Chapter Fifteen
“I’m sure you have many other things to focus on other than me,” Margot said as she sat before the vanity mirror in her room at River House. “Your auction’s tonight.”
Sassy tutted, running her fingers through the ends of Margot’s fine silver hair. “Why would I throw over my very first client?”
Margot released a fluted chuckle, her features transforming. “You only wanted to be a cosmetologist for one summer.”
“And you were the only one brave enough to volunteer to be my guinea pig,” Sassy remembered fondly. She set aside her shears and placed her hands on Margot’s delicate shoulders. “How did I do? Not too short?”
“It’s perfect,” Margot said, reaching up to lay her hand over Sassy’s. “Thank you, sweetheart.”
Sassy set the shears in her purse, lifting Rogue—who she’d again sneaked into River House—off Margot’s lap so that she could remove the nylon cape. She shook it out once, letting the loose silver tendrils litter the floor. “I’m sure Mr. Kincaid will agree.”
“Mr. Kincaid?” Margot shook her head as she rose from the stool in front of the mirror. “Sassy, how you do carry on.”
“I was talking to Ms. Porter,” Sassy noted, folding the cape and setting it aside so she could pick up the broom and dustpan. “Word is Mr. Kincaid can foxtrot like there’s no tomorrow.”
Margot cackled so hard she crumpled to the edge of her bed with its lace-trimmed coverlet and held her stomach. Knuckling the tears from the corners of her eyes, she struggled for breath. “Oh, dear. I haven’t laughed like this since…”
Sassy’s broom paused midswipe as Margot struggled to remember. Quickly, she resumed. “That just means Rogue and I don’t visit enough.”
Margot lifted her hands so the cat could pad across her lap and settle there again. Sassy smiled as Margot caressed Rogue’s curled-up form. Rogue might be salty as hell, but she knew a thing or two about timing and compassion.
As soon as she disposed of the hair in the dustbin, she took a seat next to Margot. “You want to be my date to the fundraiser tonight?”
Margot pursed her lips but couldn’t hide the amused flash behind her eyes. “Really, Sassy.”
“I’m serious,” Sassy said. “Nick’s going to be there. So are my mom and dad. The whole Colton clan. I’ll find you a dress and some cute shoes to wear. You can drink fizzy water, eat canapés and bid on my dime.”
“There’s no sneaking out of here,” Margot said measuredly.
“If I can sneak Rogue in, I can sneak you out. Do you think Nick used to get himself out the second-floor window of his room?”
Another chuckle surfaced. She patted Sassy’s arm. “You go on. You and Nick will have a marvelous time without me.”
Sassy tilted her head. “You know, one of these days I’m going to convince you to join my shenanigans. It worked on him.”
“Indeed,” Margot agreed. “You worked your charms on my son before anyone else had a chance. For him…there’s only ever been you, hasn’t there?”
Sassy stilled. “You act like I ruined him for all others.”
Margot eyed her beadily in response.
Sassy felt her smile flee. “I… I never intended…”
“Perhaps not,” Margot said. “But it wasn’t long after that first conversation in the lunch room that I knew I’d lost him to another. A mother always knows, Sassy.”
That breathless feeling she’d been trying to forget wound its way around Sassy. She wanted to apologize…to ask what exactly Margot really meant. She wanted to know long Nick had…what? Loved her?
No. Not since grade school. Margot must be mistaken.
A knock clattered against the door, and they both looked up as Nick entered the room. He raised his brows when he found the two of them seated hip to hip. “Plotting against me, I see.”
“We were doing no such thing,” Margot said as she rose to greet him.
Nick wrapped his mother in a warm hug, his cheek resting against the side of her head.
When he opened his eyes and looked at Sassy, she made a silent gesture toward her hair, widening her eyes in indication.
He placed his hands on Margot’s arms, moving her back a step.
“Wow. You look amazing. Did you get a haircut?”
Margot touched the ends of her tresses. “Sassy just cut it. Doesn’t she do a fantastic job?”
“She does,” Nick acknowledged. He looked to Sassy again and mouthed, “Thank you.”
She bowed her head slightly in answer, gathering Rogue into her arms.
“Do you have a date for tonight’s fundraiser?” Margot asked him.
“No,” he said. “I’m going stag.”
“Well, I think you should take Sassy,” Margot told him.
Sassy looked up, startled. “Me?”
“Yes,” Margot said, nodding vigorously. “You just asked me to be your date. I assume that means you don’t already have one.”
“Of course it does,” Sassy replied. Margot cut her off before she could continue.
