Pretend Married (A Billionaire Love Story) (68 page)

“I think I’m starting to see that,” I grinned.

Riley looked between both of us.

“I don’t think I like you two being friends.”

“Oh, c’mon bruh!” Reiko laughed again, throwing an arm around my shoulder. “Inseparable as
fuck
. We’re two peas in a pod! Two beans on a stalk! Two…”

The scraping noise started up again, and she almost lost her shit completely.

“God
dammit, Parker
!”

When she leapt off the barstool and went to go rescue her expensive restaurant equipment from her crewmember again, Riley and I shared an eye roll as we tore back into our sandwiches.

I realized in that moment that just I couldn’t ignore it anymore. This girl was absolutely wonderful, and I deeply enjoyed our time together…

…And I thought that I might just love her.

T
he next time
I lifted a paintbrush, I was astonished at how quickly I slipped into the zone. The colors came naturally to me, and the delicate, intricate swiping of bristles against canvas sang a chorus of victory into my ears.

A few hours later, I was facing another landscape painting. To the untrained eye, it was just like my previous, failed paintings – dozens of them, sitting in the Closet of Doom in my apartment.

But this painting didn’t belong there.

I gazed at the soft strokes of paint, at how the creek raced down the forest floor. It hooked a steady bend in the foreground, pouring down a steep, brief drop-off into a bed of smoothed large stones. The water turned white with activity, rustling towards the viewer, carving its path through the trees.

There was no other life here, no traces of animals nipping at the rushing water or tucked away behind the flora. It was only a glimpse into the woods, flowing with berry bushes, strong and sturdy trees, and sprawling branches.

All of which gave way for their passionate, reigning god: the roaring, rustling creek, choosing its own place and cutting a path of life through the rest.

I smiled to myself:
the magic is back.

I began to clean up, washing my brushes and checking the easel to ensure the paint would dry to an optimum efficiency. The last thing I needed was for my first acceptable painting in months to fuck up in the cool-down process.

For the first time that day, I thought about Connor and Reiko. They had both grown busy with their prospective jobs, and I’d been filling my time with Lex…

But Connor in particular
was starting to become somewhat of a hassle.

It had been obvious since high school that he was developing feelings for me. The advent of college, and even disappearing for a year off to Finland, had done nothing to push those feelings down… and now that we were growing into our mid-twenties, he was finding it hard to keep himself restrained.

He thought, perhaps, that he was being sly with the obvious glances, the lingering gaze, and the way he’d drop whatever he was doing to come drag around me if opportunity struck. The only reason I didn’t see more of him than Reiko was that he was kept so busy running his record store.

But as soon as Lex Lambert had entered the picture…

Perhaps it was because Lex was clearly hanging around, and I was clearly fine with it. Maybe it was because Connor knew that I was a total Anglophile, and that dating – or even just
fucking
– a handsome, older British man was too much for him to ignore.

Either way…

He was clearly aggravated about this.

That’s why I kept myself occupied a lot of the time. I started to blow him off, when I was really hanging out with Reiko, or sometimes I’d tell the truth and let him know that I was going over to Lex’s place, or he was coming to mine.

I thought back to the previous day, when he’d cornered me at my place and invited me out for breakfast. Reiko was busy with the shop, and I didn’t have any excuse to not go… and I felt a little bad about constantly blowing him off.

So I had gone out with him.

“There’s something wrong with him,” Connor confided over a half-eaten stack of pancakes and some bacon slices. “What’s he doing, hanging around here anyway?”

“Connor…” I muttered. “Don’t do this.” The conversation had been going so well. We’d been talking about his record business and my paintings, but inevitably…

“Don’t do what?” He asked, almost accusingly. “He doesn’t have a day job, he lives out of some cheap hotel, he was just sitting and drinking every night until you showed up… he goes and visits around the city, but
why
is he here?”

“I don’t know,” I shrugged.

“What do you mean,
you don’t know?
”

“I mean, I never bothered to really ask him most of those details,” I answered defensively. “He’s some kind of football player on vacation here. What’s to know?”

“He wears high-end suits and disguises how loaded he probably is,” Connor stated, remaining on the offensive. “It’s suspicious.”

“It’s pissing me off,” I replied.

