Chapter Ten
I looked at Judy. From the expression on her face, I wondered if she knew who Kyle was or was just impressed by his good looks. He did look even more handsome in a collared light blue short-sleeved shirt and tight jeans with loafers, his hair glistening. He stepped in as Anna stepped back.
“Hi,” he said. “I thought you might be up. I decided to use my first day off here scouting a perspective for the landscape. I was hoping you could come out and do a survey with me. It’s really nice out, an unusually warm spring day, they say.”
“Oh, she can’t…” Anna began, but Judy stepped forward.
“We can go outside if I walk right by you two,” Judy said.
“Who is this?” Anna asked.
“This is Mr. Wyman, the new resident artist at the Doyle Gallery,” I said.
“Oh. You chose Lisa’s painting and did that drawing of her.”
“Yes, ma’am, or rather, the painting chose me. Just like I imagine this house chose you.”
Anna beamed, her smile so bright. I looked at Kyle. Was he born this charming, or did he develop it along with his art? Every time something about Kyle excited me, the feeling was accompanied by guilt over what Jamie would think, especially now that he had seen Kyle’s drawing of me.
“I’ll go put something on,” I said.
“I’ll show you some of the house,” Anna told Kyle.
Judy stayed with them rather than following me to my room.
I paused. Suddenly, what I was going to wear just to walk around the Crest was so important that I stood there pondering.
I wanted to remain casual but chose a blouse my mother had bought shortly before her accident.
When I looked at my hair, I gasped. It looked like an unraveling mop.
I quickly ran a brush through it. Maybe I should put on lipstick, I thought, and then I thought I was acting too much like a lovesick teenager drooling over her idol posted on a wall.
I gave myself one more look and then walked out. Everyone was waiting at the door.
“Wow,” Kyle said. “You’d never know this young lady had a serious operation recently.”
Anna smiled, and Judy looked at me enviously. I know I was blushing. I felt a new sense of energy.
“Now, don’t overdo it,” Anna warned, as if she could read my mind.
I know her warning was born of real love, but I was determined not to have what I did decided by anyone else, least of all my father. This new energy gave me the feeling I was finally breathing—and breathing on my own.
“Oh, I think Lisa is someone we can trust at the helm,” Kyle said. He reached for my hand. Judy opened the door, and we stepped out.
I don’t think I ever walked out of the Crest without being impressed by the ocean. To the left below was part of the beach and a row of island houses. Today was beautiful; it truly felt like the first day of my life.
I paused to take a deep breath. Kyle laughed.
“How long have you been in Bar Harbor this time?”
“Not that long. Why?” he asked.
“Seaman’s words… helm?”
He laughed again. “It’s not pretentious. We had lots of expensive toys, one of them being a sixteen-foot sailboat.”
“Had?”
We walked toward the cliff. Judy was close enough to breathe down my neck, but I suspected it wasn’t to protect me as much as to hear the conversation.
Kyle shrugged. “I said my parents were wealthy enough to finance my development, as I told you, mostly thanks to my mother, but my father has since made a number of poor financial decisions. Truth is, he almost had to declare bankruptcy last year. I had to lend him money. For him, it was like taking castor oil.”
“But not for you,” I said, and he laughed.
He looked back at Judy. “Pretty smart girl, huh?”
“What? Oh, yes, she is,” she said quickly.
“Point is, I had it to lend, but I’m not someone who will tell you I don’t care about money and I care only about my art.
I like my art making money. I even sold a multimillionaire a painting four months ago just because the colors matched what he had in his entertainment room.
I don’t think he looked at my work twice.
I know his wife hadn’t seen it. He had an associate come to a showing of mine.
But,” he quickly added, “that doesn’t mean I lack respect for my own work.
I don’t offer anything until I’m satisfied with it.
Why they buy it isn’t as important to me. Understand?”
“Yes,” I said.
“I thought you would. I’m kind of surprised and quite happy that you are not some tasteless, spoiled rich girl.”
I couldn’t help but feel myself blush again, only this time I was happier about it.
His smile warmed. For a moment I thought of a lobster going into a trap, but how could someone so handsome and exciting be a trap?
Even if he was, it was flattering to know he wanted me to like him, really like him.
I loved Jamie, but there was something about this that was quite different.
I thought about it for a moment but only needed that moment to realize what it was.
