Against the Wall (Stoddard Art School Series Book 3) (18 page)

“You deserve to be happy.”

“So do you.”

She stroked his cheek. He hadn’t taken the time to shave. His scruff tickled her palm. “I am.”

Whether or not Bear’s goal had been to come back and ply her with coffee and donuts before seducing her again, Kay would never know. Her mother took care of any such plan. Work beckoned for them both so they, once more, agreed to meet up at the inn.

After another gentle kiss at the door, Kay sent Bear off. She turned and looked around the blue and white gingham kitchen she adored. She’d made the curtains herself. Turning, she played with the bow on top of the sheets Bear had given her. It was going to be a summer of first and lasts. And the last thing she was prepared to do was let her mother ruin the best thing that had ever come into her life.

But first, she and Dottie had to work a few things out.

Chapter Twenty-One

Bear stood in the lobby of the inn. Kay was eighty percent done with the amazing mural gracing the walls. She had begun work on the final scene behind the desk. The painting was so much more than he had imagined when they’d started.
She
was so much more than he could have dreamed.

Kay was this mural. Beautiful, captivating, but with a wicked sense of humor and a sharp wit. She drew you in, so you wanted to spend hours learning every inch of her. Discovering all the small facets. Finding those things hidden from eyes too blind to see.

He ran a fingertip over the tiny lovers she’d painted high on the mural. His request. She’d placed it at his eye level. So tiny and seamless in the mural, and yet so detailed. Did she have a paintbrush with one bristle? It was them. On their beach, making love amongst the rocks. If you stood more than a few feet away from the wall, you’d never notice it, but now he’d found it, he saw little else. It was the same now he’d found Kay.

She could be tough, skittish, cautious, but Bear understood what created those things in her. Shit, he’d met her mother and learned what an ass her ex had been. Looking past all those things, Kay’s true beauty lay tucked away just below the surface. It wasn’t the Kay she allowed many to see. The caring, sensitive, incredibly sensual side. And somehow, he’d become the man she let in. Given him the golden ticket few would ever have. At the same time, she’d awoken the sleeping Bear.

Coming east had been a sort of a hibernation for him. He was tired. Dead tired. Tired of the high pressure hounding his every waking moment in LA. Coulter Designs had been a dream—but it was quick to become a nightmare. Diane was incredible at bringing in new clients, until his vision of a uniquely personal, small design firm was no longer recognizable.

He’d started a company where they spent time walking their customers through the process of designing their retirement cabin on the lake. Adding on the addition to welcome a new baby. High priced jobs, but not high stress. Before he knew it, they were taking on clients wanting business complexes and high rises. Industrial designs worth hundreds of millions of dollars.

The money had been great, but the cost had been even greater. What started as a partnership with Diane had quickly become a bitter battleground. It consumed their lives and devoured their marriage. But where Bear had wanted to crawl into a hole and pull the world over his head, Diane had flourished. She ate stress like multivitamins. It drove her.

It drove him too. Drove him to buy an inn in Maine in the middle of February. He gave a bitter laugh. Talk about hibernation. The first week he was here, every time he tried to venture outside, his balls froze off. The point house became his cave.

Surviving the first winter here gave him back his sanity. The inn, his soul. As he finished each room, a small part of him was restored as well. And then came Kay. She had restored his heart in ways she didn’t even know, and it was time to tell her.

He’d wanted to last night. That had been the plan. He’d take her to dinner and back to his place and tell her the truth, come clean. Well, we know how that worked. Instead of coming clean, he’d spent the night getting down and dirty with Kay and pie! Talk about erotic finger painting. Shit, he’d never look at pie the same way ever again.

Last night had been like the tiny lovers in the mural. It was Kay’s gift. She sprinkled starlight along her path. Little points of brilliant light which changed how he’d forever see the world. It wasn’t pie that made him lucky.

Let’s hope his luck held. He’d invite her over to his place for dinner. If not tonight, then soon. Take her mind off her mother and the situation with the cottage. Then he’d explain the whole thing. She had to believe in fate, right?

Bear took a cup of coffee out onto the screen porch. Shadow flopped onto a shaded spot and curled up for yet another nap.

