The Lost Art: A Romantic Comedy by Jennifer Griffith

Author:Jennifer Griffith [Griffith, Jennifer]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: CreateSpace Independent Publishing Platform
Published: 2014-10-20T23:00:00+00:00

Chapter 12

At her desk she flicked on her phone. Eighteen texts? She breezed through them, all from Kellen, and culminating with a threat that he was coming after her at the museum if she didn’t respond immediately. That one was from an hour ago. He could be there any minute.

“That coat check? Boring as a room full of dead gophers.” Zoe made a gagging sound. “And just as smelly. Geez, people. There’s such a thing as clinical strength deodorant available on the open market these days.” She plopped down beside Ava in the cubicle. “I can’t take another minute. We’re friends, right? Give me access to someone. Anyone. Please?”

“You might get your wish, Zoe. I had word that Kellen McMullen may be here shortly. Do me a favor, though. No fawning.”

“Are you kidding? I do not fawn. Flirt, yes. Fawn, never.” Zoe dug around in her purse and pulled out a hand-held voice recorder. “But after what I heard downstairs in Stinkville, my conscience wouldn’t let me flirt or fawn. McMullen is guilty as sin.”

* * *

The accusation rumbled through Ava like an earthquake. Kellen was on the hook for the theft? But he could have bought the painting a hundred times over and still had change for a Van Gogh.

Zoe let her tone get confidential. “They’re saying it’s a well known fact Niagara was McMullen’s favorite painting. That he’s an art aficionado, plus he blabbed all over the tabs that he intends to make one of those ridiculous tight-rope walks across Niagara Falls one day. He’s a man obsessed.” Along with the voice recorder, Zoe had pulled out a nail file and began to smooth her thumbnail. “I’ll rake him over the coals if you let me at him. There’s a crack in every liar’s story, and it’s my superpower that I know how to wedge my way into it and break it wide open. Just give me ten minutes.”

Ava kept her breathing steady, against all odds. Worry zinged back and forth inside her stomach, chest, and almost rattled her teeth in her jaw. Kellen, a thief? Then again, he had been pretty insistent she leave town with him as soon as possible. And he hadn’t seemed the least bit concerned when the painting went missing.

Suspicious to the nth degree.

At the start of the day, Ava had had no intention of “letting Zoe at him.” She’d wanted to keep Zoe and her brunette curls as far from Kellen’s notoriously wandering eye as possible. But now, she’d better let Zoe have her chance. If Kellen were guilty, Ava couldn’t let herself want him anyway.

But if Kellen were innocent, but still easily swept into Zoe’s wiles, it’d be far better to let it happen now before things went any farther between him and Ava. Not that they were going to go any farther. No. Well, unless her job made it necessary, for a while. They could date, could end up dating. And in time, if that were the case, Kellen would have to meet Zoe and her gorgeousness.

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