The Truth Within (Pelican Bay 3)

“Wow,” he repeated. It was only when he smiled at me that the knot in my belly loosened.

So a good wow.

Thank God.

“He’s going to flip his lid when he sees this,” Maddox said.

“I’m sorry, I know his birthday isn’t until next month but I got this idea last night and I just wanted to go with it while I had it…”

“No,” Maddox responded with a shake of his head. “It’s perfect. I can’t believe you did it in a matter of hours. I mean, from white space to… this,” he said as he motioned to the wall. His awe was a bright spot in what had otherwise been a bleak four days.

“Does it have a name?” Maddox asked.

“What?”

“I know some artists name their work, right?”

“Oh, yeah, right,” I said. “Um, no, not really. I guess when I’m designing something for someone else, I just figure they’ll call it whatever they want.” It was kind of the truth. I’d never actually named any of my paintings before. I had my reasons but I doubted Maddox wanted to hear about that.

“Maybe you can think of something that fits,” he suggested. “Would you mind doing that for me?”

I nodded. “Okay,” I said shakily.

“So how much do I owe you?”

I shook my head. “Nothing… it was an honor to do it.”

Maddox eyed me and when he began walking toward me, it was all I could do not to move.

“Ford—”

“Maddox,” I interrupted. “Please don’t make this into a thing. Yes, I did this for you and for Dallas because you asked me to. But I feel like I did it for them too.” I looked at the habitats directly behind me that had a view of the wall. Most of them had little critters like raccoons and rabbits in them. The majority of the animals were permanent residents of the sanctuary, since they had some condition or ailment that meant they wouldn’t survive in the wild. I returned my attention to the wall and studied my work with a critical eye.

Although the mural was in the small animal building, I’d included a variety of the sanctuary’s residents in the painting. “I know that probably sounds ridiculous…” I finally said.

“No, it doesn’t,” Maddox responded. “At least let me pay you for the supplies. All this paint couldn’t have been cheap.”

No, it hadn’t been, but I didn’t tell him that. Nor was I about to tell him that buying the paint had been what had caused me to be short on cash and not have enough to give Jimmy the night I’d returned home after being with Cam in my studio. I was trying really hard to not think about my actions having caused Jimmy to steal from the woman at his job at the bank. From what I knew, Uncle Curtis had managed to get the woman and Mr. Wilson to let the whole thing go, as long as the money was returned.

Which it had been.

But it’d come out of my pocket.

Despite that and the fact that I was going to be short on the rent this month, I still didn’t want a penny from Maddox. The hours of peace I’d gotten just from painting the mural would have been payment enough. But to know that the people who came through this building might feel some of the same things I had while I’d been painting the mural was a reward unlike any other. It was much like the feeling I got whenever I saw little Newt wearing his helmet and talking into the little headset part I’d attached… I hadn’t just given Newt something to keep him safe and that he didn’t feel ashamed of; I’d given him a whole new adventure. I’d put him in the driver’s seat of his own race car. His imagination had done the rest.

“I had a lot of it on hand already,” I lied. “I bought a whole bunch on special a couple months ago.”

I wasn’t sure if he believed me or not, but before he could answer we heard Isaac’s frantic voice yelling, “Maddox?”

Maddox took off like a shot. I quickly followed. We nearly collided with Isaac as he rushed around the corner. Newt was in his arms and Loki and Puddles were right behind him.

“What is it? What happened? Are you both all right?” Maddox asked as he grabbed Isaac and the little boy.

“We’re okay,” Isaac said. “We were just headed back to the office from the house when Brenda called me.”

I suspected he was talking about Brenda Knapp, a recently divorced woman who’d dared to befriend Isaac and let her kids play with Newt. My mother had been completely scandalized by the whole thing, saying it wasn’t appropriate for children of any age to be hanging around so many adult men who fornicated with one another, let alone a man who wore makeup and nail polish. When she’d told Brenda as much after church one Sunday, Brenda had covered her youngest child’s ears and had politely told my mother to shove her sanctimonious bullshit up her self-righteous ass.