The day was warm. Not hot by LA standards, but for Maine, summer had arrived. It was creeping toward midday. The lobster boats were long gone, but the harbor was still busy with all sorts of pleasure craft. Outboards and jet skis. An elegant sailboat glided past the inn.

Punching the numbers into the phone, he called Diane.

“Shocker. You actually called back,” she answered on one ring.

“Hello to you, too.” He propped his feet onto the railing bisecting the screening. Crossing his ankles, he sipped at his coffee.

“
Hello.
Do we really have to go through all this? Okay, how are you? I’m fine. How are things? Good? Great. Me? Things suck.” Bear heard the click of her cigarette lighter. She paused in her little rant to inhale. “There. Happy?”

“Wow, Diane, you’re a little ray of sunshine this morning, aren’t you?” Diane was famous for her displays of mood. She was a giver. The kicker was she didn’t want you to help get her out of her foul mood. She wanted everyone to join in. Pissy parties she called them, and she made no excuse for them. It had taken Bear a long time to learn that lesson. Some people just aren’t happy unless their world is in crisis mode. They feed on it like zombies at a fresh brain buffet. Diane was their queen.

“I don’t have time to shine for you, Bear. I’m up to my eyeballs in shit.”

“As much as I’d love to help you shovel yourself out, there’s a reason I moved to the other side of the country. Remember?”

“You still don’t get it, do you? Why do you think I’ve been calling you day and night? You’re as deep in this mess as I am.” She exhaled. “We’re in trouble.”

Bear tipped back in his chair. He wouldn’t let her panic spill infect him. Distance was his immunity. “Are you still freaking out over the Regency project?”

“I heard from the lawyers yesterday. They’ve scheduled a deposition.”

“So, what’s the big deal? Tell them Coulter Designs wasn’t responsible for those shoddy materials. The contract agreement with the subcontractor was solid. If they decided to cut corners, it’s on them. The project passed inspection, right? As far as CD is concerned, all the I’s were dotted and the T’s crossed. Like always.”

“They don’t want to depose me. It’s
you
they want.”

Bear snorted. “And you told them I didn’t work on the project.”

“Your signature is on the final work order.”

“Impossible.” There was a long silence on the other end of the phone. An all too familiar churning began in his gut. “Diane?”

“I messed up,” she confessed.

Cold fingers ran down his spine. He pulled his feet down off the rail and sat up straight. “What do you mean, you messed up?”

“It was right after you left,” she said in a rush. “The head of the Regency project didn’t want to work with me. Thought I was—what did he call me—difficult. Bastard. No, he refused to deal with me, he only wanted to work with you. But you’d left. Abandoned me and the business.”

“I hardly abandoned you.”

“The point is, you weren’t there when I needed you. I was desperate to close the deal. The money was too good. And with the divorce and everything else, I…I suppose I wanted to show everyone I was just as capable as you. One Coulter was just as good as two.”

“What did you do?” The muscle in his jaw threatened to crush his back teeth.

Again, the silent pause froze the phone lines. “I might have signed your name to the final paperwork.”

Bear leaped to his feet. He practically shot through the ceiling. “What?”

“Remember how you used to joke I signed your name better than you did?”

“You didn’t?” he railed.

“I did,” she moaned. At his string of colorful curses, she insisted, “I can fix it…but I need your help.”

“I don’t believe this! Are you insane? The Regency project was
your
baby. It’s all I’ve heard about for months. You practically rubbed my nose in it every chance you got. How it was the biggest deal the agency ever had. How they’d been following your career and begged to work with you. And now? Shit, Diane, you are some piece of work. I can’t believe you pulled something like this. How are you planning to fix this? What are the lawyers saying? Never mind, I’ll ask them myself. I’ll give Adam Dunbar a call as soon as I figure out a way to reach through this phone and wring your neck.”

“We’re not represented by Dunbar & Pratt anymore.”

Bear took the phone from his ear and looked at it as if it were defective. Unbelievable. The hits just kept coming. He put the phone back to his ear. “Why the hell not?”

“Adam Dunbar is an ass.”

Bear gave an exasperated huff toward the ceiling. “He’s only an ass because he never noticed yours. The man’s gay. Get over it.”

