Family [Baxter 9] by Karen Kingsbury

Author:Karen Kingsbury
Language: eng
Format: mobi, epub
Tags: Los Angeles (Calif.), Domestic Fiction, Adoptees, Christian, Adoptees - Identification, General, Christian Fiction, Cancun (Mexico), Identification, Trials, Large Type Books, Fiction, Religious, Cancún (Mexico)
ISBN: 9780842387460
Publisher: Thorndike Press
Published: 2006-10-30T00:00:00+00:00

J

174

sandals. She always had a pair of bifocals balanced on the end of her nose.

“Looks like the pieces I had out front are gone.” Ashley felt the familiar rush.

The fact that she was pulling in a decent income as an artist was still overwhelming. And every time she brought in a batch of paintings they were gone in a month.

The woman raised her finger in the air. “That’s what I wanted to talk to you about.” She made a puzzled face. “Some guy came in and bought all three-” she snapped her fingers-“just like that. Didn’t even blink at the price.”

“Maybe we’re not charging enough.” She smiled, teasing the woman. There were new candles on display near the register, and Ashley picked one up. The smell was a rich mix of pine and musk. When the store owner didn’t laugh, Ashley looked at her. “I’m just kidding.”

“No, it wasn’t the price, nothing like that.” The gallery owner’s look lacked any humor whatsoever. “It was something about your paintings. He seemed taken by them. Had them shipped back to some post office box in Los Angeles, California.”

Devin stirred in his stroller, and Ashley set the candle down. “Los Angeles?”

“Yes, and here’s the strangest thing.” She adjusted her bifocals. “I could’ve sworn the guy was that actor fellow Dayne Matthews. He told me he was in town visiting his kid brother, a student at the university.” The woman shook her finger. “But I know a face when I’ve seen it before, and his belonged to a Hollywood movie star if ever I’ve seen one.”

Ashley was glad she wasn’t holding the candle. Otherwise she would’ve dropped it. “Dayne Matthews?” She moved close to the counter. “Well, how did he pay? Did you see his name?”

“It wasn’t Dayne Matthews.” She made a suspicious face. “Something similar, though. If you ask me, it was him. I’m convinced.”

175

The conversation shifted. Ashley and the woman talked about what sort of paintings had done the best over the past year. Ashley agreed to bring in another two featuring the Baxter house, one of the old people from Sunset Hills Adult Care Home, and two with a little blond boy as the main subject.

Sometimes she enjoyed painting the same type of scene more than once. It gave her a chance to find ways to make each one unique, even if the subject was similar. But as she pushed Devin’s stroller back to her van, she wasn’t thinking about which paintings she might bring to the shop in the next few days.

She was thinking about the guy who had walked in and bought everything she had for sale. Could it have been Dayne? And if so, why would he want her paintings?

Maybe he’d bought them as a gift for Katy, or because Katy had suggested them.

Or maybe the guy only looked like Dayne, and he really was visiting his kid brother at the university.

She mentioned something about it to Landon that night, but he only smiled at her. “Maybe your dad’s been giving Dayne advice about decorating his house.

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