Shame (Secrets and Lies Book 2) by Ainsley Booth

Author:Ainsley Booth [Booth, Ainsley]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Ainsley Booth
Published: 2021-03-29T18:30:00+00:00

By the time the show winds down, my cheeks hurt, my heart aches, and my feet are ready to fall off.

Luke drives me home, and I don’t complain. Then he walks me to my door, which I also don’t hate. When I unlock the door, he leans against the wall instead of heading for the elevator as he has the last couple of days. I give me a narrowed-eye what are you doing look.

He grins. “I’m going. I just want to make sure you get inside safely first.”

I laugh and push the door open, but then the chuckle dies.

The loft is full of balloons, and there’s a bottle of champagne sitting in an ice bucket just inside the door. Beside it is a newspaper, but when I step inside and pick it up, I realize it’s today’s paper with stuff glued to the front.

He’s made a headline from other words and pasted over the real headline. The cobbled together one reads, Local Artist Stuns City With Incredible Show.

The photo below it is a picture of me in my studio, which he must have printed from my website.

It’s very thoughtful.

“One day you will be front page news. Canada’s own dirty Banksy, and I’ll remember tonight as that turning point. I’m not the artist that you are, but I did my best to capture—”

I spin around and throw my arms around him, cutting him off. “It’s great,” I mumble into his chest. “Thank you.”

“Step by step,” he whispers.

I twirl forward, grabbing some of the balloons, letting myself just be happy for a minute. When I stop, he’s picked up the bottle of wine. “Do you want me to open this for you?”

“Do you want to share it?”

“Yes.” Another grin. I’ve missed his smile. “But if you want me to leave you alone with it, that’s fine too. Pour yourself a glass and go have a bubble bath.”

That sounds nice, but company sounds better. “No. I want you to stay.” I glance around the loft. He let himself in here earlier, which is…a problem. But a sweet one, and I’ll worry about that tomorrow. “Stay here. I’ll get glasses.”

“We could move to the couch,” he calls after me.

“Don’t be so familiar,” I holler back.

I grab two flutes and return, plopping myself down on the floor.

He joins me.

“Can we just sit together? Be still together?”

He nods.

“I’m kind of scared of sitting in stillness. I always have been. It sounds like a fate worse than death. Like if I stop moving, stop worrying…” I shudder.

“What will happen?”

“Self-doubt. Panic? Self-recrimination.”

“I’m familiar with all three. I call them the shame monster.”

I look at him in surprise. “Really?”

“Therapy.”

That’ll do it.

“How’s the stillness going now?”

“We’re still talking,” I point out.

He mimes zipping up his mouth. Then he pours the wine, and it’s good. We make it almost to the end of the bottle, just sitting there together, sipping the bubbly.

“It’s a bit of a bittersweet end to the day,” I finally say.

“Yeah.” He brushes his pinky finger against mine. “Is that what came out of the stillness for you?”

“Yeah.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.