“You too, huh? I knew you weren’t that dense.” He grinned, swallowing down another bite. “Let’s see what we can dig up on this guy. Have you even googled him?”

“No, Connor,
you’re
pissing me off,” I told him. “Just fucking drop it, okay? If there’s something there, he’ll tell me, alright? I trust him. I don’t need this to get complicated. I
like
that it’s something simple… something easy. There’s a hard deadline set, and he’ll be gone soon. Just let me fucking have this while it’s here to be had.”

Connor looked positively wounded. “But Riley, I just don’t want you to be–”

“To be hurt?” I hissed. “I’ll be fine. You’ve known me for a long time, Connor. I’ve got thicker skin than most. I’ll manage.”

“Speaking of that…”

I noticed him take a deep breath.

Oh, no. Not now. Don’t do this.

“Riley… I tried to keep it to myself, but I can’t help it anymore,” he began, clearly lowering himself to the point of complete vulnerability in front of my eyes. “I love you. I’ve always loved you. Ever since we were kids, and I fought off that bully for you–”

“This isn’t the time,” I insisted.

“When
is
the time, Riley?” He demanded. “It’s
never
the right time, is it? Because you don’t want to hear it. And that’s fine for you and all, but I can’t help the way that I feel–”

“Connor, please stop,” I pressed. “You
know
that I’m with Lex. If you had to let this out
now
, you could have waited another month or so–”

“That’s not good enough,” he told me under no uncertain terms. “I know that you’re falling for him. God, Riley, it’s so fucking obvious. And I’ve seen how he looks at you, too. You’re both going to hurt each other, and that’s all there is to it.

“And then I’m going to have to come in and scoop you up, just like I always do when you get too attached to a guy.”

I paused warningly, raising an eyebrow.

“…Excuse me?”

Connor realized his mistake, but it was too late for him to back out of the corner he’d painted himself into. “Wait… that’s not what I meant. Riley, you know that I’ll always be there for you–”

“We’re finished,” I told him, rising up from the seat and tossing down a ten and a five onto the table in front of him. “I’m taking a few days. I’ll contact you first. Leave me alone.”

I didn’t look over my shoulder as I left the restaurant, abandoning him to the rest of his meal alone.

But that was yesterday.

I checked on the painting again. It wasn’t just good… It was perfect. I couldn’t let Connor get under my skin. Things were going well for the first time in a long time…

After changing into some casual clothes, I heard my ringtone pinging from the living room. Kicking back into a chair, I snatched up my phone and glanced at the caller ID.

It was one of the local galleries, which I considered odd, but they usually only reached out to me if there was a substantially good reason.

“Hello, Miss Ricketts?”

“Adam!” I grinned to myself affably. “How are you, my love?” Of all the others, it was incredibly rare that the Pulliam Museum reached out to me, let alone the head curator. “I hope all is well down there.”

“Things are splendid,” he responded in his usual, casual tone… although I sensed something just beneath the surface. “In fact, things are a little
better
than splendid… I just received a rather interesting phone call.”

“Sounds curious. Do tell.”

His voice dropped to a near-whisper. “We are apparently about to host a rather distinguished guest, Ms. Ricketts… I just got off the phone with one
Gloria Van Lark.
”

My heart stopped in my chest.

“Miss Ricketts? Are you there, Miss Ricketts?”

I swallowed the burst of emotion that threatened to surge out of my throat. “I am absolutely,
definitely
here, Adam.”

“Good. You are in New Orleans, I trust?”

“I’m at my apartment now, just thirty or forty minutes away.”

“Excellent. She was rather particular about an artist’s work that she wanted to peruse… and indicated that she had already scoured a few other galleries in the last couple of days. I sincerely think that you should get down here immediately.”

Gloria Van Lark was
here?

And she was looking at
my
work?

WHY AM I JUST HEARING ABOUT THIS NOW.

“Absolutely. Oh god, Adam, thank you so much for contacting me. I had no idea that she was here!”

“Neither did I, truthfully,” he receded back into his typical casual tone. “I have excellent working relationships with the other galleries in town, but it would appear that none of them saw fit to indicate this…
delicate
matter to me. Oh well. She is expected within the hour. It might serve you to represent yourself…”

“I’m heading out the door as we speak,” I lied, glancing over towards my closet and already running clothing options through my head.

