If I Didn't Know Better (The Callaways #9)(16)

"Hi there," she said with a friendly smile. "I'm Kara Lynch. I rang the bell, but no one answered. Carly was very good friends with my mother and grandmother. They sent me over with this." She held up the rectangular plastic food container in her hand. "Lemon squares and raspberry dot cookies to welcome you to Angel's Bay."

"It's nice to meet you," she said, wiping her dusty hands on her shorts as she moved around the table.

"Oh, my, you've really dug in, haven't you," Kara said, her gaze sweeping the crowded table.

"I've just barely started." She moved the basket of colored pens out of the way so she could put the dessert on the table. "I'm Mia Callaway."

Kara nodded. "My mother said you were coming in your mom's place. Did you know what you were getting into?"

"Not exactly. I used to spend summers here when I was a teenager, but this house was not nearly as cluttered or messy back then. It almost makes me wonder if something was going on with my aunt. Or maybe she was just having too good of a time to waste a second cleaning."

"I think that was probably the case," Kara said. "Your aunt was a real character. Besides hosting all the visiting artists, she used to teach salsa dancing at the recreation center."

Mia raised an eyebrow. "My blonde-haired, blue-eyed aunt taught salsa dancing?"

Kara laughed. "She was good. She also taught yoga for a while. I took one of the yoga classes. She talked a lot about her time in India, studying yoga with the masters. She was very flexible."

Yoga, salsa dancing, art—was there nothing her aunt couldn't do?

"I didn't realize she had so many talents," Mia murmured.

"Even if she hadn't perfected something, she still wanted to show it off to the world. I always liked your aunt's confidence. She didn't care what anyone thought as long as she was having a good time. I'd like to be more like that."

"Me, too," she agreed, thinking she'd spent far too much time worrying about what other people thought.

"What are you going to do with all the paintings?" Kara asked, waving her hand around the patio.

"I'm not sure yet. I hate to just throw them away, and some of the paintings are really good. They should be on display somewhere." As she finished speaking, she got an idea…probably a bad idea, but she couldn't stop it from taking shape in her head. "Maybe I should put them up somewhere."

"The museum in town might be interested, or one of the art galleries. Angel's Bay has quite an art scene these days. We get a lot of tourists driving up from Los Angeles and Santa Barbara on the weekends and in the summer. Do you think the paintings are good enough? I'm no expert on art, but that one looks like my three-year-old drew it." She pointed to a smudged, messy painting that looked like a ball of colored yarn.

"That one is pretty bad," she agreed. "But what about this one?" She picked up the painting of a solitary sailboat bobbing by a dock. "I like the colors and the brushstrokes. It's technically good, and I think it evokes a mood."

"It feels a little sad and lonely," Kara said.

"Art that makes you feel anything is usually good."

"You should talk to the galleries and the museum. You might start with the Eckhart Gallery on Main Street. Didi Eckhart just took it over after her husband's death, and she was friends with your aunt. She might be the most interested in talking to you about a showing of some kind."

"I'll start with her."

"Do you think you have enough good pieces?"

"There are more in the studio, and I haven't even gone through the storage area on the second floor. The only thing I worry about is whether any of the artists would object to my taking the paintings they left for Aunt Carly and doing something with them."

"If they gave their art to Carly, then it was hers to do with as she liked, and now it's yours."

"Technically everything here belongs to my mother, but I think she'd like the idea of setting up an exhibition in Aunt Carly's honor. And it would give the artists some recognition, too. She was always about finding undiscovered talent."

Kara smiled at her with a knowing gleam in her eyes. "You remind me a little of myself, Mia. I love to take on big projects and make plans even when I have a ton of other things to do."

Mia laughed. "I have to admit putting on an exhibition sounds like more fun than filling trash bags. But it will all get done."

Kara picked up the sketch of a peacock from the table. "What is this?"

"That is part of a coloring book for grown-ups that my aunt was putting together."

"I've heard of those. They're all the rage now. A friend of mine in Los Angeles just went to a coloring book party. She was telling me how much fun it was. She liked that she could drink a lot of wine and color at the same time, and it wasn't as complicated as quilting or knitting."

"Good point. My aunt was always on trend."

A light came into Kara's eyes as she flipped through the sketches in the folder. "These are all fantastic. Carly drew them all?"

"I think so. The folder had her name on it."

"You know what we should do? We should have our own coloring book party. I can introduce you to my friends and some of your aunt's friends, who would probably love to come. We could have it at my grandmother's quilt store in town. We have a big meeting room upstairs."