Sculpting Grace: A Light Romance Novel (Art of Grace Book 2)

by Samantha Westlake

  Still looking dejected, she shook her head.

  "Well, I've got to make a call," I told her, saying this more to try and psych myself up than because she looked at all curious. "Hopefully, this one won't laugh at me like the others."

  "Great," she replied, still not showing the slightest bit of curiosity about whom I might be calling.

  "Good talk," I said, and then stepped into the back room for a little bit of privacy. I took a deep breath, pushed the "call" button, and then tried to remind myself to breathe as I lifted the phone up to my ear.

  "Good afternoon, Exalt Talent and Modeling," a pleasant voice answered.

  "Yes, hello," I said, trying to ignore the loud thumping of my heart inside my chest. "I'm calling to ask if your agency provides nude models for artists?"

  "Yes, we do offer those services." No hesitation from the agent. "May I inquire as to the artist?"

  Here went nothing. I crossed my fingers. "Dean Benjamin de St. James?"

  A pause for a second. I could hear the clacking of keys. She was about to tell me that he was on their blacklist, I just knew it.

  Finally, she spoke up again. "I don't see him in our system, but I do see that he has a Facebook profile, as well as a blog and other accounts," she replied, her tone still light and polite. "We'd be happy to offer him a catalogue of our models, so that he can look over options and pricing. Would you prefer that I mail the catalogue over to you, or would it be easier for you to stop by and collect it in person?"

  It took me a moment to respond. She hadn't said no! This woman didn't know about de St. James' past encounters with models! "I, um, I'll come over and pick it up right away," I managed to stammer out. I wasn't going to wait and let her realize that she might be making a big mistake!

  "Wonderful," the woman replied to me smoothly. "I will leave the catalogue with our front desk receptionist for you to pick up at your convenience."

  "Thank you," I said dully as she ended the call.

  Yes! Success! And, I realized a moment later, the woman had approved de St. James because of the social media accounts that I'd only just created for him! Already, my efforts for the artist were paying dividends!

  Beaming with happiness, I practically skipped out of the back room, up to join Lizzie at the receptionist's desk for the rest of the afternoon. As soon as the gallery closed up, I told myself, I'd drive right up to Exalt Talent and Modeling and grab that catalogue.

  And once that was in my hands, I'd only have one more task to complete before Dean Benjamin de St. James had to sign on as an artist with our gallery! I'd nearly made it!

  Chapter Fourteen

  *

  The monkey wrench in my plans appeared just five minutes before five o'clock PM, as I was getting ready to close down the gallery for the afternoon.

  I looked up from the front desk as the bell over the door jingled. I'd taken pity on the despondent looking Lizzie and given her the rest of the afternoon off. "Go spend some time outside, maybe hang out with some friends," I had encouraged her. "You don't need to spend all day shut up in the gallery."

  "Thanks," she replied, and vanished out of the building as if certain that I'd change my mind and take it back at any second.

  For a minute, I just looked after her, feeling a bit guilty. When Lizzie started working here, just a few days ago, she'd been bubbly and irrepressible, full of energy. But now, after less than a full week of working for the Halesford Gallery, she seemed like an entirely different person. Maybe we needed a warning label on our Help Wanted advertisements: "May steal away your will to live."

  In any case, I spent the rest of the afternoon sitting behind the front desk and scrolling idly through my Facebook feed. No customers came in to bother me, and by closing time, I was beginning to see why Lizzie had so quickly turned from excitement to dismay.

  And then, with just five minutes before I could lock up for the day and go drive down to Exalt to collect the catalogue from their front desk receptionist, the bell jingled above the door as it opened.

  "Hello, welcome to-" I paused in my speech as I looked up at the smiling face of Carter. As always, he looked so cool and confident, dressed in his usual work outfit of a navy suit and white shirt, with no tie and the collar hanging slightly open, the top button undone. His broad shoulders and muscled arms nicely filled out the sleeves of his suit; he'd never confirmed for me that he got his clothes tailored for him, but I would bet money on it being true.

