Read Online The Ashtons - Cole, Abigail & Megan by authors_sort - Free Book Online

side, which made the light good.
    “I wondered why you’re doing my sketch in pencil.”
    “I don’t know.” There was something about the flesh over the right cheek that wasn’t right…Dixie smudged the shadow beneath the cheek with her finger to soften it, looked at Caroline again, then used the side of her pencil to pull the shadow back toward the ear.
    Better. “I’ll use the photos I took for technical precision,” she explained. “The sketches are to learn you. When I get your shapes down with my hands, I know them, see? I wanted charcoal to learn Eli. I wanted pencil for you.”
    Caroline smiled. “My shape’s rounder than it used to be. I suppose you have to show my double chin?”
    “You don’t have a double chin.” Dixie spoke absentlyas she adjusted the brow line, which defined the eyes. “The jaw has softened with age, but…whoops. Forgot tact.”
    The older woman laughed. “Tell me something. Since you won’t cater to my vanity in one way…you’re sure it’s okay if I talk?”
    “Absolutely.” Dixie turned to a new page, moved slightly to the left and began a gesture drawing from the new angle in a series of quick sweeps of her pencil.
    “I’ve sometimes wondered if anything of me showed up in my boys. The girls, yes. I see something of myself in them. But Cole and Eli…”
    Dixie heard another question in the way Caroline’s voice trailed into silence. How much did her sons resemble the man who’d fathered and deserted them?
    “The girls do take after you more than Eli and Cole do,” she said casually, as if she hadn’t noticed the unspoken part of the question. In Jillian’s case the resemblance was more a matter of manner than genetics, but Dixie could be tactful when it mattered. “But Eli has your nose and your ears.”
    “And Cole?”
    Cole…whom Mercedes said most resembled their father. “He has your hands. Great hands,” she added, crouching for another angle. “I plan to use them.”
    When Caroline chuckled it took Dixie a moment to realize why. Then she flushed. “Ah…in the painting. I’m going to use your hands in the painting. NotCole’s hands. I’m not planning to use them for, ah…”
    Caroline smiled. “How delightful. I didn’t think anything flustered you. You’re a rather formidable young woman.”
    “Me?” Dixie was astonished. Caroline was the one with the inbred class and composure, the soft voice and gentle ways Cole had once thrown up at Dixie as the feminine ideal.
    “But of course. Look at all you’ve accomplished at such a young age. Though I suppose you don’t think of yourself as terribly youthful.” Her smile turned amused. “The young never do. I hope I didn’t insult you, dear. It’s just that you’re so very competent and confident. I wasn’t, not at your age.”
    And yet what Dixie’s pencil had captured was a calm, determined woman. She turned back to the finished sketch, then reversed her pad to show Caroline. “Here’s what I see—strength, kindness, grace.”
    “Oh, my,” Caroline said softly, taking the pad. “You’ve made it difficult for me to pry the way I’d intended. May I have this?”
    “Of course.” Dixie accepted the return of her sketch pad with a silent, fervent wish that Caroline would continue to find it difficult to pry.
    “I don’t know what you charge, but—”
    “You’ll insult me if you offer to pay. The paintings are business. This isn’t.”
    “Then I’ll just thank you. I’d like to frame it and give it to Lucas for our anniversary.” Her cheekswere a little pinker than usual. “Perhaps it’s vain, giving him a likeness of myself, but I think he’d like it.”
    Dixie smiled. “You’ll be giving him a picture of someone at the center of his life. Of course he’ll like it.” She closed the pad. “I’ll need to hang on to it until I’ve finished the painting, though.”
    “Our anniversary isn’t for another two months. No rush.” Caroline stood. “I take it