Skin (21 page)

T
ania woke up
with a sore throat, burning eyes, and a happy heart.

She’d take the nasty physical symptoms any day – as long as she got to keep the happy heart. She had no idea what time it was. All she’d done for the last day was a mix of emotional outburst – sleep – emotional outburst – collapse.

She sat up in bed and looked around. She was alone.

And damn if she wasn’t starting to hate that.

Then again, he could only be expected to be there so long. And she needed to give him the freedom to leave. It was the last day of the seminar, and although she didn’t give a damn about completing her homework and handing it over to Jenna, she did care about fulfilling her own commitment to her healing. Without her assignment, she’d never have gotten here – she might have in another way at another time, but the fact was, she was here.

And she was so grateful. Checking her laptop for the time, she found out it was six in the morning. She needed to get the homework done.

She needed to free Kane. Make him understand that she was grateful he’d been here, but if this wasn’t where he wanted to be…then that was okay, too.

It wasn’t, but she wasn’t going to try to keep him on a hook. She’d gotten over worse, and coming into this seminar, she’d have been jumping for joy to think of making it this far.

Determined to end the seminar in a good frame of mind, she set about sorting the latest images. As she worked, the theme started to build more in her mind. She planned on printing the images on the hotel printer. She needed the images in black and white, but they had to tell the story properly.

She worked for a solid hour and felt like she was making progress as she found an image of Kane, relaxed, happy, and almost carefree. She’d taken it when they’d gone for a walk yesterday. He’d been giddy, almost running back to the hotel room. Excited. Natural.

A little later, she realized she was hungry and spied the restaurant bag on the desk. She hopped up to see what Kane had brought her last night. A couple sandwiches were nestled inside a takeout carton. Perfect. She made herself a cup of coffee and polished them both off. Apparently, lovemaking and healing had improved her appetite. She could just imagine the others’ comments. At seven, she called down to the front desk and asked about printing the images, then she emailed them to the receptionist, who promised to print them and hole punch them for her.

Tania dressed and packed up her room. Since it was the end of the seminar, she’d elected to leave as soon it was over. She didn’t know if other participants were staying another night, but she needed to get back to her normal world.

She’d be sorry to leave. It would hurt in a way. This place would always stay in her memories. A special place, a special time, and a special man.

Once she was ready to go, she decided to check out and leave her bags at the reception area. She could collect them at the end of the morning session. She needed to sort the printed pictures and put a few comments on a couple of them.

With a last look around, she stopped, grabbed her camera, and took several pictures to remember this room by before she took her leave.

Downstairs, she handed over her keys and luggage and accepted the pictures in return. Now, if she could find a way to tie the pages together – a small strip of leather would be perfect – but such a thing was highly unlikely.

“Do you need anything else?”

“Now that you mention it,” she said, “Any chance you have a strip of leather of any kind hanging around?”

The woman’s gaze widened. “I have a single shoelace that’s been sitting in this drawer since forever, would that work?”

She opened her drawer and pulled out one long, single strand.

“Perfect.” Borrowing scissors, Tania cut the strip into three equal pieces. Then with her pages and strips, she moved to a comfy seating arrangement in the lobby and went to work. First, she used the laces to tie the pages together in the three different punched holes. Then with the black marker, she wrote
“Skin”
on the title page. Then she added a couple more lines.

Next, she turned to the first image. On that page, she wrote
“The beginning…”

After that, using the minimum number of words possible, she explained the steps that Kane had gone through to push himself to do what he needed to do to get the job done. Even though he hadn’t seen the journey for what it was at the time, it had ended up being his journey and, through that, her journey. As one had healed, it had triggered healing in the other. They’d been perfect partners. On another page, she had a picture of Kane’s hand held out toward her. She titled it
“The Gift – Acceptance.”

On the next page, she had an image of her hand she’d taken in her hotel room, outstretched as if to meet his hand. She titled that page
“Acceptance of the gift – another gift of acceptance.”

On the last page, she had a picture – the only one she really disliked as far as clarity went – but it was powerful in its message. The picture was of her hand being held in Kane’s hand. Hers tiny and his huge, but hers cradled very gently by this powerful man.

She titled this last image
“A gift offered and a gift returned”
.

By the time she was done, she had to sniffle back tears. She flicked thorough the images again and felt like the theme
was
the title. In none of the images was there at any time a piece of clothing, not even a little bit of material to denote clothing existed. In fact, the images stripped Kane down to the basic man inside and out. No artifice. No hiding. No covering up. He was who he was, and it was showed here in all his natural splendor. As natural and as honest as the day he was born, he was wearing the only thing he couldn’t remove – his skin.

*

Kane woke up
with a shock of feeling like he was in the wrong place. He bolted upright and threw off his covers. He was in his room. Memories flooded back. He’d taken the wrong hotel key when he went to meet Jenna.

Tania would have woken up alone.

And he’d lost the opportunity to wake her up gently, slowly, lovingly.