“See to it that you are, my dear.
Bonne chance, mon amie
!”

“
Merci, monsieur!
”

With that, I haphazardly dove towards the closet, quickly settling on a conservative yet trendy outfit that highlighted a prim, subtle sense of style.

As I locked the door and darted down the stairs towards the streets of New Orleans, I dug out my phone and sent a group text to Reiko and Connor.

Yes, even Connor.

He was one of the very few people in the world who understood the gravity of what was happening here… and how utterly important this moment was to me.

“Gloria Van Lark is here, and she’s prowling the local galleries featuring my art as we speak.”

A few minutes later, Reiko responded:

“GET IT, GIRL.”

And then Connor:

“I knew this day would come :) Good luck!”

Unsurprisingly, he was just happy that I was talking to him again, even if only in passing.

The massive smile stayed glued to my face all the way down to the Pulliam Museum, where I flashed my
Gallery Pass
to the front attendant and strolled into the building.

I wasn’t sure what to do with myself, or what kind of signal to expect that would indicate her presence, so I went ahead and walked towards the exhibit that carried some of my signature work.

Ascending up the white tile stairs, I took in the surroundings of the Pulliam Museum. It was a rather modern piece of architectural elegance, built to emphasize light and luminescence.

During the day, the various skylights, glass ceilings, and reflective surfaces shimmered a dazzling but not blinding force of light across the main atrium and aortic passages, emphasizing ample use of vertical space with winding staircases.

At night, however, the sunken lighting took over, enhancing the entire museum with an astounding array of modern brightness that bathed the careful architecture and beautiful tiling work with majesty, grace, and exquisite accent.

It was one of my favourite places in the city, and it was a tremendous honor to have an exhibit dedicated to my paintings. The fact that I’d gained a fantastic working relationship with the head curator, Adam Garmont, was simply a coveted perk.

With some time to spare before her arrival, I ascended the last few stairs before the drop-off to my corner of the gallery. I turned at the passage away from the ascent, striding alongside the circular railing that gave a stunning view of the lower atrium levels, and passed several galleries featuring recovered artifacts and priceless art that made my head spin.

But that was nothing compared to when I stepped into my gallery.

Gloria Van Lark matched every story I heard of her. With her attention focused on a wintery landscape piece I’d painted on a five-foot canvas, she stood tall, hawkish, with long black hair and half-moon spectacles. She was dressed in form-fitting black attire under a flowing coat, a colorful shawl, and a pair of white, cubic earrings that glistened as the light touched the fine jewelry tips.

Oh sweet Jesus, Gloria Van Lark is here.

I could feel my phone buzz in my pocket, and I moved to silence the tone from my group texts. Although she stood thirty feet away, Gloria’s head twisted to regard me coolly, and her face settled into a small, wicked smile.

“You should know better than to disturb others with your technology, Riley.”

Just hearing her lips speak my name clashed against the incredible embarrassment I felt at the social
faux pas
. I quickly dug my phone out and silenced it, slipping it back into my purse.

“Miss Van Lark, it is… an absolute pleasure to finally meet you,” I spoke as I approached her, summoning all the courage my heart could muster.

“Charmed,” she spoke almost sarcastically, extending her delicately manicured hand. I noticed a flash of green across her nails as I lightly shook it, matching her pressure.

“What brings you to New Orleans?” I asked politely.

She ignored the question, turning back to face the wintery landscape. “I see that you rely on a clear coat water-based style. Popularized to American culture by the famous Bob Ross.”

“I grew up watching his work,” I nodded, fondly remembering his thick, curly afro, his soft and gentile voice, and the kindness in those old, warm eyes.

“Yes, as did many,” she replied. “He did great things for making the production of passable art accessible to otherwise talentless imbeciles… in some cases, those said imbeciles came to learn a touch of greatness… it was rare, but it happened.”

I nodded along, trying to determine if she was commenting on American culture, or insulting me. I assumed it was probably both.

“I’ve heard of you in passing, Riley.”

“What have you heard of me?” I asked, trying to keep the sheer curiosity out of my tone.

“A number of things: that you’ve a natural at your craft, that you work quickly and efficiently, that you are a humble but confident artist with friendly working relationships with a dozen museums in this city alone… what do you have to say about these things?”