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He took her hand and showed her his favorites She dutifully nodded and conored the way he looked at her with his browsin the middle
She bluffed her way through it, going through the s he liked were lovely, she could see that They weretheir backyard, sweeping mountain scenes were prevalent He favored those over the wildlifes or stills, she noticed numbly
“Whichever ones you ill be fine”
He stopped in his tracks “You have no opinion? You’re not going to pull out your calculator and quote budgets to me?”
Mari sed “You’re going to do what you wish anyway, Luca Why argue?”
“Because it’s e do best,” he replied
“I don’t want to argue The paintings are fine with me They are very nice”
He stepped closer, his face puzzled “But how do they make you feel, Mari?”
Feel? “Luca, it’s paint on canvas” She didn’t want to talk about how she felt Today she’d felt like she was the girl she’d alanted to be but hadn’t been allowed She could do what she wanted, buy what she wanted, feel what she wanted, and no one would punish her for it She could take a e on vanity and it was fine The self-indulgence had been heady Then reality had crashed in and she felt alone again, too weary to fight Luca could et, and it onderful while it lasted But co thud and it hurt a little more each time
“Yes, and the Cascade is a hunk of rock on a hillside Even you know better than that”
“I’m afraid I’m not an art aficionado”
“You don’t have to be to have feelings, Mari”
“Of course I have feelings!” she snapped
She turned away, ashamed Even-tempered, reliable Mari was suddenly all over the place Oneinto his eyes and the next she was so overwhel his head off She didn’t knoho she was anys of her and her well-ordered life wasn’t so black and white She certainly didn’t feel up to dealing with everything she was feeling
He led her around a corner “Look at these Tell me what you feel Let them speak to you You’ll knohen you see it”
She sighed, put upon When he got like this, there was no deterring him She had learned that already She may as well humor him