Pants on Fire Read Free Page B

have to wait up for me."
     
    "I got some reading done. Are we still on for tomorrow morning?"
     
    "Yup. I haven't forgotten. I'll be up and dressed on time, I promise." Another yawn. "But now I'm off to bed."
     

Chapter 2
     
     
     
    Tyler slept in, something he could never indulge in at home, not even on a Sunday. All week he spent chasing stock options and reviewing proposals and regulations, his work days regularly running over eight hours, so on Sundays he woke bright and early so he could get out of the house, away from his phones and e-mails for as long as possible. He enjoyed a leisurely breakfast in the hotel restaurant, checked his e-mails and even answered a few, sent a 'check-in' text to Stephanie, and swam a few laps around the pool.
     
    Toweling off he realized he had five minutes to get up to his room, change, and meet Megan on the front steps. He jogged out the front doors just as she stepped out of her car.
     
    "Sorry I'm late!" she called.
     
    "I was going to say the same thing. What's your excuse?"
     
    "My thing with my mom went over time. What about you?"
     
    They ducked into the car. "Nothing so noble. I lost track of time doing laps in the pool. Do we have time for lunch? I'm starving."
     
    She laughed. "Sure. There's a coffee shop down the block from the gallery. So, no pick up line today?"
     
    "Oh, well, you're just so beautiful that you made me forget my pickup line."
     
    She kept on laughing. "That one's kind of sweet." She zig-zagged through traffic and made the left a little fast sending him into the side of the door. "Sorry, short light." Two blocks later she parked.
     
    "That was quite the adventure for such a short drive. We could have walked."
     
    "I wasn't sure if you'd enjoy that. Some people don't want to walk more than ten steps to get anywhere."
     
    "You mean some city people."
     
    "No. I've met some pretty lazy farmers too. Let's grab a sandwich and we can walk to the gallery. Deal?"
     
    "You didn't get lunch either?"
     
    She shook her head, no, and rolled her eyes. "When my mother and her friends get together they can talk until the cows come home and not one of them needs more than a ready supply of coffee to sustain them the entire time. I am so sick of coffee. I did manage to snag a tin of cookies though."
     
    They ate their sandwiches as they walked and Tyler had Megan 'introduce' every building that they passed. The gallery was an attractive brick-faced building with large windows showing a stylish but small lobby. They wrapped the last of their food and hid it in Megan's purse before going in.
     
    The girl behind the desk smiled at them. "Those sandwiches won't be a problem?" she asked.
     
    "Not at all," Tyler said. "Admission for two."
     
    He handed over his money and passed Megan her ticket and they wandered into the first room. It was a small gallery, compared to most that Tyler had scene. The room held a single statue, displayed in the center, roughly a dozen and a half paintings hung creatively along three walls, and two display cases of pottery along the fourth.
     
    Megan moved straight to the statue, pausing at every angle to study and admire. One of her friends in high school had been into sculpting and had explained the process and the techniques in detail. Megan didn't have a creative bone in her body, not for anything beyond children's arts and crafts, but she knew a good sculpture when she saw one.
     
    Tyler had little interest in sculptures and left Megan to her exploration while he went slowly from painting to painting. There were two types of galleries: museum galleries displayed works of historic or artistic significance, they were owned by the museum, gallery, or on loan from a private collector, while smaller galleries, such as this, generally displayed the art of the working artist, art that was for sale through the gallery or by contacting the artist personally. From the little price tags placed discreetly alongside each painting Tyler