Stroke of Love

by Melissa Foster

  Kate tapped the pen on the clipboard. “Okay, so you’re thinking that the mural will center on a large, full tree, representing life and hope.”

  “Yeah, with a wild jungle on one side with birds and snakes for the children to paint.”

  “Oh, and how about bright fruits, tall grasses, and some smaller trees, too?” She scribbled something on the paper.

  “Perfect. I was also thinking that the roots of the big tree could fade off to the right, into a sandy beach, and then there could be a hint of water at the edge of the building.”

  She touched his hand. “That sounds so perfect. I’m sure the kids and the community will love it.”

  With Kate’s hand on his arm and the sun at his back, Sage began to wish he’d signed up to volunteer for six months. Two weeks with Kate would never be enough.

  Chapter Thirteen

  THE NEXT FEW days passed quickly, with Sage outlining the mural and Kate making the afternoon rounds with Caleb to pick up the slack of the other volunteers, then she and Sage coming together again in the evenings. Each morning they awoke in each other’s arms brought them closer together. Kate stood beneath the tree in the schoolyard watching Sage put the final touches on the outline of the mural as the children gathered around him. They pointed and whispered, and Kate realized that there were too many children to have them all painting at once. She began jotting down a schedule for them on her trusty clipboard.

  Javier came to Kate’s side and leaned against her leg. He pointed and whispered, “Look, Miss Kate. We’re going to paint that.”

  She dropped her hand to his shoulder, knowing she’d made the right decision and feeling mildly guilty for initially turning Sage down. The air crackled with enthusiasm, and as she watched Sage draw each line with practiced precision, she became mesmerized by his movements. The muscles on his back flexed as his arm rose above his head. She could almost feel their strength against her palms, as she had earlier that morning when they’d made love.

  Oscar came out of the school and joined Kate in admiring Sage’s talent. He nodded appreciatively.

  “The children are happy. Yes?”

  “It was the right thing to do.” Kate smiled at him.

  “I’m going back to the village to get ready for the meeting about the wells. See you soon?”

  Kate had scheduled a meeting with the community to discuss what else they might do besides sending emails to the Ministry of Rural Development to lobby for a community well.

  “Yes. See you soon,” she said.

  Even outlined, she could see how the mural would breathe life into the dingy building, and she was glad she’d been a part of it. Sage had worked night and day on getting the mural ready for the children to paint—first on paper, then on the building—and Kate was surprised by the way he became so lost in his work. The Sage she’d gotten to know seemed very far away when he was creating. Now, as he completed the outline of two children at the water’s edge, one of whom looked an awfully lot like Javier, he was in what Kate had begun to think of as his trancelike state. It was as if he were painting in a bubble and the rest of the world fell away.

  She went to him then, needing to be closer. “You do realize that these kids don’t really know how to paint within the lines, right?” Kate stood behind him, and when he didn’t answer, she placed her hand on his shoulder. The warmth of his sun-kissed skin sent a shiver through her. She’d never felt so close to another person. He seemed to read her mind—not just sexually, but emotionally, as well. He was patient, caring, and attentive.

  “Sage?”

  He shook his head as if he’d just realized she was there. “Yeah?” He didn’t turn to look at her or stop drawing.

  “Will it bother you that the kids don’t stay within the lines you’ve drawn? Because they’re kids, not artists. I just don’t want you to be disappointed.”

  “The beauty of art is that it’s different for everyone. They could paint blobs and those blobs would represent something to them. That’s what matters.” He turned to face her, his eyes serious, brooding. “Kate, I’ve been wanting to talk to you about an idea I have. I’ve been thinking about how artists can really help the community, and I’ve come up with an idea I think can work.”

  “What do you mean?”

  Sage set his pen down and rose to his feet. “I’m thinking about using my connections in the art world to raise money for places like this, negating the need for celebrities being here altogether—unless they were coming solely to help and not for publicity. I’m thinking of something with almost no onsite publicity. Auctioning off the art to get funding for projects.”

  “Auctioning…I’m not sure I follow.” Kate checked her watch. Caleb and the others should be back from the clinic by now. She had to get ready for her meeting, and she needed to touch base with Caleb before she left for the village. She had just enough time to get there if she left now. “I have to get ready for my meeting. Can we talk about this a little later?”

  “Yeah. Sure.” He turned his attention back to the mural, settling his left palm on the wall as he drew with his right.

  “I want to hear about your idea. I just don’t want to be late.”

  He smiled over his shoulder. “I know. Good luck.” He blew her a kiss.

  As she headed back toward the compound, Kate wondered what he had in mind. Auctioning art? A few minutes later, she came around the side of the cabins, and Penelope’s angry voice caught her attention.

  “I’m leaving tomorrow, and that’s nonnegotiable. I’ve already called and made arrangements.” Penelope stood before Luce, arms crossed, lips pinched tight, nose in the air.

