Chapter 22
TWENTY-TWO
Fisher
I pull up in front of Juniper’s house and kill the engine.
She’s already on the porch and there’s a bottle of wine and two wineglasses in front of her.
I can’t help but grin. I can’t remember a time when a glass of wine on the porch with a woman would have sounded like manna from heaven.
In Star Falls, everything hits different.
“Hey, you,” I say, as I approach the porch and climb the steps, carrying a gift bag. “How are you feeling? It’s been a big day.”
“Yeah, I’m exhausted.”
“Riley was okay with her grandparents?”
“I mean, she was salty about not being able to meet Grace and tell her about Mommy’s art, but she’s fine.”
I chuckle. “She probably knows it almost as well as you do.”
“Not quite,” she says. “I do my best work when she’s not around.”
I lean over her and press a kiss to her lips. “You smell incredible. What is that?”
“Acrylic paint and chicken sausage?” she suggests.
I laugh and sit down next to her. “Wanna drink?” I plonk down the boxed bottle of champagne I brought with me. “I thought we should be celebrating,” I say.
“Fisher, you didn’t need to do that. I don’t even have any proper champagne glasses.”
“Tastes the same no matter the glass,” I say. “I didn’t know if you even drank champagne.”
“Well, I don’t. It’s not on the menu at Grizzly’s.”
I chuckle. “But you like it?”
I shrug. “I guess. I had it at a wedding once.”
Our lives are so different. But I wasn’t always living it large in New York. My family wasn’t poor, but we weren’t living-in-a-penthouse-in-Manhattan wealthy, either. It’s not like we don’t have things in common.
“How are you feeling about today?” I take the foil off the bottle and untwist the wire holding the cork in place.
“Grace is lovely,” she says.
“Very nice. And she loved your work.”
Juniper nods. “Yeah. That was good to hear. You think she was just being kind?”
I pour out the champagne into the two wineglasses. “I know for a fact she wasn’t. After you’d left the Club, she and I had lunch with Byron and Rosey. It was a shame you couldn’t join.”
“Yeah, thanks for inviting me. I’m sorry, I had to get back for Riley.”
“It’s fine.” I hand her the glass and raise mine. “To you and all that awaits you.”
She smiles, but it’s more reserved than I’m used to from her. “Thank you, Fisher. You’ve been so kind to introduce me to Grace and to bring her here and… I know you’re busy and have a thousand other things to think about. I don’t want you to think I don’t appreciate it.”
“It’s fine. I enjoy introducing people who are going to work well with them.
And finding talent and helping it soar is my passion.
There is nothing to thank me for. I’m getting a kick out of all this.
” Fact is, helping Juniper is more fulfilling to me than breaking any musical artist before her.
There’s no pretense with her. No ego. I’m really rooting for her.
She glances down into her lap. “It’s just that…
the stuff she was saying about my work. It’s so flattering.
I didn’t go to art school, and other than a passionate high school art teacher, I’m self-taught.
I just don’t know how I’d ever fit into a world where I have to network with important collectors and gallery owners. ”
“You don’t need to fit in with them. You just need to be you.”
She presses her lips together in a way that tells me she doesn’t believe a word I’m saying.
“I’m serious. That’s what agents are for. They can help you find your way, attract the right attention. This is going to be good for you.”
She shakes her head and I get a twinge in my gut, like she’s hurting and that hurts me.
“What?”
“Fisher, I have a job and a daughter and responsibilities. I can’t fit in a pedicure, let alone more time in the studio working on more canvases.”
“I get it. But this could be a job, too.”
She lets out a half laugh. “Yeah, but it’s not paying me a monthly salary like the one I get at the school, and I don’t have a ton to fall back on. Or really anything other than what I got from the Colorado Club, which I’m saving most of for Riley’s college.”
She’s such a good mom. She could take this opportunity for herself, but she wants to keep it for her kid instead.
“I get it. It’s a tough decision. You’re either willing to bet on yourself or you’re not.”
“From the guy who came into town on a helicopter.”
“I didn’t always have money, Juniper. But I knew what I wanted and I went for it.”
“Yeah, and you didn’t have a kid at the time. Or a mortgage payment.”
I can’t argue with what she’s saying. I don’t know what it’s like to be responsible for another human being. Priorities must shift. And maybe it makes you less willing to gamble.
“I have a proposition for you,” I say. “I’m going to have to go back to New York for a couple of days.
I need to have a couple of conversations with people face-to-face.
Why don’t you come with me? Bring Riley.
We can go to the Met and the MoMA. And you can meet up with Grace and maybe have a few meetings with agents. ”
She starts to shake her head, but I can’t let her give up.
“You’ll just gather information. Then you can make a more informed decision. There might be answers to your concerns that you’re not even aware of.”
“I can’t, Fisher. You say bring Riley, but what’s she going to do while I meet with Grace and agents? Having a kid is the best thing in the world, but from the day you give birth, it means they come first. Before my ambition. Before my choices. Before my life.”
“Riley can stay with me at my offices. Or we can bring your mom.”
She splutters out a laugh. “My mom would not go to New York City. Hell, she won’t go to Denver. It’s not happening.”
“Then let’s find a sitter if you don’t think she’d want to stay with me.”
“I think she’d want to stay with you a little too much.
It’s another reason I can’t go. If we go away together, she’s going to become attached.
To you. Hell, I’m going to get even more attached.
And then the next time you fly out to New York City, you’ll stay there.
And I’ll still be sitting here on my porch, and Riley will be snoring in bed.
I can handle that. But Riley? Her father moved to Florida.
I don’t want her to get attached to another man who lives across the country. It’s too much for her.”
I’m out of arguments. I wouldn’t want to do anything that’s going to hurt or upset Riley. I understand what Juniper’s saying but it kills me to see so much talent stay in Star Falls.
I take a swig of my drink. “I’m sorry if I pushed too much.”
She slides her hand onto my knee. “I like that you did. It makes me feel…” She shakes her head, like she doesn’t want to say. “I like it.”
“Finish that thought?” I say, and I turn to her. “It makes you feel…?”
She smiles and looks up at me under her lashes. “I was going to say ‘important,’ to you at least.”
My stomach lifts in my chest, and I cup my hand around her neck and pull her in for a kiss. She doesn’t even see how special she is. And she is important. To me. More important than I should have let her become, given I’m leaving Star Falls for good in just a few weeks.
Maybe part of the reason I’ve been pushing so hard is because if Juniper was in New York, I’d be able to see her after Vivian has stopped recording. After I’ve gone back to New York. In real life.
I deepen our kiss and pull her closer. I don’t think I’ve ever felt this way about anybody, and I know I’m not going to want to give her up when I go back to New York.