Read Mating Dance for Free Online Page B

abstract way but
was becoming much more educated about as he expounded on the
virtues and drawbacks of the light at different times of the
day.
    She saw a few more of his canvases, propped
up around the room. Several were drying, he said, in preparation
for being moved to the gallery in town. And a few more were being
held aside for a showing at one of the exclusive little galleries
in Portland.
    “We had the gallery owner come through town
on his way back from a fishing trip, and he asked several of us to
exhibit,” Tom told her, downplaying his part in the event.
    “I heard about it from Lyn. And Nell sent
the guy off with a box full of pastries. He talked to her the whole
time he was in the bakery about the art in the town. He was really
enthusiastic, she said.” Ashley remembered the incident, which had
happened just after the bakery was finally up and running smoothly,
about a month after they’d moved to town.
    They talked about the upcoming show and
their reluctance to draw too much attention to the town. John had
finally agreed to the showing as long as the gallery owner kept
silent about where the artists lived. John was willing to entertain
the occasional tourist in their new community, but they didn’t want
to attract people who might want to take up permanent residence—or
worse, reporters wanting to do a story about where the artists
lived.
    Tom and several of the others were going to
drive down to Portland for the opening, and they would make sure
nobody asked too many questions about where they came from. The
gallery owner would rake in his commissions, as long as he kept mum
about where he’d found the art. At least until the town was better
established and they’d gained experience dealing with humans and
hiding in plain sight as a group.
    “Are we ready for dinner?” Tom asked as his
short tour came to an end.
    He’d led her onto the patio, off to one side
of the house. It was screened by the forest in back, the house on
the right, but most of the left side, and the entire front, faced
the water. Again, the view was breathtaking.
    “How far are you from town? Less than a mile
or so, right?” Ashley asked, to make conversation as he busied
himself starting the enormous grill.
    “Just under a mile. I wanted this view in
particular, so when we were figuring out who would live where, the
guys let me have it. Most of them wanted to be farther into the
forest, anyway, but a few of us like the water more than others.”
He looked up and pointed to the left, farther up the cove toward
the ocean. “Drew lives next door that way. You can usually see his
boat at the little dock he built, but I guess he’s out late
tonight. Sometimes, he stays out on the water fishing for days when
the weather is nice. On the other side, back toward town, is Sven’s
place. His home is practically right on the beach but well hidden.
He’s a polar bear, so he loves the water, but John wanted him
closer to the center of town because he’s our only doctor. The
beach house was the compromise.”
    “You sound like you’ve all known each other
a long time,” Ashley observed.
    “Yeah, we have. Most of us congregated
around John when we served in the military. John’s always been more
Alpha than any of us, and he was a great squad leader. The man has
a strategic mind, and he thinks so far outside the box, you can’t
even see the box from where he is. This whole artists’ colony
concept was his idea. You should’ve heard the grumbling when he
first proposed it, but he sold us on it, and here we are. It’s
working. And I really think it will work for years to come. We can
finally settle down, stop fighting our way across the globe, and
start living.”
    “I had no idea you had served.” Ashley was
impressed. She had a great respect for any person who gave of
themselves to help protect others.
    “We don’t talk about it much. We’re retired.
We’ve put all that behind us now. The squad was sick of combat by
the