Some Kind of Magic (22 page)

“I feel just silly as hell holding this flower.”

Dylan was lying in a meadow, bees buzzing around a wildflower in his hand, while Claire sat a few feet away, sketchpad on her bent knees, drawing pencil in hand. To her left was a picnic basket with the remnants of their half-eaten lunch and what was left of Grandma Maxfield's bottle of plain white grape juice.

It had been two weeks since Dylan's return, and in that time they'd discussed many things, one of them the possibility of buying the rental cabin. Whatever happened, they knew they wanted to stay in Fallon. Their work would take them both away at times, but Fallon would be a place they could come back to, a place untouched by four lanes and discount chains. It was a place where people stared at you because you were a stranger, not because you'd had lunch at the White House. Dylan had sought anonymity half his life; in Fallon anonymity had found him.

“I should have had you take off your shirt,” Claire said, exaggerated regret in her voice as she moved the pencil lightly across the paper.

“There's no way I'd pose with my shirt off, holding a damn flower.”

Claire's confidence was growing. She still had moments of self-doubt, times when her heart would fill with panic and she wondered if she could draw another picture, if she had any talent at all. When that happened, Dylan would hold her and kiss her and tell her that self-doubt wasn’t all that bad, that it made a person try harder. And he would point out that it was better than thinking she was the greatest thing that ever happened to the art world. Self-doubt kept a person humble, and he was a firm believer in humility.

“Are you almost done?” he asked again. “I can't hold this pose any longer.”

She made a final sweep across the paper. She would detail it later, back at the apartment. “That’s good enough.”

He let out a tired sigh and fell back on the ground, his hand to his stomach, one leg bent, one straight.

“Don't you want to see it?”

“I don't know why you insisted on drawing a picture of me. I didn't think you drew people.”

“I don't.”

He took the tablet from her hand. He stared at it for a long time, then tossed it gently aside. On the tablet was a drawing of a solitary bee, nothing more.

“Brat.”

She laughed. She was still laughing when he attacked her, throwing himself on her, rolling her to the ground. “I have shit big love for you,” he said.

“You are so romantic.”

His mouth found hers. His kiss was deep and sweet and tender.

“It's finally gotten warm enough for less clothing,” he said in between kisses.

“I thought you didn’t want to take off your shirt,” she reminded him.

“I changed my mind.”

“And now you want me to draw you nude? That's an idea. I’ve been looking for a subject so I could use this new shade called In the Buff.”

“I don't think that’s what Cardcity meant in your contract where it says ‘drawings of the natural kind.'”

“It doesn't say that.”

“Sure it does. Right after it says that when you draw, you have to leave your underwear at home.”

“How do you know I'm wearing any now?”

“I'll let you know in just a minute.”

He smiled at her in that sexy way of his, then kissed her and said, “In chess, there’s something called pure mate.”

“Chess is so much multidimensional thinking. I’ll never fully grasp it. I can only focus on one thing at a time, on what’s happening at the moment.”

“That’s what I love about you,” Dylan said. “I’ll never be able to draw like you, but that’s okay. It’s just that sometimes things are easier for me to explain in chess terms.”

“Are you trying to tell me something?” she asked, smiling.

“Pure mate is when every piece makes sense, when every piece has a reason for being where it is. It's something that doesn't happen very often, and when it does, it’s profound.”

There in the middle of the lush meadow, an ultra-blue sky as his backdrop, Dylan broke her heart and put it back together again, all in a space of two seconds.

“Like this?” she asked.

“Exactly like this.”

~o0o~

Theresa Weir (a.k.a. Anne Frasier) is an award-winning, USA Today bestselling author of twenty-one books and numerous short stories that have spanned the genres of suspense, mystery, thriller, romantic suspense, paranormal, and memoir. Her titles have been printed in both hardcover and paperback and translated into twenty languages. Her memoir, The Orchard, was a 2011 Oprah Magazine Fall Pick, Number Two on the Indie Next list, a featured B+ review in Entertainment Weekly, and a Librarians’ Best Books of 2011. Going back to 1988, Weir’s debut title was the cult phenomenon AMAZON LILY, initially published by Pocket Books and later reissued by Bantam Books. Writing as Theresa Weir she won a RITA for romantic suspense (COOL SHADE), and a year later the Daphne du Maurier for paranormal romance (BAD KARMA). In her more recent Anne Frasier career, her thriller and suspense titles hit the USA Today list (HUSH, SLEEP TIGHT, PLAY DEAD) and were featured in Mystery Guild, Literary Guild, and Book of the Month Club. HUSH was both a RITA and Daphne du Maurier finalist. Well-known in the mystery community, she served as hardcover judge for the Thriller presented by International Thriller Writers, and was guest of honor at the Diversicon 16 mystery/science fiction conference held in Minneapolis in 2008. Frasier books have received high praise from print publications such as Publishers Weekly, Minneapolis Star Tribune, and Crimespree, as well as online praise from Spinetingler, Book Loons, Armchair Interviews, Sarah Weinman’s Confessions of an Idiosyncratic Mind, and Ali Karim’s Shots Magazine. Her books have featured cover quotes from Lisa Gardner, Jane Ann Krentz, Linda Howard, Kay Hooper, and J.A. Konrath. Her short stories and poetry can be found in DISCOUNT NOIR, ONCE UPON A CRIME, and THE LINEUP, POEMS ON CRIME. She is a member of Sisters in Crime and International Thriller Writers.

www.theresaweir.com

Hush, USA Today bestseller, RITA finalist, Daphne du Maurier finalist

Sleep Tight, USA Today bestseller

Play Dead, USA Today Bestseller

Before I Wake

Pale Immortal

Garden of Darkness, RITA finalist

Once Upon a Crime anthology, Santa’s Little Helper

The Lineup, Poems on Crime, Home

Discount Noir anthology, Crack House

Deadly Treats Halloween anthology, editor and contributor, The Replacement (September 2011)

Once Upon a Crime anthology, Red Cadillac (April 2012)

The Forever Man

Amazon Lily, RITA finalist, Best New Adventure Writer award, Romantic Times

Loving Jenny

Pictures of Emily

Iguana Bay

Forever

Last Summer

One Fine Day

Long Night Moon, Reviewer’s Choice Award, Romantic Times

American Dreamer

Some Kind of Magic

Cool Shade RITA winner, romantic suspense

Bad Karma, Daphne du Maurier award, paranormal

Max Under the Stars, short story

The Orchard, a memoir (September 2011)

Theresa Weir, 1998