  "Carter!" I greeted him, cutting off my rehearsed speech and standing up to hug him as he stepped up. "It feels like it's been forever!"

  "It feels that way to me, too," he replied, hugging me back. He smelled amazing, as always, and I could feel a little residual heat from the sun soaking into me. He must have walked over to the gallery. "How are things going?"

  "Actually, you caught me just as I'm about to go rushing out," I admitted as I let go of him. "I need to swing by this modeling agency and pick up a catalogue of their models."

  He frowned. "This is another task for de St. James, I'm guessing?"

  I nodded. "Yep. This is the last modeling agency that hasn't blackballed him, so I'm going to make it very clear that he needs to treat them with respect."

  "What did he do to the others?"

  "It was only one, but he screamed at a model and threw things at her - and then tried to sue her," I revealed. "The story got around, and most of the other places have announced that they'll have nothing to do with him from this point forward."

  Carter winced at the sound of de St. James' temper tantrum. "He sounds like such a great guy. Any plans for dinner after you pick up this catalogue?"

  I paused, but then shook my head. "Nope, nothing planned as of yet." It would be too late in the evening for me to go over and hand off the catalogue to de St. James, I decided - and besides, after hearing people from these other modeling agencies bad-mouth him all day, I really, really didn't want to face him.

  "Great!" Carter clapped his hands together. "How's this for a plan, then - you let me give you a ride over to the agency, and then we can go straight to dinner afterwards." He moved in towards me, reaching out and resting his hands lightly on my hips, drawing me in closer towards him. "And don't think that you can convince me to take no for an answer."

  I smiled back at him. I hadn't considered it until now, but dinner with Carter suddenly sounded like exactly what I needed to de-stress after everything I'd been dealing with for the last couple of days. "You know, I guess that I'll just have to say yes-"

  Behind Carter, the bell over the front door rang again as someone else stepped inside. "Becca!" came an excited shout from behind him.

  Carter let go of me as we both turned to see who had joined us. I felt a moment of dismay as his hands left my hips, but a smile split my face as I saw who had entered.

  "Portia!" I exclaimed, dashing forward to hug her. "What are you doing here? You've never stopped by the gallery before!"

  "Well, I figured that you needed some stress relief after dealing with another long day of your crazy artist buddy!" she answered, beaming back at me. She turned her attention next to Carter, giving him a blatant up-and-down, her eyes smoky and seductive. "This isn't him, is he? Because my god, if you won't, I will!"

  "Portia!" I burst out again, this time in a scandalized tone. "No - this is Carter James! Carter, this is my best friend Portia - please forgive her for her lack of a censor between her brain and her mouth."

  "Pleased to meet you," Carter said politely, holding out his hand to Portia.

  "And you too, after I've heard so much about you," Portia purred back at him, accepting his handshake. "You definitely measure up in person. At least, as far as I can see right now."

  I stepped over to Portia so that I could punch her in the arm; she just grinned back at me. "Anyway, Portia, Carter and I actually need to go run an errand, and were then going to go out to dinner," I said, trying to move things along.

  Portia, of course, pouted at me. "You're jus
t going to leave me here? Even though I took the time to come out and have dinner with my best friend?"

  I opened my mouth, feeling exasperated and wanting to point out that it was Portia who showed up unannounced - but Carter beat me to the punch.

  "Why doesn't she come along as well?" he suggested. "The three of us can swing by the modeling agency and then go out to dinner, and maybe I'll get to learn a few more secrets about the real Becca Grace!" He grinned at me, still boyishly handsome, but I still didn't feel thrilled with his suggestion.

  "That sounds perfect!" Portia piled on, however, before I could object. She smiled up at Carter in a way that I didn't totally like. "And you said something about a modeling agency? Is this related to all those jobs from de St. James?"

  "Yes, it is," I said, feeling nettled that she was talking to Carter rather than me. "I just need to really briefly duck into this agency and pick up their catalogue. I'm sure it will be really boring," I added, hoping that this might discourage her.

