Sinful Ever After - Vivian Wood Page 0,37

been quite so blue as they are when she looks back at me, reining in her impatience. When she says my name, it sounds like a warning.

“Aiden…”

She turns toward me though. I grin because I know I’ve won.

“Go put your bag down,” I say, releasing her wrist. “I’ll wait.”

Those blue eyes narrow on my face and she shakes her head. But it doesn’t stop her from coming back outside with a sigh on her lips.

She’s silent most of the trip in my Jeep, turning the radio up and looking out her window. We leave behind the scenic coastline in favor of a few houses. Slowly the development builds, a gas station and a couple of local businesses first. Then we are suddenly in the heart of what you might call downtown Port Angeles. Both sides of the little two-lane highway are lined with buildings, people skittering here and there.

Once we pull up to the mansion-turned-art gallery, Olivia seems to perk up a little. I escort her up to the light blue turn of the century mansion, its steeples and roof lit from below to stand out starkly against the dusky early evening sky.

We climb the brick steps, waiting for a moment in a queue to be admitted. Once I wave my phone under the nose of the door attendant, we are admitted to a line of people, slowly filtering through the house. The second we step inside the front door, Olivia looks around with wide eyes. Delicate origami cranes of every different color hang suspended from the ceiling at random intervals.

“Ohh,” I hear her breathe out.

The ceilings are high above, tall enough that even I could not reach them without a ladder. The walls of the foyer are blank and light gray, the floors a dark polished wood. This leaves the paper birds as the only decoration.

The line of people breaks up a little here, with the hallway continuing straight to the back of the house and two open doorways on either side. I glance down at her.

“Your choice,” I say.

Olivia flashes me a tentative smile and then goes left. I head into the doorway that she chose, only to stop short. The room is small and dark, empty except for us. Staring back at me, made of delicate origami folds, is the word SECRETS, suspended in the air. It’s written in blood red and surrounded by sleek black folded paper, making up a unique and fragile texture.

She moves to the side, staring. She motions me to come to where she’s standing. I head over, quickly discovering that the word SECRETS disappears in favor of a phrase. Among the same black origami, WHAT IS YOUR BIGGEST DESIRE is peppered. It takes me a minute to suss out what the meaning of the words is, but I eventually get the gist.

She grabs my hand, pulling me along. I move with her, seeing it shift once more. ARE THEY TWO SIDES OF ONE COIN. It takes me longer to put together the words in this one.

I lean down to Olivia. “What does it say?”

She turns to me. “Are they two sides of one coin.”

I have to think about that for a second, juggling the context of what I’ve already seen.

My eyebrows rise. “That is… unexpected,” I say. But in the back of my mind, I’m wondering if all the exhibits in this gallery are going to be word-centric.

Olivia seems to realize about when I do that she’s still holding my hand. She lets go with her cheeks turning pink.

“Sorry,” she says.

My mouth turns up at the corners. “Don’t be.”

She turns away, heading out of the room and across the hall. I follow her into a much larger room. A few other viewers stand and watch as a middle-aged woman folds a piece of paper into a complicated shape. Beside her are a bowl and half of a statue; a podium with a stack of the same papers as the woman is folding sits off to the side.

“It is important to be able to hold your aspirations close,” the woman murmurs. She turns to the statues she’s making, some kind of elaborate piece of art, and attaches the paper to it. Then she clears her throat. “For those of you who would like to, please use the paper and pens there. You can write anything down, any aspiration you have yet to attain. I will not look at the words… I will just fold them into the sculpture you see here. At the