Silence hung in the air for a moment as Carter seemed lost in the memory. Finally, Nic laughed and said, “Don’t leave us hanging. What did she say?”

“She said that it wasn’t about the paintings. They were just things that she created for her own enjoyment and for God’s. It was about the experience of the party. They were events that none of our friends and family ever forgot. They were the highlight of the season. They were sacrifice and purity and raw emotion. I don’t know that everyone understood what it meant to her, and it probably meant something different to everyone who was there. But through her art, she touched those individual’s hearts and made them part of something infinitely special. Her art wasn’t about money or fame. It was about sharing her gift with those she loved and bringing them together. I remember times when her three sisters would be feuding over something trivial, but none of them would miss the burning party. And it seemed that afterward, they forgot whatever it was they had been fighting about. She was an amazing woman. She could create one painting and one party and make it mean so many different things to so many people, accomplish so much through one act of sacrifice.”

Tears had filled Carter’s eyes, and Nic laid a hand on the older man’s shoulder. “I wish I could have met her. None of those sisters are young enough for me, are they?”

Carter chuckled. “Unfortunately, they’re all spoken for.”

“All the good ones are.”

“What about Ms. Whelan? You two obviously …”

“No, I broke up with her because she didn’t get along with LJ, and I don’t know … She’s great. She’s gorgeous, but she wasn’t …”

“The one,” Carter finished.

“Yeah, I guess so. The bad part is that when I broke up with her, she didn’t take it very well and wouldn’t accept my explanations, so I kind of lied to her and told her that I had cheated on her.”

Carter’s laughter began as a chuckle and grew into a shaking cackle that seemed to hurt his stomach, his arms pushing against his midsection. The laughter was contagious.

“That has to be the dumbest thing I’ve ever heard,” he said, between snorts.

Nic was laughing too as he replied, “You’re not the first person who’s told me that. I just froze up and said the first thing I could come up with to end the conversation.”

That caused Carter to laugh even harder.

Burke laughed with them. The first time he had truly done so in a long time. He was hesitant to trust them, but these men seemed like they may actually be true friends. Although, he did feel sorry for Bristol, such an admission from someone she cared about would have likely caused her a great deal of pain. But maybe the anger coupled with the pain would actually make the loss more bearable, as if she could find comfort in the fact that what she had lost wasn’t worth having. There was a sort of inadvertent genius in that, he supposed.