Page 53 of There I Find Love

“You’re not interrupting anything. You know you’re welcome anytime.” He stared at her for just a few moments, but they seemed like an eternity, before his attention went to the little girl beside her. “You have a friend.”

“Oh. Yes. This is Becky. She’s staying with me tonight.”

“You must be the little girl everybody was talking about at lunch today.”

“Everybody?” Clara lifted her brows, looking around at the obviously empty school. “Do you have multiple personalities?” she asked, and she was mostly teasing.

“You know I don’t. I can hardly handle the personality I have.” They laughed a little. “Your brothers were here, along with Davis. I think you know Davis, don’t you, Becky?” He wiped his hand on his pants and took three steps forward with it out to shake Becky’s.

She stared at it for a moment before she touched it carefully.

“Nice to meet you, Becky,” he said.

“Nice to meet you,” she said a little uncertainly. “And I know Davis. I take care of his horses.”

“They’re beautiful. You do a good job.”

“Thanks.” She still didn’t sound completely comfortable, and Clara wasn’t sure whether that was because she was afraid Alex would figure out that she wasn’t legit and try to cart her away, or whether it made her uncomfortable to know that people had been talking about her.

Whichever it was, Clara wanted to get the situation back on firm footing.

“Would you be interested in taking a horse ride with us this evening? Becky’s mine for tonight, and I wanted to go horseback riding along the beach while the sun went down.” She tried not to sound too enthusiastic. Sometimes, people could push things so hard that they ended up pushing people away, instead of talking them into it. But she couldn’t help adding, “It’s my favorite part about living in Strawberry Sands.”

“Riding horses on the beach?”

“Yeah. At sunset. It’s the best.”

“Yeah. Horses, sunsets, beaches, and great company are the best things Strawberry Sands has to offer,” he said easily, taking the mask and pulling it over his head, throwing the crowbar on the floor. “I’d say I need to clean up my mess, but the point is kind of to make one right now, so no need.”

“Wow. I just thought we were going to bring the stuff in and kind of set up the way it was.”

“That’s what I was thinking when we were looking at it before. But I decided I wanted to make it so that you would have an office with that big window that faces out to the lake. So I’m going to need to do some rearranging.”

“Wow. Really?” Her heart flipped. He was going to take care of her like that? Give her the very best spot in the entire school?

She could hardly believe it.

“It’s important to me that you have a good view. If you’re going to try to make a living with your paintings... I guess I haven’t really figured out how you’re going to do that and still work for me, but maybe we’ll cross that bridge some other time.”

“Let’s not do it tonight,” she said, agreeing with him. She didn’t know how she was going to do it either. She really didn’t want to not work for him anymore. And the fact that he bought the school confirmed that. She wanted to be there every day. She loved this building, loved this view, loved everything about this area. She didn’t want to go somewhere else.

“No. Tonight, we’re going horseback riding on the horses that Becky takes care of. Which one should I ride?” he asked, looking at Becky, who straightened a little at his praise.

Clara suspected that Becky hadn’t been praised much of her life, and she appreciated the fact that Alex seemed to know instinctively that she needed it.

Then of course, she remembered Alex’s background, and she bet that he could sympathize if not relate to Becky.

“Well, Winter is a good one. But he’ll probably not go any faster than a walk. So if you want one that’s going to go slow for you, Winter is a good one.”

“I think I might want Winter,” Clara said with a smile and a small laugh.

“All right. Clara gets Winter. Now, what about me?” Alex asked as he flipped the lights off after looking around to make sure everything was ready to go.

He walked to the door and held it open while Becky and Clara walked through. As Clara went through, her eyes met his for just a moment, and she saw...happiness and warmth in them. It settled down in her soul and made her feel like he was thrilled that she had come up and enjoyed spending time with her. Wanted to spend time with her.

Maybe she was just extrapolating the way she felt onto him. Because that was the way she felt, like she wanted to spend time with him.

She almost stopped in the doorway. But somehow, her feet managed to keep moving, and that little contact was broken.