“You have a one-track mind, Noah Hutchins.”

I had hoped for his patented wicked smile that promises trouble, but I only receive a slight tilt of his mouth. “When it comes to you, I do. Go back to work, baby. I’ll see you in a couple hours.”

Noah walks away, and I have the same hollow devastation in my stomach as when I watched Aires leave all those years ago.

Noah

My need to attend the party tonight was about me listening to Mia and trying to prove that Echo and I are solid. After this morning with the priest and after that moment with Echo, a beer isn’t a bad idea. Hell, three may not do the job.

Like Mia said, Echo’s finding where she belongs, and it’s not with me. My problem—I don’t know how the hell to be man enough to let her go. Loving her like I do, I don’t know how I can keep her.

I pull Echo’s keys out of my front pocket and swear under my breath when I reach the street. The damn bastard’s standing in front of his gallery. I spin on my heels. I’ll walk the entire perimeter of this small town twice before I pass him. Echo wants her shot, and I want her happy.

“Noah,” he calls, and I freeze on the sidewalk. The right thing to do would be to ignore him. There’s nothing good to be said between us. “It’s Noah, right?”

With my thumbs hitched in my pocket so I won’t knock his ass out, I face him. “What do you want?”

“Echo.”

I step closer and damn if he doesn’t flinch. “Last I checked she makes her own decisions, and she’s chosen to be with me.”

“For now,” he states. Echo said he’s ten years older, and he has that belated frat-boy look going on. I’m sure he’s used to getting exactly what he desires. “I’ve seen this many times. Lots of girls come here fresh from high school or a year removed, still thinking that high school love is forever, but it isn’t.”

“Did you know her older brother was younger than you?”

He laughs, but it doesn’t touch his eyes. “I’m interested in her talent. That’s another issue with high school boys. They think the reason anything happens is because of sex. Someday you’ll discover there’s more in life, but for now stop jeopardizing Echo’s chance at a career.”

There we’re on the same page. “You leave me alone, I’ll leave you alone. In fact, I’ll stay thirty feet away from this place if it’ll make her life easier.”

Asshole shakes his head like I’m a damn toddler caught in the finger paints in preschool. “I see how she looks at you. How she reacts around you. Echo will follow you before she follows her dreams. Don’t ruin this.”

My head falls back, and I attempt to remain calm. “I want Echo happy.”

“If you mean that, keep walking and don’t look back. I’ve lost brilliant artists before because they’re stuck on a fling that fizzles before it starts. Chances like the one I’m about to offer her happen once in a lifetime.”

My world stops then collides into itself. The opportunity he’s about to offer her...

“Look me in the eye and tell me that you’re interested in her talent.”

He accepts the challenge and goes for full-fledged eye contact. “She’s possibly one of the most talented young women I’ve come across. She’s green, is sloppy in some areas, but her work has soul.”

It’s there, the truth. He believes in Echo and possesses the answers to her dream.

“Now tell me you aren’t interested in getting into her pants.”

“She fits here. Seamlessly. Have you seen that happen anywhere else?”

He’s struck blood, and it’s hard to mask the wound. “I didn’t ask you that. I asked if in that fucked-up head of yours, you’ve undressed my girl.”

The dickhead avoids looking at me and angles his body in the direction of his gallery. I’ve got my answer. “Don’t screw with Echo unless you’re interested in her art.”

“I am interested in her art. If you care for her, you’ll let her stay where she belongs. This is her world. Ask yourself if she honestly belongs in yours.”

In the world I live in now, Echo doesn’t belong. I know it, he knows it, and it’s a matter of time before Echo figures it out.

With the keys digging into my hand, I force one foot in front of the other. I promised Echo simple; I promised her we’d never change; I promised to take care of the gift she gave to me, and I’ve got no fucking clue how to keep any of those promises.

Echo

I sit on a stool and tap the paint brush repeatedly against my face. I’ll regret it later, but somehow it helps me think. It encourages me to see beyond the canvas and beyond what’s in the front of my mind. Somehow I go deeper and sneak past locked doors, delve into secrets and play in the blackness. The colors, the lines, the shades—it’s all there in the darkness, but there’s a wall preventing me from placing the brush to canvas.

“That’s not enough room for nine stars.” Hunter eases beside me and draws me out of my haze.

Standing with a stretch, I scan the room. Except for another girl packing up her things, the attic has emptied out. “Does everyone keep bankers’ hours?”

“They have keys,” he says. “They enter through the back and come and go as they please. You should know that inspiration can’t be dictated by a schedule.”

So true.

“You didn’t answer about the room and the number of stars.”

I didn’t. “I have all the room I need.”

His eyes narrow into slits. “Are you creating a smaller scale of the constellation? Is the entire focal point going to be the blank sky surrounding it?”

“No,” I answer, then raise an eyebrow as I consider it. I like the idea. Having something small in the middle and the main focus being the nothing surrounding it, but it’s too late to do that with this painting and he knows it, hence why he’s being a jerk. The entire space on the outside is wrong for such an idea.

“Then there’s not enough room for nine stars.”

For the love of God. I slam my paint brush down with a snap that vibrates across the room. “And that would be where you made your original mistake when you painted Aires.”

Oh, crap. Hunter turns a strange shade of purple when he’s angry. “You said I forgot a star and I had eight.”

“Yes, you forgot a star and yes, you had eight,” I rush out. Desperate, my head whips around like a cartoon character’s. Not locating what I need, I dip my finger into the blue and drop three dots onto my arm. “Technically, Aires can have more than four stars, but the root of it is four. Only four.”