Long Road Home (The Barker Triplets 4)

He couldn’t help the fact he was annoyed as hell, and more than a little bit pissed, but the new Shane dialed it down and took a moment.

She would be back, and it was that he focused on.

A knock at the door to his studio gave him pause, but when he realized the time, he jumped off his stool and strode across the room, answering it before there was another. Dora Lee stood there, dressed simply in a sleeveless white cotton dress, her hair down around her shoulders, plain white flip-flops on her feet, though a pair of pink ballet shoes dangled from her hand. She carried a bag and sunglasses in the other.

“I don’t know if I can do this,” she said breathlessly as he ushered her inside. She came to an abrupt stop when she spied the canvases and turned in a full circle. “Lordy, you really are an artist. I never saw such things.” She walked over to the large one that had been giving him a headache and cocked her head to the side. “This is abstract?”

Shane nodded.

“It looks angry.”

“I guess I was when I first started it.”

She tipped her head and gave it another perusal. “I like these golds and light blues.” She pointed at what he’d worked on. “It says hope, I suppose, but it works with all that other darkness.”

She turned back to face him. “You really want to paint me?”

“I do.”

“Can I ask why?”

“It’s like I said this morning when I stopped into the diner. Certain things move me. They call to me, if that makes sense. Being an artist is being an observer of life, and I see things differently from most folks. Music and movement are one in the same in you, Dora. When you move, it’s like hearing music, almost like you’re the melody that carries the lyric. It’s in the bend of your neck, the way your elbow and wrist move, the arch of your step, and how your body reacts to everything around it. It’s magic, and I want to capture that on canvas.” He paused. “If you’ll let me.”

Dora Lee smiled. “Well, when you put it that way, Mr. Gallagher, how can I say no?”

“It’s Shane.”

“All right, then.” She set down her bag and slippers. “What do you want me to do?”

Shane nodded toward the door. “Follow me, and I don’t think you need your shoes.” He grabbed his sketch book and a couple of his favorite pencils and took her outside, there along the river where a ten-minute walk brought them to a large stone structure that looked like something you’d find on an estate in England. There were steps that led up to large columns that circled it all around. Moss grew green in some of the cracks, but for the most part, the color was dull gray. It was among the columns that Shane had Dora Lee move and dance.

“Without music?” she asked, confused. “I haven’t danced in forever, and I…”

He nodded with a grin, loving the excitement he felt down to his bones. “Dora Lee, you are the music. Your body remembers it even if you’ve forgotten.”

She exhaled. “You speak like a poet, you know that?”

“Not sure my wife would agree.”

“Well, wives and husbands have a tendency to forget all the little things that matter. I hope you remind her as often as you can about your way with words.”

“I’m trying.”

She looked at him and shrugged. “I don’t know what you’re going to do exactly, but I trust you, and this surely is a beautiful day to just feel, isn’t it?”

Shane sketched Dora Lee for as long as the sun and light held fast. She wasn’t old by any means, but she wasn’t young either, and yet she didn’t tire or complain. And just as he’d envisioned, she listened to her heart and mind and soul and danced to what was in there. She was breathtaking. Magnificent. And what Shane held in his hands was gold.

“You should be on a stage somewhere,” he said quietly as they walked back to his studio.

“I was a long time ago.”

“What happened?”

“Life, such as it is. It came at me hard and fast when I was much too young to know better. I managed to pick myself up again, but life, well, she had another crack at me. A man stole my heart and left it in pieces. A child I never knew.” She stumbled a bit, and he caught her elbow. “Lordy, I can’t believe I just told you that.” Her voice trailed off. “I haven’t thought about that baby for a long, long time.”

Shane didn’t know how to respond to her confession, so he remained silent.

They reached his studio, and Shane offered to walk her back to her car, but Dora Lee wanted to be alone. Said she wanted to think about the day and what it felt like to shed all those years between her younger self and the present. Even if it was only for a small moment in time. He asked if she’d come back in a few days to pose, and then tidied up a bit before heading back to Belle Adair.