Surrendering Series Box Set

“What was that?” Lucah asked, staring at Ryder in the rearview mirror.

“Nothing,” Ryder said with a huge fake smile.

“I think you’d probably be doing something important. Making speeches and getting involved with things. Maybe you’d be part of a revolution.”

Rory looked at him with so much love it almost made me want to cry. I wondered if that was how I looked at Ryder. I hoped so.

“Oh, well if that’s not a compliment, I don’t know what is,” Lucah said, his face going red, including his ears. Gotta love how redheads can’t hide their emotions.

“You’re welcome, Mr. Blythe,” Rory said, leaning over to give him a kiss.

“Hey, eyes on the road,” I said, but I gave Rory a wink as she got back in her seat.

~*~*~

Lucah pulled Ryder aside when we got out of the car and had a few words with him. I hoped they weren’t talking about me.

Ryder didn’t seem pissed when Lucah stepped away and took Rory’s hand to walk back into the building.

“What was that about?” I asked when Ryder didn’t move.

“Nothing,” he said, shaking his head as if he was trying to clear it.

“Really? He didn’t tell you to keep your hands off me?”

Ryder shook his head. “No, it wasn’t really about you.” Oh, well. Now I sounded like I thought the world revolved around me.

Ryder stuck his hand out and I gave him mine. He swung our arms as we walked out of the parking garage.

“I wished, so many times when I was there, that you were with me, or at least that I had a camera. I’d watch the sunrise, or the moon, or sit by a stream and think of you and wish you could see it.” Okay, so I wasn’t much of a nature fan, but the way Ryder described it, I could see the appeal. Plus, being with him would be the best part.

“Did you get inspired?” I asked. He smiled, and it hit me just how handsome he was. Even more so than that first day I’d met him. He seemed older somehow. Definitely wiser. It might have been the beard, but it was something intangible. He had changed on that mountain, but so far, it was all good.

“Yeah. It made me wish I knew how to paint, or at least draw something other than crappy stick figures,” he said. “But even if I could draw or paint, or make any kind of art, I wouldn’t be able to do it justice.”

That made me laugh.

“What’s so funny?”

“Art. It never comes out the way you think it’s going to be when you imagine it. Something changes during the process of creating, and your creation takes on a life of its own, independent of you. That’s when it’s not yours anymore.” I really believed that my designs came part from me and part from this other place. I didn’t really know what to call it, or even what it was, but I often thought of it as a well that supplied ideas. A flowing force that I couldn’t control, no matter how hard I tried.

“Yeah, Gil told me something like that,” he said.

“Are you excited to work at the gallery? Maybe you’ll find a talent for something. There might be a market for stick figure art. You never know. I think there’s this guy on the internet, and if you pay him money, he draws you a cat then sends it to you. He’s probably made millions or something,” I said.

Rory and Lucah were walking ahead of us, but at a faster pace, so soon they turned a corner and were out of sight. It was just me and Ryder.

“I’m not so sure anyone would want my drawings, but I’ll consider it. And yeah, I am excited. It’s going to be different than any job I’ve ever had. Something else I realized was that I am not cut out for traditional employment.” He chuckled and swung our arms again.

“Nooo,” I said in mock shock. “That is brand new information!”

“Took me a while to figure it out, but I don’t think I can work at a regular job. People drive me fucking nuts.”

They drove me nuts, too.

“Ditto. I worked normal jobs when I had to, but as soon as I could, I got the hell out of there.” We started listing our least favorite jobs. Ryder had a hell of a lot of jobs. Most of them didn’t last long, and most of them were entry-level.

“Why didn’t you go to college?” I asked, hoping he wouldn’t be offended.