Till Summer Do Us Part(107)

A genuine smile passes over his mouth. “Nothing cheesy about that. It’s really sweet actually,” he says, writing it on the paper. Then he takes a look at the list. “This is pretty solid, Pips.”

“Let me see.” He hands me the list, and I look it over. “I think it’s a pretty good start.”

“I think so too. And I know one we can check off tonight.” He wiggles his brows. “Not to mention what I did to you only moments ago, which I’m sure Matt the Douche never would have done.”

“Fingered me in a public place?” I ask.

He slyly nods.

“Yeah, never, nor would he have let me blow him in a public place either.”

“Well, frankly, I’m glad you divorced him and that I earned that experience over him.” He lies back on the blanket and stares up at the sky. “Now come over here and try to find dirty-shaped clouds with me.”

Chuckling, I slide in next to him, rest my head on his shoulder, and stare up at the sky, feeling carefree, like nothing could change my mood. Never have I felt so valued—so seen—as I do in this moment.





“I can’t show you.” I shake my head, humiliated by my lack of creative skills.

“The deal was you paint me, and I paint you, then we show each other.” Wilder gestures around to the other couples near us. “They’re doing it.”

“But theirs are nowhere near as bad as mine.”

He leans in and whispers. “Pips, did you take a look at Finky’s? I can’t tell if his wife has three eyes or if that thing in the middle of her face is supposed to be a nose.” I snort and cover my mouth. “Trust me, it’s not going to be as bad as that.”

“Oh, it’s bad. Plus, you’re good at drawing. This isn’t fair.”

“I’m not good at using paint. This isn’t my medium, so I struggled quite a bit.”

That eases my worry. “You promise?”

“Yeah, I mean frankly, when I show you this, I’m going to ask for forgiveness, because I don’t want you thinking that this is how I truly see you. You’re so much prettier than what I have on this canvas.”

“Really?”

“Yeah, Pips.” He tugs on his hair. “Actually, maybe we should try again.”

“No,” I say, holding out my arm. “We said we would show each other. So we have to show each other.”

“Okay. You go first.”

I stare down at the ten-by-ten canvas in front of me and then back up at Wilder. His eyes are too far apart and way too wide, his nostrils are way too prominent, and I used black paint to outline each individual tooth, which was a bad mistake. But his lip ring, that looks pretty good. And I think I did a decent job on his hair.

Maybe it’s not too bad.

I lift the canvas and turn it toward him. I watch his expression as he takes it all in, his eyes curious, his lip quivering.

“Are you about to laugh?” I ask.

“What? No…” His lip tilts up.

“Wilder,” I admonish.

“What? I’m not laughing. I’m…I’m observing.”

“You’re going to laugh.”

“No, I’m just…” He sits back and folds his arms. “I’m trying to decide if you took creative freedom with my nostrils or not.”

I place the canvas back on my mini easel and fold my arms. “If you think you’re that much better, show me what you have.”

He looks at his picture, winces, and then picks it up. Ready to bust out in laughter at what he painted, I steel myself, only for him to turn the canvas around, revealing a very real caricature painting of me.

And sure, it’s a cartoon, but it very much resembles every piece of me…even hard nipples.

My mouth falls open as he says, “I know, could be better. I don’t think I captured just how soft your lips are, and I probably should have added more volume to your hair, but that ass and those tits, I think I nailed them.”

I stare at the picture, mesmerized by his talent. He actually did that. Drew that. It looks just like me.

“Wilder, you lied to me.”

“What?” His brow genuinely creases. “No, I didn’t. I told you you’re more beautiful than this, and you are. I haven’t done caricature art in a long time, so I struggled a bit with it. I think I could have done a much better job if I was using charcoal or even a pencil. This paint, it was hard to work with.”

“Hard to work with. You added shading. You mixed colors so you could do shading.”

“I had to make sure people knew I included your hard nipples. That’s a very important feature of yours.”

I shake my head. “You tricked me.”

“What? No. Babe, yours is way better.”

“Wilder, if you ever want to be inside me again, I suggest you don’t lie.”

He winces and then runs his teeth over his lip ring. “Shit, when you say it like that.” He leans in close and whispers. “Pips, I can’t be certain if you put a nose on my face or a mini golf course with two holes.”

I gasp, but he keeps going.

“The eyebrows look like leeches. The eyes have zero dimension. And the hair looks like a dead raccoon.”