If I Didn't Know Better (The Callaways #9)(75)

Mia wrote back a quick thank-you and told her she'd take it from there and would keep her posted on what she found out. She was thrilled that Danielle had confirmed her suspicion that the painting had been done by Toulouse-Lautrec, and she couldn't wait to hear what the curator at the museum in Paris would be able to tell her.

There was still a possibility that the painting in her possession was a forgery, but based on the circumstances surrounding her find, she didn't think so. Who would take such care to hide a fake?

However, she would need to send it to an expert to determine if it was an original work. She didn't have the tools to test the paint or age of the paper or study the brushstrokes in enough detail to be certain of its authenticity, but she had plenty of contacts in San Francisco. She just wasn't ready to leave Angel's Bay to do that, and she didn't want to let the painting out of her sight. Nor did she want to alert the world that her aunt was in possession of a stolen painting until she'd had a chance to figure out how it had gotten into Carly's closet.

The doorbell rang interrupting her thoughts. She closed her computer, rolled up the painting and stuck it in the kitchen pantry, then walked down the hall to open the door.

Didi Eckhart was on the front porch, dressed in a blue sleeveless sheath dress and heeled sandals, a large purse hanging over her shoulder.

"Mrs. Eckhart. Thank you so much for coming."

"I'm excited to see what you have. And please call me Didi." She glanced around as she stepped into the entry. "I haven't been inside this house in a long time. Carly has acquired more art since the last time I was here."

"Art and junk," Mia said with a helpless shrug. "She loved what she loved; it didn't always have to have value."

"A sentiment I share." She paused in front of a portrait of a young girl sitting at a piano, her hands resting lightly on the keys, her gaze turned toward the window and not the instrument she was about to play. "Carly purchased this one from the gallery. It's by a local artist named Roger Henry. He's quite good."

"I do like it," Mia said. "Why don't we go out to the patio? I have the paintings set up out there. Can I get you some lemonade?"

"That would be lovely. It's such a warm day."

Mia had made some lemonade earlier, so she grabbed the pitcher and two glasses from the kitchen and ushered Didi into the backyard. She poured the lemonade while Didi looked at the paintings.

"It's certainly an eclectic mix of oil, acrylic and watercolors," Didi said, walking back to the table.

"It's definitely a mix," Mia agreed, as she handed her a glass of lemonade. "Please sit down. Sorry for the mess, but I'm still sorting everything out, and it was easier to do it out here than in the studio. I needed the space to see what I had."

"I completely understand." Didi gave her a warm smile. "It's so nice to sit with you, Mia. Your aunt spoke of you often, how proud she was that you were moving forward in an art career. She told me that she'd given you your first set of paints."

"That's very true. She taught me to paint and she inspired me in many ways. I spent several summers here when I was a teenager. They're some of my fondest memories. I wish now I'd made more of an effort to get back before this tragedy."

"Well, Carly might not have been here. She did a lot of traveling the last few years." Didi sipped her lemonade and then said, "Your aunt inspired me as well. After my husband died, I was just going to let the gallery run the way it had always run, but Carly talked to me about making it into a business that I really cared about. At first, I thought it might be disloyal to my husband to make huge changes. I'd always left the big decisions in our lives to him. But the more I thought about it, and the more time I spent at the gallery with Harrison Raleigh, the more I realized that I wanted a gallery with my last name on it to be reflective of my personal choices."

"That makes sense."

"You probably wonder why it took me so long to get to that conclusion, but I'm in my sixties, and I grew up in a world where women deferred to men. I'm still fighting some of the old traditions in my head. But you're a young woman. You would never let a man decide your life for you, would you?"

"I would try not to," she said. "But it's easy to get caught up in love."

"Are you in love with someone, Mia?"

"Possibly," she said slowly.

Didi laughed. "I don't know everything, but I do know one thing about love. When the answer is possibly, it just means you're fighting your instincts or maybe keeping some walls up."

"You're right about that. I've made some mistakes in the past when it came to men, or at least one man."

"Don't let that one man influence the way you think about other men."

"It's hard not to do that."

"Well, no one said love was easy. You know what I sometimes ask myself when I'm trying to make a decision now that my husband is gone?"

"What's that?"

"What would Carly do?"

Mia smiled. "Good question."

"What would her answer be for you, Mia?"

"Probably to go for it. That love isn't practical. That it makes you crazy and that's the fun of it. But it's not that simple. I've met a man here in town, and I won't be staying in Angel's Bay past the summer. I have to go back to San Francisco and find myself a job."