“It’s settled then. Nick will go with you.”
Nick met Sassy’s gaze, as unsure as she was.
They both knew neither of them was capable of refusing Margot anything.
Even so, they’d kept a studied distance from one another physically ever since they’d kissed at the Bootleg.
He hadn’t so much as let his arm brush against hers in passing.
She’d stopped all manner of touching, down to punching him on the shoulder when she was right and he was wrong.
It hadn’t silenced the weird vibes between them, but they were down to a dull roar, so maybe the status quo was working.
Tonight’s auction was a black-tie affair. If they behaved as badly as they had on a casual date night at the Bootleg, Sassy hated to imagine what the expectations for tonight would be.
Okay, so she didn’t exactly hate it. In fact…she could easily imagine bringing the night to a conclusion by grabbing Nick by his tie and—
She forced herself out of the reverie. By the look on Nick’s face, he too knew that this path led to danger. Still, the words that surfaced from him said something decidedly different. “I’d love to if she’ll have me.”
Margot looked to Sassy expectantly.
Sassy took a bracing breath before she forced a smile and nodded. “Count me in.”
“It’s settled then,” Margot said, bringing her hands together and beaming at both of them. “Before you go, Sassy, I have something I wanted you to see.”
“Oh?” Sassy followed her to the small storage closet attached to the room. Margot rummaged around for a moment before revealing an item wrapped in a vibrant silk scarf.
Margot held it as if it might shatter, handing it carefully to Sassy. “I thought you might consider it for tonight’s auction.”
Intrigued, Sassy unwrapped the scarf from around it, recognizing the shape and weight of a canvas. When the silk slid away, she froze.
The painting was small—a simple eight-by-ten.
The subject stood in the center of a vast, empty red-sand desert, facing the wind.
Her hair and ceremonial dress billowed out behind her.
Little by little, her sleek black mane and skirt were being carried off by the breath of air in the form of scarlet petals.
Sassy found her own initials scrawled across the bottom corner.
Margot’s voice dropped to a murmur. “It was a gift you gave me for Mother’s Day after…after Lincoln died.”
Sassy raised her gaze to Margot’s and found her eyes swimming every bit as much as Sassy feared hers were. “I remember,” she said hoarsely.
Margot nodded. “It meant the world to me.”
“Then why are you giving it back?” Sassy asked.
“Because others should see it,” Margot told her. “I’ve selfishly held on to it all these years, even though I knew it belonged to the world.”
“I painted this for you.” The woman in the painting was Margot against the world. Against the odds. Fate might try to break her down, but she stood tall regardless. “It’s yours.”
When Sassy tried to transfer it back to Margot’s arms, the woman closed Sassy’s fingers around the edges.
“I want you to hang it in your gallery. I want you to tell people that you made this. This is your work. No one else’s.
You don’t have to sell it to the highest bidder.
But it should be known. It should be seen. It’s worthy of that, and so are you.”
Words of gratitude were locked tight in Sassy’s throat. She struggled against tears as she wrapped her arms around the canvas, hugged it to her chest and nodded. Stepping forward, she touched her lips to Margot’s cheek.
Margot ran a hand over her braid in answer. “Take something for yourselves tonight. Both of you. Promise me?”
Sassy nodded, still unable to speak.
Nick’s whisper touched her ear, making her skin tingle. “Should we pinkie swear on it?”
A breathless laugh escaped her. Unable to turn toward him with her emotions rippling across the surface like this, she gave her answer. “Yes.”
* * *
Zephyr Gallery practically glittered. Between flutes of gold champagne, shimmering gowns and the Chihuly-inspired chandelier consisting of hundreds of translucent spiral glass horns, the Colton Foundation fundraiser was proving to be the classiest event on Dark Canyon’s social calendar.
The chandelier was one of many pieces up for grabs tonight.
Its starting bid was the highest on the auction floor.
Nick watched the bidders file in. Tension sank into his body slowly but surely as a crowd packed the space.
Catering attendants circulated, passing out drinks and tiny bites of stuffed mushroom or smoked salmon.
From his position on the floating stairs, he could track each person.
He could also see the closed door to the storeroom.
He clocked Ryder the moment he entered the space, dressed in a bespoke three-piece suit. Cuff links flashed at his wrists. He wore a diamond stud in his left ear.
Everything about the man was a lie. According to his dossier, he had no other employment outside of his fledgling metalworks business.
Not officially. Sassy’s theory that his family supported his artistic ambitions hadn’t panned out.
He had no family to speak of. He wouldn’t, living under an alias as he was.