  But I could see that she was already sold on the idea. "That sounds like so much fun!" she insisted. "And afterwards, definitely dinner. I'm starving - I'm pretty sure that I haven't had a chance to sit down and eat a nice meal all day!" She smiled at Carter again, as I felt my teeth start to grind together. "And you can tell me all about you and Becca."

  Carter shrugged. "I'm not sure how much there is to tell. I'm sure that you can share many more stories about her than I can."

  I saw the smile on Portia's face take on a slightly wicked air. "Actually, there's this great one from back when we were out in this biker bar. The bar had this really big pool table, with all these brawny looking guys taking turns hitting the balls around with their sticks. Well, one of the guys was really hot, and so I dared Becca to go over and impress him by showing him that she could fit an entire cue ball in her-"

  "Okay, okay, that's enough!" I yelped, hastily darting forward and physically holding up my hands to cut off that particularly embarrassing story. Carter really, really didn't need to hear about how it got stuck! "Alright, Portia, you can come along. But let's get going before the agency closes, shall we?"

  Through a combination of talking, gesturing, and patting both Portia and Carter on the back, I managed to get them moving out of the gallery, down to where Carter had parked his luxury sedan on the street outside. The two of them kept chatting, however. I had to pause for a moment to lock the gallery doors behind me, but when I turned around, I caught the tail end of the story, something about "splattering everywhere, so embarrassing!" and cringed.

  Portia hopped right into the back seat of the sedan, but Carter walked around to hold the passenger side door open for me. "Is it alright that I invited her along?" he asked, looking at me before I climbed into the car. His eyebrows furrowed together slightly. "I just wanted to be inclusive, and maybe hear a bit more about the real Becca. I know you've been busy for the last few days with this artist thing-"

  "It's-" I stopped for a moment, forced myself to take a breath and let it out. "Just don't judge me based off of Portia's stories, okay?" I asked Carter. "She loves to tell all sorts of embarrassing ones, but there's more to me than that - I promise!"

  His smile broadened, and he slipped his arm around my waist to draw me in against him. Feeling his warmth press up against me, I felt some of the tension that seemed to have permanently settled in my spine beginning to finally ebb away. He smelled good, and I didn't want him to let go of me.

  "Trust me, I've already got a pretty good picture of you in my head," Carter murmured to me, his breath brushing gently against my ear.

  "And it's a good one?" I asked, before I could stop myself.

  He kissed me lightly on the cheek as he let go, stepping back to hold the passenger side door to his car open for me. "It's a masterpiece," he said simply, and I smiled at him as my heart melted.

  "Come on!" Portia shouted from inside the car, leaning forward to stick her head and shoulders up between the front seats. "What are you two waiting for, I thought we needed to get going?"

  My smile slipped away as Carter headed around to the driver's side, and I tried to take another deep breath as I slid down into the car. I loved Portia, but her lack of boundaries tended to make any night with her quite eventful, not always in a good way. And now Carter was along for the ride - and I didn't want him to see my crazy side just yet.

  This was going to be a long night, I thought to myself as the luxury sedan pulled away from the curb.

  Chapter Fifteen

  *

  Sure enough, the situation quickly went from mildly embarrassing to agonizingly so, as soon as we arrived at Exalt Talent and Modeling.

  A part of me had hoped that, because we were stopping by so late in the day, there might not be anyone else besides the receptionist around at the agency. This little flame of hope flickered and died, however, as soon as we walked in the front door.

  Portia's eyes lit up like floodlights as she stopped dead, her hand snaking out to grab onto my arm. "Oh my god," she whispered to me in a voice that still carried far too well. "It's full of models! This is my paradise!"

  Sure enough, the lobby of the agency was filled with beautiful people, both men and women. I shrank back, immediately fighting to block out the little voice in my head that pointed out how most of them were taller than me, all of them thinner and more graceful, their clothes perfectly chosen to accentuate and highlight the slim lines of their well-toned bodies.

