Sweet Kiss of Summer by Sophie Gunn

Author:Sophie Gunn [GUNN, SOPHIE]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: FIC027020
ISBN: 9781455500529
Publisher: Grand Central Publishing
Published: 2011-08-01T00:00:00+00:00

Chapter Twenty-eight

He wondered how long he’d been standing there thinking about his father. The man had died of liver damage when Mick was twenty-two, but he was still messing up his life, getting in the way.

“Mick?” Nina repeated.

“How do you do that?” Mick asked Nina.

“What?” She was wearing a T-shirt and loose pink cotton pajama bottoms. Naturally, she looked amazing.

“Sneak up on me like that?”

“That’s it, isn’t it? The thing you’re supposed to find? That box? Don’t deny it. I can tell by the look on your face.” She stepped into the room slowly, as if she were seeing a ghost and couldn’t look away. “I use that box all the time for still lifes; I don’t even think about it anymore. I found it in the garage, but I brought it in before Walt—” She paused. “You know, I love that box.” She pointed at a small picture on the wall behind her desk. “The patina is so interesting. I think I’ve painted it twenty times.”

He looked at the canvas in its unassuming black frame. Sure enough, there was the box, positioned behind a vase filled with daisies. Two smaller blue boxes were stacked on top of it.

She took the box from him, inspected it, shook it. It didn’t make a sound, since everything inside was packed tight. “I hadn’t even thought about taking it to a locksmith to get it opened. I never considered it personal, if I’d much thought about it at all, which I didn’t. I guess I figured it was full of garage stuff. I don’t know, sandpaper or rags or garage-y things. Why would a person leave something important hanging around a garage? It was on a shelf with nuts and bolts and junk way in the back, covered in cobwebs. It looked industrial.” She handed it back to him quickly, as if it had suddenly become too hot for her bare hand. “I loved how it looked,” she said sadly. She paused. “I am shallow, aren’t I? That stupid box is the story of my life.”

He could feel the key in his pocket. He could open the box for her, show her the article, the stone. Or he could pretend he didn’t know what was inside and offer to destroy it. “No. Not shallow. How would you know it was important? Why would you suspect?”

“Mick. Don’t you see? It was locked and I never wanted to open it. That was what you said the very first day I met you. It’s what everyone says about me. That I just want the world to be pretty. I didn’t want to look inside. I still don’t! Now I really, really don’t want to know what’s inside.”

He put the box back under the draping, not bothering to get it right, just wanting the box to go away. He crossed to her, took her in his arms, and pulled her close. She was still warm with sleep. His skin felt chilled against hers. He wanted badly to protect her.

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