Read Online Say it Louder by Heidi Joy Tretheway - Free Book Online

hoping to send Ms. Alton on her way before my client shows.
    I hear the bell for the front door ring and inwardly groan. No such luck.
    “So how can I help you?”
    “I’m wondering if you have more where this came from?” She taps the magazine. “Maybe canvases? Something you’d be willing to show?”
    “She does.” I whip my head around and Dave’s in the doorway, his dark eyes intense, focused on me. Like he’s so hungry he could devour me. The look sends shivers straight to my— stop it, Willa.
    “Can I see?” Patricia’s eyes light with avarice.
    “No. Hang on a sec. Dave, no way are those canvases ready to show. Not a chance.” I’m shaking my head and backpedaling so hard I’m making myself dizzy.
    “Surely some of it you’d be willing to sell.” Her voice is resolute, emphasis on the word sell . It’s not a question.
    I feel cornered, and I try to send Dave a telepathic SOS. “Maybe?”
    Dave strides to my side of the of the counter, his posture strong and protective, and I feel his warmth in the not-accidental brush of his elbow against mine. I left him sleeping in my apartment this morning without a note or a word, confusion churning in my gut after a chaste night lying beside him.
    Maybe he doesn’t think of me like that. Maybe he doesn’t want that from me. My heart deflated a little with how much of me was left wanting, and I feel an unreasonable lurch of happiness to see him at my shop again.
    Patricia snaps my attention back to her with a tiny sharp click of her tongue. “Willa, they’re calling you the Lady Banksy. Two of my clients called me this morning and asked me to buy your pieces. So you’d better figure out whether you’re in or you’re out, because otherwise the world’s going to do that for you.” She drops her voice. “And I promise you, they’ll move on.”  
    Dave moves Atlantic Arts from beneath Patricia’s fingertips, closing the magazine and taking control of the conversation. “If you’re interested in Willa’s pieces, someone else will be interested too. No need to hard-sell her.”
    Patricia’s lips thin. “That wasn’t my intention. I just have to know if she’s really serious before I go out on a limb to make this happen.”
    “What, exactly?”
    “We’ve got a cancellation next month. At the gallery where I’m a partner. I think you could be the right pick to roll out to the world in September.”
    My mouth drops open. “That’s not even three weeks away!”
    “Which is why I want to see what you have that’s salable.” She pulls her phone out of her bag. “Immediately.”
    Dave tells Patricia to wait a moment, grabs my elbow, and hustles me back to Righteous Ink’s break room. “This could be your big break,” he whispers.
    “You think I don’t get that?”
    “Then why are you stalling?”
    “The big break is the magazine. That’s something no one can take away from me now. If a gallery hangs my paintings, there will be critics. I might not even sell anything”—my voice rises to a squeak—“and I could be a flop before I really start.”
    Dave’s dark eyes crinkle at the corners and he places firm hands on my knotted shoulders. His fingers sink into the muscles on either side of my neck, his expression softening, his voice gentle. “Willa, you’ve already started.”
    I draw a shaky breath. “But this is a whole different level.”
    “Exactly.” His hand cups my cheek and I still, feeling a thrum of energy between us. “Listen to me. I’ve been there. It’s scary to take that big leap, to put your art out there and hope someone wants it. You’re flying without a net now, girl.”
    I raise my eyes from a safe spot on his chest to his face, and his expression nearly takes my breath away. He believes in me. In my art. After years of no one believing in me, after not believing in anything but what I could touch and keep and take to the bank, he’s asking me to believe.
    “I can’t—”
    “Can’t what? Can’t