“No. For you.” Jack said simply with a shrug. “I found this canvas and I thought, I’m going to paint something. Something wonderful. Something beautiful. So I painted the sky first so I had something to compare the beauty with. Then, then the city because even if it’s a scary place it has beauty within it. And then… then…”
He gestures to the girl with the long hair, holding a leash where a little dog would be painted in soon.
“Then I painted the beautiful one.”
Her face filled with color, a hand coming up to hide the bandage where it sat, if only to hide the bit of ugliness she felt on herself. So it was her..? Once again he left her breathless, the words stolen from her lips, as she looked up at him with eyes full of love and wonder.
It seemed that the only thing she could think of to do was kiss him. So she did, leaning towards him gently and placing her lips gingerly against his.
Yet no matter how beautiful and amazing this felt, a pang of guilt entered in Katelynn’s heart. He thought she was beautiful when in truth she was far from it. Not if she kept her lie a secret…
She tried to shake it away as she kissed him.
He had smiled at her as she leaned into him, and he had wrapped his arms properly around her, drawing her in closer to him. Then she was kissing him, and all his fears, all his concerns for her began to melt away. She wasn’t hurt, she hadn’t been robbed, she wasn’t wearing a bandage she was just Katelynn. Beautiful, wonderful, life changing Katelynn.
Gently he caressed her un-bandaged cheek with his hand, kissing her back just as gently, just as tenderly to let her know just how much she meant to him. How much of his world she had changed in such small, simple ways.
Jack Maple 