Risking It All Read Online Free Page B

starving artist when they could be paid to dig into someone’s personal life? 
    She did, that’s who. But she bit her tongue and went along with what Hope and David Monroe wished. Until she met Memphis and everything changed.
    He had been the one to convince her to do what she dreamed to do. He made her see art was her life no matter who was paying for her schooling. 
    Needless to say, her parents were not at all happy with her decision and threatened to cut her off financially. It was a ploy that in the past would have made her cave, but not now. Not with Memphis by her side believing in her and encouraging her to go after what she wanted.
    In the end, her parents did cut her off, but only for a few months. Her mother started feeling guilty and convinced her father to have a change of heart and finish paying for her schooling. 
    Things were still rocky between them, especially during the lean years when it looked like they had been right and she was wasting her time painting and waiting tables. But finally her big break came three years ago when she walked into work one day hauling one of her new paintings. Her boss had taken a liking to her and had told her she could hang one of her pieces in the restaurant to gain interest.
    It just so happened as she was passing by a table with the painting in her hands that it caught the eye of a man eating lunch.
    He stopped her instantly, asking if she was the artist, and introduced himself as Ryder Hennessy, an art collector and owner of Strokes of Passion , a local gallery.
    Kennedy was awestruck when he asked her to bring that piece along with three or four others to his office the next day. After seeing the small collection of paintings, he asked if she would be interested in showing in his gallery. He wanted to sell her paintings for her, get her work out there to his clients, and see what they thought of her.
    Did he really expect her to say no? She jumped at the chance, and the sales of her work had gone better than either of them had expected. Three years later, he was giving Kennedy her very own show. It was going to be a small show to start with, but this opportunity to have only her art on display was huge.
    She had been working countless hours to make the deadline. Ryder had told her almost a year ago to be prepared for this day, but even with all that time it never seemed like enough. She had some paintings in storage that she wanted to use and Ryder agreed, but he wanted new things from her, too. Because he had given her a heads-up a year in advance, he expected at least a dozen new pieces to add to the ones they were pulling out of storage.
    Kennedy thought there was no way in hell she would be able to pull that off.
    But she had. And in just a few days she would have her very own show.
    “Kennedy?” Memphis said, shaking her arm to get her attention.
    “Sorry. What?”
    “I asked about the show date,” he repeated.
    “Oh. It’s next week.” She smiled excitedly at him. “You will be there, right?”
    “Do you even have to ask?”
    No, she didn’t. She knew he would be the first one to walk through the doors on showing night.
    “Are your parents going to be there?” he asked, making Kennedy laugh.
    “Are you kidding? Do you think they’d miss the chance to give me the ‘you’re going to be thirty, it’s about time you got your act together and made something of yourself’ speech?” Kennedy rolled her eyes. “Yes, they’re coming.”
    Memphis narrowed his eyes, and she knew what he was going to ask next. “Is Brooks coming?”
    Kennedy dropped her gaze to her plate. The hesitation was enough to make Memphis shake his head and curse under his breath.
    “He said he wants to be there and he’d try his hardest to be,” she mumbled.
    It still stung that he couldn’t commit himself to be there for her for one night.
    “Fucking asshole,” Memphis said.
    “He’s busy. He has a demanding career,” Kennedy said, trying to defend him for the