Dark Masterpiece (Serendipity Series 3) (8 page)

“Why is it so important to you that I go
anyway?” he asked, looking curious.

She met his gaze and folded her arms in
determination. “Because I have the feeling that you haven’t gone
out just to have fun in eons.”

He gave a sad-sounding sigh. “You’re right.
I don’t have fun when I go out.” He shook his head. “Can you
honestly picture me sitting in a pizza parlor full of screaming
children and loud people? It’s completely out of my element.”

She met his eyes. “Traevyn, sometimes we
have to step outside of our element or we forget what life is
like.”

He stared at her for a long time. He hated
when she did that. There were times when Evie looked at him, or
said something that gave him the impression that she saw right
through every defense and barrier and could actually gaze upon his
inner self whenever she felt like it. It was unnerving and, yet,
exhilarating somehow. To think that someone could actually see the
small remnants of his shattered soul was terrifying, yet it gave
him hope. Hope that perhaps one day he could be whole again. A real
man and not just a shadow of one.

He frowned. “Why are you calling me by my
first name?” he asked. “I never gave you permission to call me by
my first name.”

She huffed in frustration. “Like I care!”

He raised his eyebrows. “Aren’t I, more or
less, your teacher? Do you call all your teachers by their first
names?”

She scowled. “Well, I don’t see you doing a
whole lot of teaching around here. Maybe when you start teaching,
I’ll start calling you Mr. Whitelaw again, but until then, it’s
silly for me to live here under such formalities.”

“You are very impertinent,” he stated.

She rolled her eyes. “And
you are a great big pain in my butt! Now that
that’s
out of the way, can we move
on?”

He gave a small smile in spite of
himself.

Evie gave him a warm grin. “Come on, Traevyn,
just go with us. I promise you won’t hate it and, if you do, you’ll
never have to listen to me again.” She studied him for a moment and
her eyes turned soft. “I want to see if I can get you to smile. A
real smile and not that quirky thing you do with your lips.” She
pointed to him as he half-smiled. “Yeah, that one!”

He gave a soft chuckle. He didn’t understand
Evie. It seemed the more he tried to get her to leave him alone,
the more she bothered him. His cold demeanor had successfully kept
everyone else at bay, but she ignored it. She challenged him in the
most unabashed way. It was strange for him to be around someone so
open, so fearless.

He looked at her. She stood with her arms
folded, waiting. She was so tiny. She only came up to his chest. A
tiny, little powder keg. She was not what he had expected the day
he’d so rudely accepted her into his home. She had stayed in her
room for an entire week. He had barely seen or heard her. Then,
when she’d had enough, she’d sought him out with boldness and
voiced her opinion of him. She had been continuing to voice that
opinion ever since. He was coming to realize that she had many
opinions. Their discussions on literature had proven that.

With a sigh, he turned away from her and
toward the French doors. He admired Evie for the courageous way she
seemed to stride through life, but he couldn’t be like her. Not
anymore. His time had passed. He glanced back at her over his
shoulder and opened his mouth to speak.

“A compromise then,” Evie announced,
stepping toward him. “We’ll get the pizza to go, but we’ll eat it
down on the beach, away from people. You can read or draw if you
want. You don’t even have to talk to us. Seth and I can entertain
ourselves.”

He frowned and turned back to face her. ”You
want me to go and just sit there like a bump on a log?”

She shrugged. “That’s entirely up to you. Do
whatever makes you feel comfortable. Just go with us, okay?”

He gazed down into her
hazel eyes and had to look away. She had sensed what he was going
to say before he’d even said it. She had known he would refuse and
she sought to change her plans to make
him
comfortable. Why? He was nothing
to her, no one. Yet, all she seemed to care about was getting him
to have fun, getting him outside of himself, getting him to smile.
Smiling… Just a moment ago he had been sobbing. If only she knew
the sorrow he carried within him every day…He sighed in defeat and
nodded slowly. “All right,” he murmured.

Evie blinked, as if wondering if she’d heard
him right. “All right?” When he nodded again, she grinned and
jumped, clapping her hands together. “Woo hoo! All right, come on
then. We’ll leave soon.”

