Intaglio: The Snake and the Coins (39 page)

BOOK: Intaglio: The Snake and the Coins
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As if reading
his thoughts, she spoke.

“It’s what I
have to do sometimes, when I’m too angry to deal with things on my own.” 
Her hands were against his bare chest, unwilling to break contact.  “Just
paint it out,” she said with a nervous laugh.  “It’s that or go down to
the train yards.”

She raised an
eyebrow, and Cole chuckled despite himself.  She nuzzled closer, her
breath warm against his cheek.

“Does it help?”
he asked quietly.

Ava nodded.

“Yeah,” she
said, “it actually does.”

Cole stared at
the painting, struggling with the emotions it instilled.

“I… I’ve
destroyed more sculptures than I’ve kept,” he admitted sheepishly.  “But I
always regret it afterwards.”

Ava nodded,
hands reaching up to touch his chin, tugging gently until he looked away from
the painting and back at her again.  Her face was peaceful like the ocean
after a storm, her smile leaving him aching.  Cole swallowed against the
knot in his throat.  He felt like he’d been flayed, his body naked and
bleeding.  He wanted to have control, and when he let go, it scared him.

To do this…
make
something like this…
terrified him.

“It’s important
to have an out,” she said, her voice quiet.  “One that isn’t through
destruction.”

She lifted up
his hands between them.  The evidence of the bar fight was still there, hands
bruised and battered.  She brought his hands to her mouth, kissing his
knuckles.

“Something other
than fighting,” he muttered.

Ava nodded,
catching his eyes.

“You have to
find a healthy way to let it out, Cole, otherwise it’ll always be in control of
you.”

He took a shaky
breath and smiled, feeling the peace of this moment wrapping around the two of
them.  He wrapped his battered hands around her smaller ones, keeping them
safe between his own. He could feel tears under the surface, though he couldn’t
explain why.

“I love you, you
know that?” he whispered.  (
‘Should have told her that then,’
his
mind echoed, but it didn’t even sound like him.)

Ava nodded, a
sobbing laugh coming from her lips.

“Yeah,” she
said.  “I do.”

Things were a
long ways from perfect, but unlike her painting, they were here together... and
that was better than they’d been only hours before.

 

BOOK: Intaglio: The Snake and the Coins
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