22. Chapter Twenty-Two
Chapter Twenty-Two
B uzz-buzz.
It took a moment for Lily to wake up and realize her phone was ringing. She had been sound asleep.
When she reached for the phone, her fingertips bumped it. The phone went skidding off the nightstand and clattered onto the floor.
As the phone continued to ring, she groaned. She leaned over and grasped it. Knowing the call was about to switch over to voicemail, she pressed it to her ear without checking the caller ID.
“Hello.” The sleepiness clung to her voice.
“Lily, are you okay?” Tony’s voice held a note of concern.
She scooted up in bed and resisted the urge to yawn. “Uh. Yeah. Why? What do you need?”
“Are you still at the farm?”
“No. Hannah is there now.”
“I thought she wasn’t getting back until Sunday.”
Lily swept her hair back out of her face and realized she must look a mess. “So did I, but she heard about the complications with Aster and the baby, so she came home early.”
“I see.” There was a slight pause. “Can we meet up and talk?”
Talk? Did he mean about the festival? Or did he want to finish their conversation from yesterday? She still didn’t know what he’d been planning to say. It could have been anything.
“Okay.” She got out of bed. “When?”
“Uh... I’m a little tied up right now. Could we do it later this afternoon? Say around three?”
She nodded. Then, realizing that he couldn’t see her, she said, “Sure. Where?”
“How about in front of Dips?”
Dips was short for Whippy Dippy, the local ice cream shop. She’d loved their waffle cones since she was a kid. “Sounds perfect. I’ll see you there.”
When the call ended, she checked the time. It was almost noon. She’d slept longer than she’d intended. She had to move quickly. She needed a shower, and then she was off to see that the festival was off to a smooth start.
At the festival, she made her way through Beachcomber Park, making sure vendors had everything they needed. So far, so good.
As the September sunshine warmed her face, her thoughts kept returning to Tony. She missed the time they used to spend together. Working on the festival had brought them closer together than they had been in years.
When she reached the community hall, she was amazed at the rather lengthy line waiting to get inside. She didn’t have the time to wait in line. She had some more vendors to check on before she met up with Tony.
Still, she really wanted to see how her painting had done.
She kept telling herself not to make this exhibition so important in her mind, but it was impossible.
After all, it was just one competition with one set of judges.
But the other part of her brain said that if they didn’t find inspiration in her work, no one else would.
She stood at the end of the line. It moved so slow. She repeatedly glanced at the time on her phone as the minutes ticked by.
People got in line behind her. It was impressive that the exhibition was drawing such a large crowd. She considered cutting the line by broadcasting that she was one of the organizers. After all, it was the truth.
But then she had a better idea. She reached into her pocket and pulled out her keyring. She had the master key to the building.
With a smile on her face, she slipped out of line and moved to the side of the building, where she unlocked one of the many emergency exits. You could open them from inside, but they were locked from the outside.
Once inside, she was greeted with some surprised looks. She merely smiled at them and kept going. Her gaze scanned the exhibit numbers.
There was number nineteen. She was getting closer. The breath hitched in her lungs as she passed by twenty-nine...thirty...thirty-one...thirty-two...
The spot where her painting was supposed to hang was empty. The pent-up air whooshed from her lungs as her shoulders drooped. Where is it?
Then she realized what had happened. It was Tony. He’d withdrawn her painting. Her hands clenched as her back teeth ground together. How could he do that when he knew how important it was to her?
Tears stung the backs of her eyes. She blinked them away. She was not going to have a meltdown in public.
She turned on her heels and headed for the same door that she’d used to enter the building. She stepped out into the sunshine, letting the door slam shut behind her.
So, this was why he was so anxious to speak to her.
He probably wanted to let her down gently or some such thing.
But she didn’t need his kind words or his justifications to remove her from the competition.
The reality of having such a fabulous opportunity slip through her fingers had tears rushing to her eyes.
But if she were honest with herself, she knew it was more than the competition that was upsetting her.
She had to acknowledge that Tony wasn’t going to change.
He was always going to be the rule-abiding mayor, who believed the world consisted of black and white.
She was an artist who believed the world came in many shades of gray.
And his inflexibility was just too much for her.
The acknowledgement stabbed at her breaking heart. No amount of blinking was going to hold back the tears that rushed to her eyes. She swiped at her cheeks before she grabbed her large sunglasses from her cross-body bag. She put them on, hoping to hide her misery from the world.
And then she continued walking. She wasn’t ready to face anyone—not until she got her emotions under control. And she certainly wasn’t going to meet Tony. She just couldn’t deal with him right now.