  Oh God. What now?

  “That’s not the deal, Penelope, and you know it.” Luce gave Penelope a death stare, dark eyes narrowed to slits, shoulders back. “Two weeks of working with the community. You only have a few days left. You’re here for damage control, and cutting your humanitarian effort short in order to run back into the arms of your married lover is not going to help your cause. In fact, it will negate your efforts here completely. You’ll be a laughingstock.”

  Luce had filled Kate in about Penelope’s indiscretions before they’d arrived in Belize, and she’d assured Kate that she wasn’t wasting the volunteer spot on someone who would cut and run. Kate had handled enough celebrity volunteers to know that most of them ended up trying to leave early. She wondered how they got along being so self-centered.

  “I’m not sure how you’ll get to the airport, Penelope.” Luce crossed her arms and flipped her chin, sending her hair over her shoulder. “Transportation isn’t scheduled to report back until the end of your scheduled stay.”

  Penelope ran her eyes over Kate’s AIA T-shirt and jeans shorts and sighed. “I’ve already taken care of that. They’ll be here to pick me up.”

  Kate shot a look at Luce. “You’re leaving, too?”

  “Not me. She is. I’m staying through the end of the scheduled trip.”

  Thank God. She liked finally having a friend to talk to. And she knew she shouldn’t care if Penelope left or not. Penelope had shown up to help Caleb on their assignments only a handful of times, and from what Caleb had told her, she’d been less than interested in interacting with the locals. But her leaving would reflect poorly on AIA. There was already a stigma hovering over her site because their volunteers were celebrities, while other sites had the joy of working with real volunteers. Volunteers like Kate and Caleb, and maybe even Sage, who were there for the right reasons.

  “Yes, I’m leaving. I’ve done what I needed to do,” Penelope said emphatically.

  “You’ve done nothing but gained a little publicity,” Kate said. She saw Clayton approaching from his cabin and she shot a look at Luce. “Penelope, it’s really not good for the morale of the people here if you leave. They know you’re supposed to be here for two weeks.”

  Penelope rolled her eyes.

  The hell with the stigma. She was probably the only one who felt it anyway. “Let her g
o, Luce. It’s her reputation, not ours.” She spun on her heel and walked away, pretty sure she was leaving a trail of steam in her wake.

  AFTER MEETING WITH the community, Kate stopped in town and put a Skype call through to her boss, Raymond. It was time she put her foot down about celebrity volunteers. Even if she was being sent to another location after her mission there was done, the next program director shouldn’t have to deal with the same crap she did. She could use the satellite phone, but it was cheaper to Skype and she needed to see his face to get her point across.

  She stared at the pixelated image of Raymond, catching only every other word he said. Damn Internet.

  “Kate, calm down…know how they are. They give a lot of money…Lucky to have funding.”

  “Raymond, we have a community here who needs help. If we could just bring in more regular volunteers, then I know we could get more involved with the housing, the wells, and get more programs for the elderly that actually focus on the people rather than the publicity.” She thought about what Sage had said about his idea that would negate the need to have celebrities in the community at all. She longed to be rid of celebrities like Penelope Price altogether.

  Raymond’s image disappeared and then reappeared just as pixelated. The pixels made his black mustache spotty, as if it were constantly moving. His voice cut in and out.

  “…funding cuts for next…You’ll be at another locat…pull out of Punta Pal…”

  “What?” Kate’s pulse sped up. She pushed her face closer to the monitor, as if that would help the reception. “What? We’re pulling out of Punta Palacia? Raymond. No. We have done so much and there’s more to do.”

  “Kate? Kate, I can’t…” Raymond’s image disappeared.

  “No.” Kate tapped on the mouse, watching with desperation as the circle spun endlessly on the dark screen, then froze. She pushed back from the counter. “Damn it.” She glanced up and saw Makei wiping a small round table with a wet cloth a few feet from her, looking at her with raised brows. He shook his head and went back to cleaning the table. His cotton pants and shirt hung from his body two sizes too big.

  “I’m sorry.” She sighed and turned away from the computer. “Sorry, Makei. Thank you.”

  Pulling out of Punta Palacia? How could they do that? What would happen to the people without their help? Kate had known she’d be sent somewhere else, but the idea of leaving the community on their own seemed unreasonable. They were getting medical supplies that they would not otherwise have. The government was finally taking notice of the village and was open to discussing wells and a better route for medical supplies. Kate knew that another aid resource might come in and fill their shoes, and the residents would probably find a way to get what they needed. But what if they didn’t?

  As she sat in front in the quiet café and debated calling her parents to get their take on the whole thing, she thought of Javier and his family, and her heart sank. She leaned her elbows on the counter and rubbed her temples. She needed to call her parents. Maybe they’d have some ideas of how she could turn this around.