He smiled at her obvious enthusiasm. “Give me
just a moment. I wish to take a small canvas and my oil
pastels.”

She nodded. “Just meet us downstairs when
you’re ready.” She met his eyes and flashed him a delighted smile
before leaving the room.

Traevyn watched her go and sighed. The acute
pain he had been feeling moments ago returned. The shadows beckoned
him, waited in the darkness to consume any light his soul might
hope to steal. He closed his eyes and turned his back on them. Not
now. He would not return to them now. They would be waiting for him
later like they always were. For now, he would try to pretend.
Pretend he was human. Pretend he was whole. He would fail, he knew,
but he would try. Evie’s kindness deserved at least that much.

Chapter Seven

There was nothing more beautiful than a
sunset over the water. Traevyn watched as the sunlight sparkled
across the rippling waves and he sighed. It was fog free at the
moment, and he relished in the splendor of nature’s art. He heard
Evie’s laughter ring out. It diverted his attention from the sunset
to her and Seth. They were down by the shore hitting a volleyball
back and forth. The sunlight glinted off of the blonde streaks in
her hair and highlighted the brown so it looked bronzed. She
screamed as Seth hit the ball too fast at her, and she had to flail
her arms erratically to hit it in time. It shot off into the waves
as she accidentally punched it at a funny angle.

Seth gave Evie an exasperated look, and she
dissolved into giggles. Traevyn looked back down at the drawing he
was working on. He continued to add colors and lines, making it
come alive, adding dimension.

Evie glanced over at Traevyn as she waited
for Seth to retrieve the ball. He was drawing still. It was what he
had been doing for the past hour. They had eaten their pizza with
Seth and her exchanging most of the conversation. Traevyn had
listened quietly, had thrown in a comment now and then. He hadn’t
been rude or unpleasant, just quiet and reserved. He’d eaten, then
started drawing, and that’s what he had been doing ever since.

“What are you looking at?” Seth asked,
coming up next to Evie as he tried to dust the wet sand off of the
volleyball.

“Traevyn,” she replied softly. Seth glanced
over at him and Evie sighed. “Right before I went to ask him if he
wanted to come eat with us I heard him in his bedroom sobbing. I
mean really sobbing, Seth. Crying like his heart was
shattering.”

Seth frowned. “Are you serious?”

She nodded. “It was horrible.” She continued
to let her gaze roam over him. He had his knees up, the canvas
balanced on them as he drew. He had a slight frown of concentration
on his face and his ebony hair spilled all around him, glistening
in the light from the setting sun.

“Why don’t you go talk to him?” Seth
suggested.

Evie stared at her brother in confusion. Seth
was not known to be all that empathetic.

He shrugged. “Maybe he could use some
company.”

She sighed as she glanced back at Traevyn.
“Just put the volleyball back in the trunk when you’re done.” She
headed up the beach and sat down next to Traevyn. “What are you
working on?”

He gazed at his drawing for a moment, then
glanced up at her. “Tell me what you see.”

She studied the drawing. It was a rough
sketch of the ocean, the waves large and chaotic, yet serene
somehow. The sky was gray with fog, and the tendrils of it were
reaching out and curling around the silhouette of a man with long
hair. Through the gray covering was a thin shaft of sunlight,
enough to give the silhouette a shadow. The shadow was a misshapen
heart that was rent in two and looked like it was bleeding. Evie’s
heart twisted painfully at the image, but she tried to keep it
professional. She didn’t want Traevyn to know she suspected
anything. He didn’t know she had heard him crying. “This person is
staring out at the ocean because it is peaceful to him,” she said.
“The fog represents darkness reaching out its fingers to grasp him.
The shaft of light shows that he sees just enough light and beauty
in the world to remind him of what hurts him the most, which is
symbolized by the shadow.” She looked up at him to see if she had
come anywhere close to the mark.

“Very good,” he said, his voice hushed.

Evie pointed to the still blank fourth of
the canvas. “It isn’t finished yet.”

He gave a thoughtful frown. “You finish
it.”

