Page 7 of There I Find Love

“Is it that bad?” he finally murmured, his face relaxing just a bit, his head tilted, as though he were truly interested in her answer.

She would bet he didn’t even know her first name. He called her Miss Landry and didn’t seem to realize that she was human.

But he was waiting for her answer.

“No.” That was not a lie. Working with him was not bad. He was a very generous boss, and he never asked her to work hours that he didn’t. He might ask her to do jobs that he didn’t do, but that was because he was busy doing something else. Things she couldn’t do.

“But?” The word was spoken softly, and if she didn’t know him, she might have thought there was some insecurity in his voice.

“I love this! I have to have it!” a lady exclaimed from the other side of the tent.

She held a watercolor Clara had done with fall colors, showing the changing leaves, and somehow, she could almost feel the breeze and smell the spicy fall scent. Could feel summer slipping away, winter closing in fast. Hot chocolate, deep snows, cozy fireplaces, and all that winter entailed seemed to be a promise hovering just on the horizon. Looking at that picture always made her smile.

“I’m sorry. But all the paintings in this tent have been sold.” Alexander didn’t hesitate with his response.

The woman’s face fell. “Can I get a copy?” she asked quickly as Alexander strode to the side of the tent, pulling the canvas closed.

“I’ll consider it. Leave your name and number on the table. I’ll let you know.”

His answers were so quick, they left Clara blinking. She needed time to think and process. To get over the surprise that anyone would pay for her art.

But it was encouraging too, as the lady came over with a pen, digging in her purse for a scrap of paper to leave her information on.

“If you give it to me, I can type it into my phone,” Clara offered.

The lady gave a relieved smile and rattled off her name, address, and phone number. “Please don’t forget about me. There’s just something so compelling about that picture. I... I feel like I could step into it.”

Clara smiled. That was exactly what she wanted. She wanted people to feel, not just see.

“I know what you mean,” Alexander murmured softly.

Clara’s head jerked toward him, but his back was toward her, and all she could see was the lady looking at him with her brows lifted.

Something seemed to pass between them, some unspoken communication, and the lady nodded, smiling with an almost motherly smile before she turned and walked out of the tent.

Alexander didn’t move for a moment before he walked over, pulling the tent flaps closed and tying them together. “What else do you have to do to close up?”

So commanding. So confident. So determined that she was going to leave with him.

Of course, she’d taken his fifty thousand pretty easily, and all of the merchandise in the tent was his. So why shouldn’t she leave? She just...felt a little railroaded.

“Nothing. Other than maybe lock the cash register. And I suppose I should take my credit card machine with me.”

“Since that’s such a hot item?” he asked, and she had to look at him twice, because she thought he might have been joking. But in the seven years that she’d been working with him, she’d never caught him joking, not one time.

“I don’t know. I just... I guess if someone figured out my password, they could get into it.”

“Your password should be something that people can’t figure out.” He paused, looking at her hard. “It’s your birthday, isn’t it?”

“No?” she said, although it was. She huffed out a little laugh. “Yes. It’s my birthday. Why? That’s pretty hard for people to guess, isn’t it?”

His lips pulled back, and they pressed together hard. His look said he guessed it on the first try.

She raised her brows. “You don’t know when my birthday is.”

His lips pursed, and his eyes narrowed. “I could find out if I wanted to.”

A little part of her withered. She had hoped that maybe he knew. If he did, maybe this attraction she felt wasn’t all one-sided. But the fact that he didn’t...yeah. He didn’t care.