Now he realized it was morning, and although he hoped she might still be asleep, she could also have already headed down to the restaurant for breakfast. He dressed, packed, and leaving his stuff behind for the moment, raced down to her room. He knocked, but there was no answer. He knocked again. Then kicking himself again for having taken the wrong key last night, he went to check the restaurant. But he couldn’t find her. He frowned. Walking over to the reception desk, he asked the receptionist if Tania had been by.

“She’s checked out.”

He froze. “Pardon?”

The woman gave him a bright smile. “She was up bright and early, handed back her key, and has officially checked out.” She glanced behind her. “Oh, but her luggage is still here. She’s part of the seminar, right? So she’s likely headed in that direction.”

Thanking her, Kane took off to search for Tania. If her luggage was still here, then she was, too. That was all that mattered. He’d find her somehow. Ten minutes later, he spotted Jenna exiting the elevator. “Jenna, have you seen Tania?” He quickly explained about her checking out but still being here and his not being able to find her.

“There are lots of little seating arrangements throughout the hotel. She could be in any one of those. She also might have gone for a walk.”

He nodded and turned to look out the front door. She might be out there. He glanced at his watch. “We’re starting in what, a half hour?”

“Less. I’m grabbing some tea and going over there now. We’re starting early so I can get into the presentations.”

He winced. “Right. The homework.”

She laughed lightly. “I presume that’s what she’s doing right now.”

“Oh, most likely.” And he’d forgotten all about it. “I’ll catch up with you in class.”

He did a quick search of the hotel. Not finding Tania, he decided he needed some coffee. He’d rather have something much stronger…

With cups of coffee in both hands, he headed to start the last day of the seminar. He couldn’t even begin to explain to his brother what he’d gone through here. Trying to explain what he’d learned from the seminar would be tough because what he’d learned had come from Tania herself, and that wouldn’t have happened except for that damn homework. Damned if Jenna hadn’t planned that all along.

How could she have known? Had she known? No, surely not. She didn’t have any psychic abilities that would allow her to see who would be the best fit with another. But she’d created a magical opportunity when she’d paired Kane with Tania. And he’d asked her to change it.

She’d refused. Thank God.

He walked into class to find Tania sitting beside Robin, both of them involved in an animated conversation. He almost didn’t want to interrupt, but Robin spotted him first. She said something to Tania, who spun around. He caught the barest whisper of relief in her eyes, and she smiled up at him.

“Hey. Is one of those for me?”

“Yeah, I wasn’t sure how long you’d sleep.”

“I woke up early, ate the sandwiches you brought me last night, and then finished the homework.”

“Yeah, about that homework.” He’d always done his fair share on group projects, but right now he felt like he’d let her down. “I’m sorry I haven’t contributed much.”

She laughed. “You are so wrong. You contributed the most. Wait until you see it.”

“Shouldn’t I be adding something to it?” he asked, curious now. He’d seen her theme, and that had made him pause. He’d planned to clarify her thoughts on that subject but had completely forgotten about it with everything else going on. He presumed she hadn’t put any images in the project that he’d not be happy about, but as only Jenna and the two of them were going to see it, he could live with it regardless.

“You can if you want to.” She handed it over, but Jenna walked in just then and started to wrap up the seminar. She had several guest speakers in to talk with them about the healing journey as she took groups aside and went over their projects.

The morning passed quickly as the speakers were both witty and fun, and although they never made light of their own painful pasts, they showed how far they’d come. After seeing Tania’s major growth, Kane had so much more appreciation for them. He’d barely had a chance to flick through the project Tania had put together, but he did read and tried to absorb what she’d done. The depth of what she’d captured astonished him.

The title amused him and confused him until he slowly recognized that there was only skin showing in each of the images. The deepest parts of him had been laid bare by her camera. He was alternately embarrassed and awed by her skill. He understood the captions but thought she might have given him more credit than he was due, but then he came to the last few pages and he stopped. Damn if his eyes weren’t trying to burn with tears. He saw his hand outstretched and had no recollection of when she could have taken the image, then turned the page to see her hand unfurling, hesitantly, carefully, but still making the effort.

He turned the page to see the two of them holding hands and realized she hadn’t created a homework project, but had instead created a work of art.

Only there was one thing missing.

He leaned over. “Do you still have that marker?”

She pulled it out and handed it over without saying anything. She watched him though, a question in her eyes. He smiled, and on the last page he added three words.

Jenna walked up behind them as he finished.

“Tania and Kane, it’s your turn.”

T
ania wanted to
see what Kane had written, but there was no time. Jenna held her hand out for the project and Kane passed it over. She shot Kane a look and whispered, “What did you write?”

He gave her a small smile and said, “You’ll have to wait and see.”

She rolled her eyes at him. Nervous now that Jenna, with her eyes that saw too much, would read more into the project than Tania had intended, Tania took her seat. The three of them sat at a table where they could all look at the project. In the background, the speaker was going into another story as the group before them took their seats.