There was silence for a beat or two as everyone contemplated the lick of flames in the fireplace. “Are you sure he’s not in love with you?” Simone asked out of the blue.

Suzanne pulled out of her mother’s embrace and looked at her. “What?”

“I honestly thought you shacking up in Colorado with a rancher was some kind of joke until that first day we met him and he kissed you hello. He seemed really into you.”

“That was acting, Mom.”

“Was it? Because there was a definite spark between the two of you. Even your father remarked about it later when we were alone.”

Oh, there’d been sparks all right. From the beginning. But sexual attraction wasn’t love. She could find that in the arms of plenty of men. Love was rare.

Albie nodded. “The man could barely keep his hands off you.”

“And look what he did for you,” her mother added. “You tell us that Grady’s supposedly this closed-off kinda guy, yet he helped you. He tolerated his house being wrapped in tinsel and lights and all kinds of Christmas crap that should never see the light of day, and he lied for you and carried on with a charade he didn’t agree with and put up with your parents in his cottage. He didn’t do that for us—he did it for you.”

Suzanne shook her head. “He did it for the paintings.”

“I don’t know,” her father said. “He’s a big guy. Seems to me he could just have taken them from you if he wanted them that badly.”

“It’s against the law to steal, Dad.”

“Maybe. Or maybe he knew how much they meant to you.”

Suzanne thought her parents were reading far too much into the situation. Which was very sweet, but ultimately it didn’t really matter because Grady had gotten them all off her one way or another anyway.

“And then there’s other things as well,” Simone continued. “I don’t think I’ve ever seen you as happy as you have been these past couple of weeks, darling. You can be a little on the serious side, but you’ve been laughing and smiling all the time and just…reveling in the Christmas madness you created all around you. And you’ve been painting again. Original work. Because of him. That’s marvelous. I can’t wait to see it.”

Suzanne snorted, thinking about Grady’s head painted on a cherub. “I’m not sure you’d say that if you saw it.”

“Well, as I’m coming to understand, art is in the eye of the beholder.” Simone reached her hand out to Albie, and he smiled. “I’m also coming to understand that if you love someone, you should tell them. You should tell them and show them every day. And you should definitely fight for it.”