Forgiving Paris: A Novel(7)

They were words she hadn’t heard since she had lived there. Montmartre… Marais… arrondissement. Ashley had taken the call out to the front porch, so she could catch her breath. The woman continued talking, her English perfect. Something about how the Montmartre Gallery had a different name now. Light of the Seine. A nod to the City of Light. “I’d be honored to showcase your work, Ashley. You are very, very talented. I’ve been through your offerings.”

Of the hundred questions that had raced through Ashley’s mind, only one mattered. “How… did you hear about me?”

“My customers ask about you.” There was a smile in the woman’s voice. “Several have requested a show.” She paused. “You paint from the heart. Everyone can see that.”

You paint from the heart? The previous gallery owner had told Ashley that she had no talent, that she’d never make it as an artist. She had been forced to gather her few paintings and take them back to the small room she had rented that year. So they wouldn’t mar the good work of true artists.

That’s what she’d been told.

“You’re thinking about it again.” Kari followed her to the basement. “Trying to remember why you said yes in the first place.” She tapped Ashley on her shoulder. “Am I right?”

Ashley looked back and allowed the slightest laugh. “Okay… maybe.”

“You said yes because the people of Paris love your work.” Kari reached the basement floor and waited until Ashley faced her. “Your work, little sister.”

“Right.” Ashley nodded, but her anxiety pressed in. She walked Kari to the first of a line of paintings. “This is what I’m sending. At least I think I am.”

“These?” Kari looked down the row of art pieces lined against the wall. “Ashley… you can’t sell these. I want them.”

This time Ashley’s laugh was genuine. “That’s the whole point of a show. You sell the work and start over again.”

Kari shook her head. “Please… tell me you aren’t selling the one of Mom and Erin and the girls.”

That particular painting hung just outside the bedroom Ashley shared with her husband, Landon. Where it would always remain. Ashley’s tribute to the people she loved, the ones who were in heaven together. “No, Kari. That one’s mine.”

Ashley had given a version of the work to each of her siblings. Kari and Ryan kept theirs in their office. Brooke and Peter had theirs in a spare bedroom, Luke and Reagan’s hung near the front door. And Dayne and Katy kept Ashley’s heaven painting in their California house.

Some things would always be too sacred to sell.

“Look!” Kari walked slowly down the line of paintings. “You can’t sell these, either. There’s the old Baxter house back when Mom and Dad still lived in it.” She stopped and touched the framed piece. “I remember when you painted this. When you thought Landon was never coming home again.”

“True.” Ashley stopped and bent down, studying the work. She could still remember standing in what had been her parents’ massive front yard, looking at the pretty house, getting the lighting just right, working on the sky and suddenly feeling someone behind her. And turning around to find Landon there. Home… forever home to her. “Maybe I shouldn’t let that one go.”

“I mean.” Kari looked around the basement. “You must have a hundred paintings. How about you only sell the ones that don’t make me cry when I look at them.”

She had a point. Ashley stared at her work. “But shouldn’t they get my best work?”

“Listen.” Kari put her hand alongside Ashley’s face. “Everything you paint is your best work. Let’s pick out the twenty we can actually live without.”

And so for the next hour they worked through each of Ashley’s pieces until they had a smattering of colors and seasons and subjects. Most of which featured people other than the Baxter family. Already Ashley felt better. “Maybe that’s why I’ve been a little off. Because I was about to sell some of my favorites.”

But there was more to her bad feelings. A fear she hadn’t ever told anyone—not even Landon. The most terrible part about her time in Paris. Ashley forced the frightening thought from her mind.

“Well then, you should be happy now!” Kari raised her hands high, her eyes sparkling. “You are going with your incredible husband to Paris for your eighteenth anniversary, and you are going to sell your paintings in the one place you never thought you’d sell them.” She lowered her arms and grinned. “What could be more exciting than that?”

“Fine.” Ashley laughed again. “I’m excited. I can’t wait!”

Kari helped her box up the paintings, two per container. But the whole time Ashley couldn’t shake the distant memory. What about the darkness in Paris? What if it was still waiting for her? She forced the questions from her mind. It wasn’t possible. Kari was right. She should be thrilled about Paris.

As a young girl, she had dreamed of selling her work there. This was a dream come true.

Maybe if she told herself often enough, it would be true.

When the twenty pieces were boxed, she and Kari loaded Landon’s old pickup truck and drove the collection to the UPS store in Bloomington. An hour later—after they had provided the gallery information and paid for the boxes to be sent two-day insured shipping—they returned to Ashley’s house and Kari hugged her. “I have to go.”