  Chapter Fourteen

  SAGE SAT ON a bench in front of the mess hall, his back pocket filled with permanent markers. With the outline of the mural complete and the supplies his mother had arranged to have delivered arriving the next day, he was buzzing with adrenaline. He was guzzling a bottle of water when the sound of tires on dirt broke through the peaceful afternoon. He headed through the path to the cabins, where Penelope was loading her luggage into a dented and dust-covered car.

  Luce stood with her arms folded, watching her.

  “What’s up?”

  “She’s leaving. Can you believe this shit?” Luce said angrily. “I come all the way out here to help Penelope turn her reputation around, and here she’s going back early to be with that asshole whose marriage she fucked up. When the media gets ahold of this—and you know they will—they’ll use it to slam her again. Sometimes I feel like all of my efforts are for naught.”

  “Sorry, Luce. See? That’s why I don’t drag my PR rep through any of this. I’m sure I’d only piss him off.” Sage smiled, hoping to lighten her mood.

  “Your PR rep has other issues.”

  “Mine? Why?” Sage had no idea what she could be talking about. He was a pretty low-key guy. He showed up at the galleries when he was supposed to, he handled interviews tactfully, and he dated so infrequently that his PR rep was never put on damage-control missions. He’d purposely kept his PR rep away from the trip. In Sage’s eyes, he was a PR rep’s dream client. He paid his monthly bill and did as he was told.

  “You’re just as bad as they are, only in the opposite direction. You’re like a PR rep’s nightmare.” Luce started for the road toward town.

  Sage caught up to her and walked with her toward town. “What do you mean?”

  “You won’t let them do anything to get you publicity. You’re doing that wonderful mural and you’re doing it for all the right reasons. Why not let the world know about it?” Luce walked with angry, determined steps.

  “Luce, wouldn’t getting publicity just contradict my efforts to do something because I want to? I don’t need the PR.”

  “No, you don’t, but this place does.”

  “What are you talking about? I’m not fundraising. I’m painting. The rest of the world will think it’s cool, but they won’t send money this way, which is really what they need most.” A toucan squawked to their right and then flew into the jungle. “I swear those are the prettiest birds I’ve ever seen.”

  Luce stopped walking and put her hand on her hip. “Sage, I get that you’re all about doing the right thing, and you love the beauty of Belize, yada yada, but you’ve been in the game long enough to know that all publicity is good publicity. This place needs to be taken seriously so that they can draw more people like you and less people like…” She turned back toward the way they’d come. “Them.”

  “Well, I want no part of it. Can’t you whip up some press for the other programs here? For the elderly, the medical assistance, the food programs?”

  Luce began walking again. “If only it were that easy. People love to give to the arts, and sharing the kids’ smiles with the world, instead of dragging sad and hungry children’s faces through the media, would bring a whole new level of donations. Anyway, none of it matters. It’s not like you’re going to change. I’ll do what I can to help Kate and pitch in where Caleb will fall short because of Penelope leaving.”

  “Listen, if I offend you in some way because of my lack of PR, then I’m sorry, but I gotta do what feels right. And having a camera crew follow me around so I can look good while painting feels very wrong.” The more Sage thought about his idea, the more real it became.

  They arrived at the Internet café and Sage tried to lighten the mood. “I have an idea I want to talk to you about. Let me buy you a smoothie.”

  “How about tequila instead?” Luce grinned.

  “A little early, but whatever. Sure.”

  They found Kate inside the café on a fuzzy Skype call. Sage and Luce sat at the bar, and Luce opted for a smoothie instead. Sage smiled when Kate looked over, but her blue eyes were shadowed with worry and her slim shoulders were rounded forward.

  “Do you know who she’s talking to?” he asked Luce.

  “Sounds like her parents, but from the monitor it looks more like two aliens.”

  Sage tried not to eavesdrop, but it was difficult in such a small area, and he hated the idea of Kate being unhappy.

  “How did you stand it?” Kate pleaded. “All those years, and in the end you know it comes down to politics and dollars and cents, even when the work you did wasn’t driven by that.”

  “Kate, our work was meaningful. Your work is meaningful. Don’t let the politics take away from that,” her mother said. “Things in life happen for a reason. There are other places where you’re needed. You’ve put structure into Punta Palacia. You’ve created a system that their people can now follow. You s
hould be proud of that.”

  “And if they don’t? And what if the government drops the ball with regard to the wells?”

  The wells. That was Kate’s biggest concern, and he began to wonder how much the wells would cost. How long did installation take? What kinds of red tape would they have to go through to get them approved with outside funding? Sage needed more information.

  “Katie, honey, you can’t control what happens next. You can only hope that what you have done will continue to help,” her father said. “You’ve been through this before. Why is this hitting you so hard?”

  Kate shook her head. “I don’t know.”

  Sage restrained himself from going over and taking her in his arms to soothe the frustration that had her shaking her head and covering her eyes. He turned back to Luce.

  “She’s having a really hard time with this. Any idea what’s really going on?” he asked.