Chapter 2 #3
“I love glass because, as a material, it’s both incredibly fragile and infinitely strong,” she whispered, tracing the grain of the wooden table.
“It reminds me of…of us humans. We can fall a hundred times and nothing happens to us. But then something hits us in exactly the wrong place, and we simply collapse. And it’s never too late.
Not for us, and not for glass because you can melt it down and reshape it an infinite number of times.
And working with glass is infinitely complex!
It takes strength, finesse, elegance, intellect, creativity, and patience when working with it hot and cold.
I get a lump of glass and I can use it to make a hundred different works of art, everyday objects, jewelry…
whatever. Glass can be anything I want it to be, and in no area of my life do I feel more powerful than when I’m working with it.
I…” She paused, feeling her blood rushing to her face again when she realized Austin was staring at her as if she’d just fallen from the sky.
Or crawled out of a hole in the earth. “Sorry,” she whispered, shrugging.
“I’m rambling, aren’t I? Sometimes it’s hard to stop when someone asks me about my relationship with glass. ”
Austin smiled again, but this time his eyes weren’t bright…but dark. “No, no. Keep talking. Your enthusiasm illuminates your whole body.”
“Yes, but…” She tucked a few strands of hair behind her ears. “I end up talking too much about myself.”
“I like listening to you,” he said quietly, his voice oddly scratchy. “So that’s why your hands are so rough.”
“What do you mean?” She placed her hands on the table and turned them palms up. “Oh. That.” She laughed. “I don’t even notice anymore. I usually wear gloves, but it doesn’t really help.”
“And that too, I understand better than you might think. So…are you any good?”
“I could be better,” she admitted reluctantly.
“Unfortunately, since I don’t know your work…”
“Oh, wait! I’ve got something,” she remembered, and with a broad grin, she reached into her apron pocket. She’d brought an entire army of her glass figurines with her to give each of her colleagues as a parting gift, but… She eyed him critically. “Okay, I’ll show them to you, but you can’t laugh.”
His grin promised the worst.
“I mean it!” she warned. “When I show someone my art for the first time, it feels a little like I’m baring a piece of my soul…”
“I’ll handle your soul with kid gloves,” he promised quietly, his expression suddenly serious again. “There are few things I hate more than hurting others.”
Well, that was…a good quality. “Okay, so I absolutely love making animals, and yes, maybe it’s a bit childish, but…I just like them.” Her cheeks glowed as she pulled the small object from her apron pocket and carefully placed it on the table in front of him.
She only had the dolphin left. Her favorite animal. It was elegant and clever, and Lilly loved water…
Austin didn’t laugh. He stared at the simple figure she’d assembled from delicate, light blue strands of glass.
Lilly had deliberately omitted unnecessary decorations.
Austin couldn’t know, but the smaller the object, the harder the work.
She had liked the challenge, and he probably didn’t understand that, but…
“It’s beautiful,” he murmured, reaching out and slowly lifting it. “Shit, you lied, you are good! I understand why they want you in Murano.”
She made a face and brushed more strands of hair out of her face, as she always did when she was nervous. “You don’t know anything about glass art, do you?”
“Not at all.”
She laughed. “I’m still a novice!”
“Then I almost think it’s a shame I won’t be able to see when you are a master,” he murmured, turning the figure carefully in his hands. He took in every detail before peering into her face…and then repeating the process.
Strangely, Lilly hadn’t felt this seen in a long time.
“You can keep it,” she whispered. “As a keepsake. And then, when I’m world-famous in ten or twenty years, you can sell it, and suddenly, you’ll be a millionaire!”
He lifted the corner of his mouth. “I wouldn't sell it. Besides, who needs to be a millionaire anyway?”
She laughed. “You don’t want to be a millionaire?”
He looked away and rubbed the back of his neck. “There are more important things than money.”
“Only people who have money say that,” she said with a chuckle. “So, if you don’t dream of being a millionaire...what do you dream of?”
Austin exhaled.
“What? Don’t you have a silly dream? Don’t you want to be something as ridiculous as a glass artist? I don’t know…a Nobel laureate, a Hollywood actor, a professional athlete or something?”
For some reason, that made him chuckle. Maybe because each of those ideas was sillier and more unrealistic than the last. “Oh, I’ve always had a lot of silly dreams,” he murmured.
