”

He nodded, getting her drift. Callie had the spotlight, but that didn’t mean she liked it. “So, what about the stained glass? When did that come into play?”

“I started with that when I was seventeen. My high school art teacher thought one of my drawings would be neat if I transformed it into glass. The idea piqued my interest—exploring a new medium—so I took a beginner’s class at the local stained glass studio in Lake Oswego. I was obsessed on the spot.”

“And the rest is history.”

“Pretty much.”

He shook his head, grinning. “It’s fascinating. You’re fascinating.”

She smiled again. “Thank you for this—for tonight.”

He’d done his best to create a nice evening—Van Morrison playing through his high-end speakers, fresh Atlantic salmon cooked with herbs and wild rice the way his mom had shown him a million times, and stargazing. He stood and held out his hand when “These Are the Days” started playing. “Dance with me?”

She joined him in the center of the deck, settling her hands at the back of his neck as he held her close while the wind played with their hair and the waves crashed far in the distance. She sighed. “Your own piece of paradise.”

He looked out into the dark, where his view of the ocean would be in the daylight. “I built this place when I moved back from Virginia. I haven’t shared it with anyone—or not like this, anyway.”

She swallowed, staring into his eyes. “You moved back after your divorce?”

He felt himself tense.

Apparently, Callie did too. She moved her fingers along his skin in soothing strokes. “I’m sorry. It’s none of my business. You don’t have to talk about it.”