“No,” she snapped. “It’s not only that. It’s called housecleaning. After you left—”

It took all his control not to punch a fist through one of the screens, but he’d only have to fix it later. He forced a breath through clenched teeth. “Who represents Coulter Designs now?”

“Alfred, Becker, and Stevens.”

He bit out a curse. Alfred, Becker, & Stevens was the firm that handled Diane’s side of the divorce. They were just this side of slimy. He didn’t trust any of them after watching the way they fawned over his wife. “Which one are you sleeping with?”

“Hey!”

He rubbed at the two-by-four that had become his neck. “You don’t get to be the one who’s pissed off, Diane.”

After a silent pause, “I need you to come out here,” she pleaded in a small voice.

“No way.” He gave a bitter laugh.

“Regency can’t know you’ve relocated to the east coast.”

“How is it they still believe they’re dealing with me directly? That’s not possible.”

“Most of our communication with them is through email, text, so—”

“Unbelievable!” His shout caused Shadow to jolt up and bark.

Diane rushed to add, “You just need to make an appearance. I know you can smooth this over. You’re good at it. That’s why everyone wants to work with you and not me. You’re the easy-going,
everyone’s-your-friend
guy.”

“Lucky for you, I am, or I’d be hanging you out to dry faster than you can max out a credit card. I’m done talking to you. I need to find out the depth of this hole you’ve thrown me into. I’m calling Adam Dunbar.”

Unfortunately, during the ten-minute, hundred-dollar phone call, Adam didn’t have much to say. Not being associated with Coulter Designs any longer, he had none of the necessary information, and all Bear could tell him was what little he’d dragged out of Diane. He chose to keep the fact Diane had forged his signature out of things for the time being. He wasn’t going to take the fall for this, but he didn’t want to destroy her. Even as furious as he was, he’d worked too hard to build Coulter Designs. If there were a way to save it, he’d do it.

Adam’s suggestion was to drop the blame solely at the feet of the subcontractor. “Don’t worry yet. Let me look into it and see what I can find out. If there are any other complaints against this sub, we could cite their history of incompetence. I haven’t heard of anything outright against them, but you never know what’s been hushed up. I’ll do some digging and get back to you. Give me a couple of days. In the meantime, I’ll see what I can do about the deposition. If we suggest a video feed, they’ll know you’re no longer in the city. Maybe we can convince them you’re visiting a sick aunt or off celebrating Grampa Fred’s one hundredth birthday or something.” Bear thanked him and hung up.

Standing back in the lobby of the inn, he drew on the calming sense he got from Kay’s mural. If this thing with Regency escalated, they’d end up suing him for everything he had. Coulter Designs, the point house, the inn.

There was no way he was losing this inn. Not now. Dunbar was good. He’d eased some of the panic, and Bear trusted him. If it meant he’d have to go back to California to put the matter to rest, he would, but not until he secured things with Kay.

He supposed he should tell her what was going on, but where did he begin the conversation? It’s not like he’d done much more than mention Diane before this. Better to let it play out without making more of it than need be. Right now, Kay was his priority. Their love for one another was so new. Like a foal, it was still finding its footing. He’d be a fool to mess it up.

Bear traced a fingertip over the tiny lovers hidden in the painting. In his own mind, he painted the perfect scene. Candlelight dinner, soft music. A gentle sea breeze drifting through the open windows. Waves licking at the rocks. He’d sweep Kay into his arms and carry her into the bedroom. Between kisses, whispering how he’d come to love her. Be forthright with everything going on with Diane. Explain serendipity.

It needed to happen. Soon.

Chapter Twenty-Two

Kay pushed through the door at Polka Dots. Dottie was helping a small group of women. The shop was busy with tourists buying some little thing to fit into their suitcase to remember their time spent in Bell Harbor.

“Oh, here’s the artist now,” Dottie beamed. The women turned and flooded her with compliments regarding her greeting cards. Behind them, she met Dottie’s gaze. Kay’s frown soon dissolved the grin on her face.

Kay pasted on a smile of her own and thanked the women, answering their questions. She shot Dottie an impatient look.

“I see you’ve brought some more items.” Dottie pressed nervous lips together. She gave Kay a worried frown. “Ladies, if you’ll excuse us. Keep looking around, we have a ton of great things. I’ll be back in a jiff.”