Sleepy cries began to sound from the baby monitor on the counter. Flynn glanced toward it. “Or maybe not.”

“I’ll get him. Meet me upstairs.”

She hurried up, part of her mind acknowledging the paintings lining the walls. The street scene she’d done in Florence, the seascape from the Outer Banks, the portrait of Flynn sitting at his desk in his office.

She turned toward the nursery. The walls there were decorated with her paintings as well. The bright faerie-tale scenes she’d done the entire time she’d been pregnant.

And in the crib with its glossy spindle bars, her little boy cried impatiently for attention.

“There now, sweetheart. Mama’s right here.” She picked him up, cuddled him close.

He would have his father’s hair, she thought, as she cooed and swayed. It was already coming in dark, with those hints of chestnut shining through when the light caught it.

He was so perfect. So absolutely perfect.

But as she carried him toward the changing table, her legs went weak.

What was his name? What was her baby’s name? Panicked, she clutched him close, then whirled as she heard Flynn come to the door.

“You look so beautiful, Malory. I love you.”

“Flynn.” Something was wrong with her eyes. It was as if she could see through him, as if he were fading away. “Something’s wrong.”

“Nothing’s wrong. Everything’s exactly right. Everything’s just the way you wanted it to be.”

“It’s not real, is it?” Tears began to sting her eyes. “It’s not real.”

“It could be.”

A light flashed, and she was standing in a studio awash with light. Canvases were stacked against the walls or rested on easels. She faced another, brilliant with color and shape. A brush was in her hand, and she was already daubing it on her palette.

“I’ve done this,” she whispered as she stared at the canvas. It was a forest, misty with green light. The figure walking on the path was alone. Not lonely, she thought, but solitary. There was home at the end of the path, and a bit of time yet to enjoy the quiet and the magic of the woods.

Her hand had done that. Her mind, her heart. She could feel it, just as she could feel and remember every brushstroke on every canvas in the room.

The power of that, the glory of it with all its pain and pleasure.

“I can do this.” With a kind of frantic glee, she continued to paint. “I have to do this.”

The joy was like a drug, and she was greedy for it. She knew how to mix just the right tone of color, when to sweep it on, when to switch for the fine, fine details.

How to create that light, that shadow so one might feel as if he or she could slip inside, walk that path, and find home at the end of it.

But even as she painted, tears began to run down her cheeks. “It’s not real.”