She looked up at him in surprise.

“I want to see how you would complete it,”
he said, setting the canvas aside. “Do it whenever you like and let
me know when you have finished.”

She blinked in bewilderment. “A—All right.”
Her? Finish his own work? How could she even hope to create
anything that would complement his extraordinary talent? She was an
amateur and he was a master.

He leaned back on his elbows with a sigh;
Evie looked away from the drawing and over at him. “Are you happy
you came with us? Or are you just humoring me?”

He met her eyes and his lips turned up into
a small smile. “I am glad I came. It’s very nice out here.
Peaceful. The ocean brings such peace to me.” He turned his gaze
back to the setting sun. “Evie, thank you for inviting me… And
changing your plans to make me comfortable. It was very thoughtful
of you.” His dark brows drew together. “May I ask you a
question?”

She pulled her knees up to her chest and
rested her chin on them. “Go ahead.”

“Why do you pursue me the way you do?”

She frowned. “Pursue you?”

He nodded. “I was anything but polite to you
on your arrival and have been nothing short of a complete ogre. Why
do you still seek to include me? To talk to me? To give me your
kindness?”

Evie blinked. “Well, because, Traevyn…” She
shrugged helplessly. “I’m living in your home. It’s not in my
nature to be rude even if it’s in yours.” She gave him a teasing
smile, then sobered and shook her head. “You really are my favorite
artist. I’ve always been drawn to your work. When Professor Roth
told me about the opportunity to be your apprentice, I was excited
to think I’d finally get to see what the man behind the art was
like. I’m coming to realize that you are just as intriguing and
complex as your work. So, I guess you could say I’m drawn to you as
well.”

He sat up and met her eyes again with a kind
of befuddled wonder.

Evie blushed and looked down. “Sorry, that
kind of sounded like I was hitting on you. I wasn’t.” She tucked
her hair behind her ears in her telltale nervous gesture.

He smiled at her obvious embarrassment.
“You’re drawn to my work, you say?”

She nodded. “I always have
been. The first time I saw your work was when I went to the Museum
of Modern Art in New York. My senior art class went there for this
end of the year trip in high school. I saw your painting
Escape Into Fantasy
and
I thought it was the most beautiful thing I had ever
seen.”

Traevyn swallowed painfully. That painting
had been of his wife. Her golden hair had taken up most of the
canvas like an aura, and her deep blue eyes had been beckoning,
inviting. That seemed like a lifetime ago…

“I bought a bunch of your postcards in the
gift shop,” Evie continued with a giggle. “After that point I kept
up constantly with your work. I have all of your prints and your
art books.”

He smiled wryly. “I spawned a fan off of
that one painting?”

“Well, not just that one.
It was
Innerworkings of a Creative
Soul
that really got me hooked. It was
such a contrast to the other painting. A lot of your early work had
so much vibrance and color, where the work you’ve done within the
past three years is so much darker. I admire your
diversity.”

He shrugged and a lump formed in his throat.
“It’s not talent. I paint what I feel. Simple as that. My life
changed, therefore, my work changed.”

She seemed to notice the bitterness his voice
carried. “Does it really bother you that I try to be your friend?
If it does, I’ll leave you alone. I just…” She worried her bottom
lip with her teeth and shrugged.

He sighed. Sometimes he really wondered what
was going on inside the woman’s head. He thought of her
interpretation of his painting. She was so astute. So astute it was
frightening. At times he swore she could read him like an open book
and he prided himself on being able to remain aloof and stoic. He
didn’t exactly know how to handle her unique ability. It made him
uncomfortable and piqued his curiosity all at the same time.

“No Evie, it doesn’t bother me,” he
murmured. “Do not take my cold demeanor as annoyance. When you
first came here, I resented it because I feared change in a life I
was very used to, but I am not irritated by your presence any
longer. You are very intelligent and very kind. I do enjoy your
company.” Against his better judgment, he had to admit it was true.
He had grown to look forward to their discussions. Evie was in a
class all of her own. She was not one of the mindless, witless
masses. She walked her own path, spoke her mind, and did so with
abandon.