Always the One by Tara Randel

Author:Tara Randel
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Harlequin
Published: 2019-11-14T20:02:03+00:00

* * *

DERRICK NODDED, wondering if he could carry out her request.

Hannah was beautiful, with her cheeks flushed and her eyes bright. She hurried from the room, eager to get back to the children. Or eager to get away from him? Either excuse worked. Had he scared her? Made her question her commitment to Prescott? And her warning? Valid. He couldn’t do anything to cause her or her mother pain again.

He took one last look at her display, his chest warm at the sight. She had a real talent for highlighting the most interesting aspects of the pieces. Guilt nudged him along as he realized once again that he’d kept her from the career she’d had her heart set on.

By the time he joined the others, the boys wrangled him into sticking with them for the remainder of the tour. Keeping the young boys’ attention was tough until they came to the Kids Craft room. A table was set up for the students to hammer sheets of metal, twist leather into bracelets or fashion long strands of raffia into a basket.

Hannah had done her best to keep her back to him, which was okay. He’d pushed her; he knew it. She had to decide on her own, which direction her life would take, no matter how much he wanted to meddle. For a guy who liked to interfere in the lives of the people he loved—just ask his family—not taking control of the situation was excruciating. Maybe he could look at it as character growth.

“Over here, Mr. Fields.” Tommy’s voice pulled his thoughts from Hannah. “We get to use hammers!”

And who thought this was a good idea?

The older man behind the long table, whose name tag read Mason, chuckled, explaining the art of metalwork to the excited boys and girls. The hammers laid out on the table had short handles. The striking end, rather than being flat, was rounded in a ball-peen shape designed to leave deep and even impressions. A pattern was engraved in the metal. Beside the tool, small steel blocks provided a solid and compact stamping surface for the kids to pound away on.

Mason handed Derrick a hammer with a longer handle and a narrow sheet of metal, about the size to wrap around a wrist. “This’ll actually form a shape.”

Derrick took the hammer, looked at the textured end, but still came up short.

“Watch,” Mason said. He took a narrow strip of metal and placed it on a block. Then he hammered the material until indentations formed. “The metal moves with each strike, forming a pattern.”

Derrick watched, enthralled. He’d never taken the time to consider how jewelry was made. Intrigued now, he started hitting the metal, making a pattern of his own. He was so caught up in the task he didn’t notice the children had gone quiet while watching him. After a while he stopped and picked up the metal. His fingertips moved over the surface and he was impressed with his first attempt at this kind of art.

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