With Jamie, I still felt like a high school girl.
With Kyle, I was feeling more like a young woman.
We paused at the cliff and turned back.
“I was thinking, almost from the moment I drove up here, that I should set up right by that oak tree,” he said.
“The oak tree?”
“Yes. I remember you mentioning it when you were telling me about the haiku poem,” he said, “and I took a quick look at it before I came to the door.”
Did he memorize everything I had told him?
The tree had more meaning than that for me. It was Jamie’s and my favorite place to meet and where we came the closest to making love.
“I’m not sure it should be in the picture, but there’s a good view of the house from it. Let’s take a look,” he said, and started for it.
We paused at the tree. I watched him turn and study each angle until he nodded to himself and turned back to me.
“I think this works because I don’t want too much of the ocean. You can’t exclude it. We’re on an island, and the house has to reflect that, but the focus of attention should be fully on the Crest. Right?”
I tried to look at it from his perspective, but with those silvery-blue eyes of his fixed so warmly on me, I couldn’t think for a moment.
“Yes,” I said quickly, embarrassed by my silence. “I see what you mean.” I really did. What astounded me was how quickly he saw the view that the landscape should capture.
“I thought you would. Breeze is a little stronger now.” He gestured for us to return to the house and looked at Judy. “We don’t want to overdo it.”
She giggled and followed us. He smiled at me and stopped when we got to the door.
“Eddie Doyle says your big appointment with Dr. Knox is late Tuesday morning. You’ll get the final seal of approval.”
“I’m that much of a topic of conversation?”
“You’re a star in the gallery, so we talk about you.”
His answer slightly disappointed me. Sometimes I wanted not logical replies but emotional ones. Maybe he saw the disappointment in my face.
“I was wondering, if your father and grandfather approve, could I take you to lunch afterward, assuming all goes well? I’ll deliver you to your grandfather’s boat to go back to Birdlane.”
“Lunch?”
“Also assuming you like being in Bar Harbor and that there are no other plans for your celebration. I mean, I understand if…”
“Of course I like Bar Harbor. It’s always been an exciting place for me and my mother especially. In comparison to Birdlane Island, Bar Harbor, or what we call the mainland, is riveting with its bright lights, traffic, and variety of things to do.”
I could see he was amused by my enthusiasm.
“I intend to go there a lot more often now.”
“Breaking out of the—” he started to say.
I finished it. “The prison my body put me in.”
“Watch out, world. Lisa’s coming.”
He leaned over to hug me quickly. A thrilling warm feeling traveled through me like a wave. He started for his car, a rental from the pier. At the car, he paused and turned back.
“We all live in our own prisons sometimes. Let your art free you.”
“It has.”
He nodded. I watched him drive away.
“What a nice young man,” Judy said. “I must visit the gallery.”
There’s never an age when we all don’t fantasize, I thought. My mother once told me, “Everyone carries around their own Snow White mirror.”
Daddy came to my door shortly before dinner to tell me he was stopping by just to change clothes before going out to dinner.
I began to wonder if he was seeing someone.
I did suspect it once and asked Mommy. She said, “Some things are better left undisturbed.” I didn’t know what she meant, but I knew I shouldn’t pursue it.
“The artist who is doing the Crest was here to get a perspective, Daddy.”
“Probably more to get more money out of my father,” he said.
“Not everybody is like you, Daddy.”
He didn’t reply. For a moment I thought he was going to say something nasty, but he just shook his head like last time and walked away. It felt good to leave him speechless.
Kyle was right. Watch out, world. I’m coming. I laughed to myself.
Jamie called me the next day. I didn’t mention Kyle’s visit and afterward felt guilty about it.
It was truly as if I were hiding it from him, but I did promise to call him as soon as I had the doctor’s exam results.
He sounded the same, his voice low, without much energy.
I asked him again about the special chair his father wanted built on the boat, and he got a little angry at me for even bringing it up.
I apologized and again told him I’d call him as soon as I could.
Instead of lying there feeling guilty, however, I thought about Kyle’s offer to take me to lunch. Was Daddy right in a way? Was Kyle giving me all this attention because Grandfather had hired him to do the Crest? For a moment I even wondered if he had chosen my painting with this in mind.
“No,” I could hear my mother saying. “Don’t discount yourself so fast.”