Page 29 of Restless Ink
Kaylee was up at the front of the room, demonstrating the next technique so they could draw their flower and moonscape, while the rest of the class looked on with wine and paint, ready to go.
In other words, Thea got to play with paint, work with a theme, have some wine, and hang out with her best girls. Her sisters surrounded her, while Abby sat on the other side of Roxie, her teeth biting into her lip as she concentrated. Thea had invited Molly once again, but the other woman hadn’t been able to make it. At this point, Thea wasn’t sure Molly wasevergoing to come to a night of Brushes With Lushes, but Thea would feel bad if she didn’t ask.
“Stop feeling guilty about Molly,” Adrienne said from her right.
Thea paused with her paintbrush in the air. “Huh?”
“You’re thinking that you feel bad that Molly isn’t here, and you’re blaming yourself for once again locking lips with Dimitri.”
“Shh!” Thea whispered, looking around to see if anyone had heard them. Their group was in the back row since Kaylee knew they were usually the loud ones. The Montgomerys and their crew couldn’t help it, they didn’t get out much.
“Don’t shush me when I’m right.” Adrienne set her paintbrush down and sighed. “I’m not reading your mind, you just whispered her name as you were grumbling to yourself. Molly has never once come to this with us. It’s not her thing. That’s fine. She doesn’t need to hang out in a huge group with us. But I want you to ask yourself if you’re feeling guilty because you feel like you need to or because you really do.”
“You’re smiling when you think of him, babe,” Roxie said softly from her other side. “I haven’t seen you smile about a man in far too long.”
“Smiling is good,” Abby put in, leaning over Roxie. “And you said yourself, Molly is okay with you seeing Dimitri.”
“It’s just all too weird.” Thea took a sip of her single glass of wine, wondering once again how she’d gotten into this situation. “And I should stop telling you every time I kiss Dimitri because Itoldmyself yesterday that I wasn’t going to tell the world about what I was doing and then two minutes into seeing all of you again, I blurted everything.”
Adrienne reached out and patted her knee. “Of course, you did. I sucked at hiding what I was doing with Mace and hated not telling you all everything. So don’t hold back. We promise not to harass Dimitri.” She paused. “Much.”
“In other words, we’re happy for you,” Roxie added. “Dimitri is hot. Sweet. And according to you, wickedly amazing in bed.” Her sister thankfully whispered that last part.
Abby leaned over again. “So why aren’t you out with him tonight?”
Thea sighed. “Because I already had plans with you guys. It’s Friday night, and it’s what we do. Dimitri and I have a tentative dinner planned for tomorrow night, depending on the bakery and his time with Captain. And I know that sounds cheesy or weird that I’m scheduling my time around a dog, but I love Captain, and I hate that they don’t get much time together thanks to Dimitri’s housing situation. With Captain getting on in years, I’m not going to stand in his way.” She frowned. “And if one of you saysI’mgetting on in years, I will personally slap you. Hard.”
“Since I’m older than you, I’m going to refrain,” Adrienne said dryly.
Thea turned to Roxie, whose eyes were dancing above the rim of her wine glass. “Oh, don’t worry. I won’t say a thing.”
“Can we get back to painting? Because I’m behind a step I think, and Kaylee’s going to yell at us again.”
“I won’t yell, but how about I say I’m disappointed.”
Thea jumped as she turned to see Kaylee standing behind her, shaking her head, but there was a smile playing on her lips, so it couldn’t be too bad. “Don’t fool around too much.” Then Kaylee flowed across the room, her skirts billowing around her. Thea always admired the other woman’s style and the graceful way she moved.
Thea was pretty sure she still had flour on herself somewhere. It was always on her. Lying in wait for someone to happen upon her and comment on it.
“Let’s focus for a bit, shall we? Then you guys can make fun of my social life or lack thereof.”
Roxie snorted “Since we’re with you this evening for girls’ night, I’m not going to mock you for your lack of social life. Weareyour current nightlife.”
Thea laughed while focusing on Kaylee as the other woman explained once again how to complete the next step. Thea decorated cakes often, but she wasn’t the best painter in the world. Adrienne was better, but as her sister was a tattoo artist, it made sense. Roxie tried her best, but wasn’t the greatest at it either, not that any of them commented on it. Their little sister was so methodical andhadto get everything right that she usually got in her own way.
As that was basically a metaphor for Roxie’s life outside of Brushes With Lushes, Thea couldn’t help but think of how Roxie and Carter were doing. Every time Thea saw her sister, she looked a little more…worn. Or perhaps the thin armor she wore against the world wasn’t quite as shiny as it used to be. Thea wished she could help her sister and brother-in-law, but she honestly had no idea what was going on between the two. Besides, she knew it wasn’t her business, even though her family always wanted to know aboutherlife. And not just her sisters, her brother and parents were just as bad.
The only person missing from their painting night was her sister-in-law Shea, who was home with Livvy and Shep for the evening. If she were here, Thea knew Shea would be peppering all of them with questions so Shep knew what was going on with his baby sisters. Thea never minded because Shep asked things himself when he was around, and since he wasn’t invited to Brushes With Lushes, he sent Shea instead, who was amazing and could get anything out of anyone at any time. It was sweetly diabolical, and Thea was so damned glad Shea was a Montgomery.
“What do you have planned this weekend?” Abby asked the group.
“Work?” Roxie answered though it sounded like more of a question. “I’m actually not sure. Carter and I wanted to go see a new movie, but I’m behind on a new filing thanks to a client and things I can’t talk about, so I might send Carter off to the shop so he can get ahead and maybe we can have Sunday afternoon off or something.”
Thea held back her wince. The two were constantly working, and Thea knew that Carter was doing his best to hire on more people and budget well so he could spend more time with his new wife, but Roxie’s job didn’t make it easy. Putting together two lives and trying to make it work was hard, hence why Thea had never really tried.
With her business perhaps changing soon if things came together, she knew she might not have time for a love life, and dating might go by the wayside once again. That was another reason why she was questioning herself about things when it came to Dimitri.
The others spoke around her, and when Adrienne mentioned Mace and the guys having wings, Thea pulled herself back into the conversation.