24 – A Good Catch

Felicity angled her head from side to side, squinting at the painting. She took a step backward, and then giggled. "Oh, it's a dog. I see. There's the nose, and those are the ears."

"Exactly. It's Max as a puppy. This was my mom's experiment in cubism. She decided she didn't like it right after that," Riley laughed. "This next one, you'll like a lot better."

He was right. Felicity moved to the next painting, a scene of an elegant-looking woman in a simple white sundress and straw hat, tending to a bank of sunflowers. Light filtered through the broad leaves and dappled the ground. "Wow. This is beautiful. I can almost smell the sunshine and green grass."

"That's my mom." Riley came up beside her. "She loves flowers. She has this huge garden that she used to use to inspire her work. It's like the only time she ever painted herself into one of her compositions."

"I love it. The colors, the whole feel of it. It makes me feel all warm, just looking at it."

He grinned. "Handy, when you consider the winters around here are brutal."

Felicity slipped her hands into her back pockets. "Wow. Your mom's really gifted. Did she take classes?"

Riley angled his head at her, looking thoughtful. "Thanks. She'll be glad you liked her stuff. No, she's self-taught."

"Why doesn't she paint anymore?"

"She sort of gave it up after my dad got sick, so she could take care of him. He's okay now," Riley added quickly. "He had a bit of a fight with cancer, but he beat it."

Felicity smiled. "That's great. That's really great." She gestured to the sunflower painting. "But your mom…she shouldn't give up on this. She's so good at it. I mean, if I was this good…I'd live for it."

"Who says you're not?"

Laughing, Felicity said, "You haven't seen any of my work."

Riley passed a finger close over the canvas. "If you can appreciate the colors and the impression of it, you're more of an artist than you think. My mother says art is more about emotion than accuracy."

Felicity looked from him to the painting and back again. I guess Papaleo was right, earlier this year at school. I'm already an artist. "Well, I think she should start painting again."

"Yeah." Riley looked down at her. "What, uh… What are you doing tomorrow? Do you have plans?"

Surprised by this advance, Felicity shrugged. "Uh… I think… Ben and I, we were going to go for a trail hike and try to see some wildlife."

"Right. OK." He nodded briefly and glanced at the painting again. "Would you want to come back for dinner tomorrow?"

Felicity shuffled a foot. "I… I don't think… We were just going to…" She glanced uncertainly up at him. "I—I should—we should get going, actually."

"Yeah," he responded. For a nerve-wracking second, Felicity thought he was going to try and kiss her, but he broke into a grin. "Just between you and me, I kind of wish I was Ben right now."

She relaxed into a smile. "Thanks."

They heard the back door slide open. Max's collar jingled as he trotted into the house.

"You did not!" came Caitlin's laughter.

Ben's voice floated into the den, sounding amused. "I did too. I'm serious. Why would I lie about it?"

Riley and Felicity smiled at each other once more and went back out to the kitchen.

"You are so not the guy I knew in high school," Caitlin teased. She shot a skeptical look at Felicity. "Did he actually take a drama class?"

"Yeah, he did," giggled Felicity.

Ben gave the redhead a smug look. "See?"

"You are not an actor," Caitlin told him with a scowl of disdain.

"That's what I tried to tell him, but I somehow got a B in the class, anyway." He grinned at Felicity. "Ready to go?"

She nodded. Max trotted over to her and nudged his nose under her hand. Felicity obliged him with a scratch behind the ears.

Riley and Caitlin walked them to the door and the boys shook hands. Caitlin hugged Ben. Felicity saw her murmur something in his ear that made him smile and wondered at it. She felt the faint, irrational stirrings of jealousy that Caitlin had a part of him she'd never even known.

She didn't have much more time to think on it, because Riley came forward to shake her hand. "I hope you get into more artwork. If you ever need a good resource, just write and I'll send the letter on to Mom. I'm sure she'd love to talk shop with you."

"Thanks. And thanks for dinner. It really was amazing."

Caitlin rolled her eyes. "Please don't encourage him. I'm going to hear it all night, now." She surprised Felicity by giving her a hug. Lowering her voice, the redhead whispered, "You take good care of Ben. He's crazy about you."

They drew apart, and Felicity smiled. "Thanks. It was good to meet you, Caitlin."

Max's tail swiped the air. He darted between Ben and Felicity, demanding his own farewells. Ben scratched under the big dog's chin with a laugh.

When they were finally in the car again, on their way back to the cabin, Felicity stared thoughtfully out the window for a while. At last, she looked over at Ben in the driver's seat, but he was concentrating on the road. "Caitlin… She's really nice."

"Yeah. She and I were good friends, senior year." He chuckled. "She taught my friends and me how to play rugby."

"Rugby?"

"Yeah. Don't ever play rugby. It'll kill you."

Felicity raised her eyebrows and fell into another bout of silence for the next few minutes of the drive. "So, what did you and Caitlin talk about, outside?"

Ben gave her a sidelong look of speculation. "Are you jealous of Caitlin?"

She cringed, and immediately covered it with a smirk. "No, of course not." She scraped a lock of hair behind her ear.

With uncanny perception, he laughed. "You are, too."

"I said I wasn't."

Ben reached across the seat and took her hand. "Listen, there is nothing there to be jealous about. You know what she said to me before we left?"

"What?" she asked, not really certain she wanted to hear it.

"She said, 'Don't let that girl out of your sight. She's a good catch.'"

Felicity gave him a skeptical stare. The Maybelline model thinks I'm a good catch?

Ben laughed again. "Don't look at me like that. That's what she said."

Felicity looked back out the windshield and couldn't help but smile.