  Portia, however, somehow managed to look like she fit in perfectly with the gaggle of models. I didn't know how she managed to pull it off, but she breezed in, and even some of the models turned their heads to look at her with expressions of surprise and envy! I wished desperately that I could possess even a fraction of her grace and confidence.

  Of course, not all of the models standing in the main lobby of the agency focused on Portia. Several of the women looked past her after a glance, their eyes settling instead on Carter. Maybe all of these women here just looked permanently hungry from starving themselves, I thought to myself, but their expressions of hunger seemed to sharpen further when their eyes took in Carter's strong jaw and broad shoulders.

  "Oh look, there's the receptionist's desk!" I called out, darting over to Carter and throwing my arm through his. I sent a glare towards the nearest female model, a dusky, long-legged brunette with perfect eyeshadow and mascara, trying to scare her away. "Let's go over there and grab this catalogue, so that we can get going!"

  "Just call me back when you're ready," Portia said over her shoulder. She moved towards the nearest couple of men in the lobby as if being drawn along by magnets.

  Frantically, I reached out with my other hand, the one not looped through Carter's arm, to catch at her wrist and keep her from drifting away. "Focus!" I hissed at her. "Come on, let's get this catalogue and get out!"

  Looking back at me, Portia pouted that I wasn't letting her head off and flirt, but she settled for giving the group of handsome men a seductive little wave, accompanied by a mouthed word that I didn't quite catch.

  With both Carter and Portia in tow, drawn along by my grasp on their arms, I advanced on the front desk of Exalt, and the woman behind it. In contrast to the models milling around, she at least looked mostly professional in a white button-up blouse and a black pencil skirt, her hair done up in a chignon. She looked at me over a pair of thin, red-framed reading glasses as I approached.

  "Yes?" she asked, her tone and expression implying that if I was here to try and pursue some childhood dream of becoming a model, I wouldn't make it far.

  I forced myself to put on a false smile, trying to keep from looking like I just wanted to bare my teeth at her. "Hi, I'm Becca Grace, here to pick up a model catalogue for Dean Benjamin de St. James," I said, attempting to sound at least halfway pleasant. "I called earlier today?"

  "Ah, de St. James," the receptionist repeated, sounding slightly relieved that I wasn't going to ask for a modeling application. She turned her attention to
a stack of papers and magazines on top of the desk, flipping through them until she found the one she was after. "Yes, here it is."

  I accepted the catalogue from her, glancing down and flipping through the glossy pages. It looked a lot like a magazine that I might get in the mail from a clothing manufacturer, I realized, except that instead of selling the clothes on the models, it was selling the models themselves! Each page featured half a dozen pictures of a different individual, with a name, contact number, and sometimes some other information listed at the bottom of the page. Flip through the pages, find the right model, and order them. Amazing.

  "Thank you," I told the receptionist, who just sniffed back at me. "That's all I need - I'm sure you'll be hearing from Mr. de St. James very soon."

  I turned around, my arm still linked through Carter's. "Great," I said to him, my eyes already tugging towards the exit. "Now, let's get out of here!"

  "We'll need to go collect Portia first," he replied.

  "No we don't, she's right-" I turned to where I'd last seen Portia, standing right beside me, but my eyes fell on empty air. "How did she do that??"

  "Apparently, when male models are involved, she's got the stealth of a ninja," Carter answered dryly. "There she is." He pointed across the room to where the same three models that Portia had originally targeted still stood - now with a dark-haired brunette in their midst, looking up at them as she twirled a long, smooth, gleaming strand of her hair around a delicate finger.

  I tried to think. If I went to go collect Portia, that would involve letting go of Carter. If I brought Carter with me, on the other hand, I'd just be parading him around the lobby, giving more of the female models the opportunity to try and steal him away. I needed to send him out of here.

  "Listen, can you go get the car started?" I asked Carter, pressing the model catalogue into his hands. "I'm going to go grab Portia, but I'm sure that she'll want to stick around, so I'll just bundle her out of here. If you can have the car waiting, we can climb right in and go before she slips out of my grasp."