“But you know, when my parents died, my dreams seemed unimportant to me for a long time. Sometimes, it feels like my dreams cheated me out of an infinite amount of time with them because I was too focused on achieving my goal instead of being grateful for their support.” He ran his left hand through his hair while his right hand tightened around her dolphin figure.
“That’s why I’m twenty-four and probably the only man in my occupation who dreams of having a family.
I’m the only one who seems to know that there are more important things than…
than work. Even though I love what I do and probably couldn’t survive without it. ”
She looked at him in surprise. “What’s your job?” she asked.
Austin opened his mouth and closed it again…then flinched when he glanced at his watch. “Shit, where did the time go?”
She chuckled. Okay, he didn’t want to talk about it — and it didn’t surprise her that the minutes flew by. It was easy to talk to Austin. Just as easy as losing track of time with him.
“I was supposed to close half an hour ago,” Lilly said reluctantly, stuffing her knitting into her apron pocket and standing. “The boss will wonder if I forgot to set the alarm. We should…we should go.”
Everything inside her was begging to stay, though. She didn’t want this evening to end yet. And she had the feeling Austin…felt the same way. But maybe she was wrong.
“Oh, shit, I also have to put up all the chairs and bar stools…”
“I’ll help,” Austin offered.
“You don’t have to.”
“Yes, I do. My anabolic steroid consultant always says I should use my muscles and not just admire them in the mirror.”
She snorted. “Sorry, I shouldn’t have said that about the steroids. I’m sure your muscles developed naturally.”
He laughed softly. “If you consider exercise natural…”
“To be honest, my body doesn’t believe anything about muscle building is natural,” she admitted. “It understands fat storage very, very well, though, so at least in one area, it’s way ahead of you! But thanks, feel free to use your muscles to help. I’ll put the skates away and grab my purse.”
She smiled, her feet finding it absurdly difficult to move away from Austin. But she picked up her skates and hurried to her locker to store them and grab her stuff. When she returned, Austin had finished stacking all the seats on the tables and the bar.
“Wow. Muscles aren’t just for show,” she said, impressed.
He laughed and made a sweeping gesture toward the exit. “You’re too hung up on my muscles.”
Oh, he had no clue.
She stepped out into the fresh air, turned with curiosity, and watched him step outside.
“What?” he asked, confused.
“I wanted to see that you really don’t have a problem with normal doors,” she said, amused.
“I don’t! Doors usually have more of a problem with me.”
She laughed. “You’re just huge, and you probably intimidate them a bit.”
She reached around him, locked the door, activated the alarm from the outside…and knew Austin was standing right behind her.
She felt his warmth, unsure if it was a good thing or a bad thing that she now knew his scent of freshly mowed grass and man.
He was so tall that she was completely overshadowed, and the strength in his shoulders alone made her feel petite.
Everything about him attracted her. Everything about him made her think of what his hands would feel like around her waist and his fingers under her shirt on her bare skin.
She wondered what he tasted like, whether his lips were soft or hard, and if he was asking himself the same questions.
She wondered what would happen if she stayed brave and simply told him that she didn’t want this evening to end.
That she wasn’t ready to never see him again…
“Lilly,” he murmured, and a tingle ran down her spine. “Do I intimidate you?”
She swallowed and slowly turned, the door at her back. “No. Not for a second,” she replied calmly, peering up at him, into green eyes that twinkled in the flickering light of the lamp above the entrance.
“Then why are you shaking?”
Was she? She raised her hands, which were indeed shaking, and blinked before clasping them in front of her.
Again, she looked up, peering into his eyes, studying his jawline, sliding her gaze to his lips…
“I’m just nervous.”
“Why?” he asked harshly.
“Because I was briefly thinking about kissing you.” The words flowed from her mouth before she could stop them, and she slapped her hand over them in alarm. “Oh my God, did I just say that out loud?”
A lazy smile spread across Austin’s face. “Yes.”
“Shit.” Her head turned into a smelting furnace. “I’m sorry. We don’t know each other, and it’s absolutely terrible timing. You just got out of a relationship, and I’m moving to Italy tomorrow…”
He kissed her before she could take another breath or speak again and sink further into shame or run away.
He slid a large hand down the back of her neck, pulled her onto her tiptoes, and lowered his mouth to hers, his lips soft and cautious at first, just like his touch, and then…then…