Take Me Home Read Online Free Page B

at. She could see it in his stance, at once respectful and attentive. She could tell by the way his mouth turned up in a smile of pure delight.
    Finally, he let out a low whistle of appreciation and turned back to her. “This is one of her best.”
    Claire almost purred with gratification. “Thank you. I think so too.”
    “You can see the distinct personality of every horse in the herd,” he said, gesturing toward the picture. “You can almost hear them talking to each other. And the light is extraordinary.”
    Claire nodded as pleasure at
his
pleasure washed through her.
    “May I ask how you came to own it?”
    “Pure luck,” she said. “The artist’s uncle Carlos Castillo brought four paintings to the gallery in New York where I was working. No one in the city art world had heard of Julia Castillo then, and Carlos was trying to expand her market. Luckily, I was the first person he showed the paintings to. I bought three of the paintings for the gallery without even consulting my boss. The fourth—this one—I bought for myself.”
    She didn’t mention that her boss at the time was Milo and that he had hated the paintings, telling her they were trite and out of step with the gallery’s vision. Of course, she had thought they shared a vision for the gallery.
    She didn’t argue with him, though. Bowing to his opinion, she offered three of the paintings to Henry Thalman and kept this one. Henry had sold all three within a week while his clients clamored for more. Milo accused her of all sorts of ugly things it still made her cringe to remember. In hindsight, that had been the beginning of the end for their marriage.
    “You made a smart investment,” Tim said.
    Claire had to choke back a wry laugh before she could answer. “Not really. I simply
had
to have this. I knew I would never sell it.”
    “Never?” He gave her a slow smile.
    She shook her head. “Never. Some things are too precious to let go.”
    Tim’s gaze swung around to the painting. She’d seen the same look in the eyes of clients before. He wanted the Castillo for himself. He needed to lose himself in the artist’s vision every day. She braced herself to courteously but firmly turn down whatever offer he was about to make.
    “Hmm. Could we discuss it over dinner?” he said.
    “Excuse me?” The invitation threw her completely off balance.
    “Would you have dinner with me so we can talk about the painting?”
    “I...er...I’m not sure. I mean, I hadn’t thought about it.” Claire was shocked when her first impulse was to say yes.
    “I expect not, since I hadn’t asked you yet.”
    “Thank you, but I can’t accept,” she said, pulling herself together. “I have no intention of selling the painting, so there’s no point in discussing it.”
    “We can talk about other things.” He was enjoying the fact that he’d flustered her.
    “
What
other things?”
    “The weather. The price of corn. The hat Mrs. Callison wore to church on Sunday.” Tim gave her a disarming smile. “Why the person who discovered Julia Castillo works at an art gallery in Sanctuary, West Virginia.”
    That clinched Claire’s decision. He would ask questions about her life in New York that she would have to find a polite way to avoid answering. “Most definitely not,” she blurted out, then added with an apologetic smile, “I appreciate your invitation, of course.”
    “So you disapproved of Mrs. Callison’s hat? Too many sunflowers?”
    “Mrs. Callison’s hat had tiger lilies on it, and I liked it. It made a statement.”
    “I had to deliver a foal, so I missed church last Sunday and only heard about the hat—from an unreliable source, evidently. I wouldn’t have pegged you as a churchgoer.”
    “I sing in the choir.”
    His eyebrows rose. Finally, she’d been able to surprise
him
.
    In fact, she wasn’t a churchgoer, but Holly had been a stalwart in the choir for years. When she couldn’t muster the strength to sing, she asked Claire to be