Birthright Read Online Free PDF Page B

program?”
    “Ten a week. That’s all I can handle at one time. I’ve got around forty kids signed up, and I’ll be rotating them from week to week. I wish I could take more into the program, but I can’t with the funding I’ve got.”
    “Aaron Mazerik,” she murmured, a faint smile tracing her lips once more, assuring him that she had, indeed, come back to life. “Who would have thought?” She tapped her fingers on her knee, then got to her feet and shrugged. “How much do you need?”
    “A hundred thousand dollars would be great,” he said, then flashed a grin. “I’d be thrilled by a thousand. Even a few hundred. Right now I’ve got coffee cans in the Sunnyside Café, the IGA, Sterling Hardware and a few other places. I’m collecting nickels and dimes. Paper money would really turn me on.”
    She laughed again. It wasn’t a big boisterous laugh, or even a frothy, charming laugh. It was low and…rusty-sounding somehow, as if she hadn’t laughed in a long time—which was probably the case, given that she was supposedly shattered. “At the risk of turning you on, Aaron, I’m going to think about this. I’m not saying yes or no. I’m saying I’ll think about it.”
    “Great.” If she wanted to risk turning him on, all she had to do was laugh again. Or smile. Or just look at him.
    He gave himself a shake. He wasn’t going to let her turn him on. Even if she wrote him his dream-come-true check, he wouldn’t let her turn him on. The money, yes. Lily, no.
    Not wanting to overstay his tenuous welcome, he rose to his feet. “I appreciate it. The program starts tomorrow. If you have any questions, you can reach me at the high school. The gym office is extension 407.”
    “All right.”
    He extended his hand to shake hers, this time in farewell. But she seemed distracted by her painting. “You strike me as an honest man,” she said.
    He wasn’t sure what to say to that, so he merely shrugged.
    “Tell me what you really think of the painting.”
    He sensed that this was some kind of test. If she wanted her ego stroked, she’d come to the wrong person. If she wanted honesty, though…“The truth? It’s too safe.”
    “Safe?” She eyed the painting, her head tilted to one side. “What do you mean?”
    “I mean, it’s good , but…Look, I’m no art critic.”
    “I asked your opinion, Aaron. I’m not going to hate you for giving it.”
    Maybe she would, maybe she wouldn’t. “A jug and a pear don’t mean anything to me,” he admitted. “And you’ve painted them so—” he struggled for the right word “—precisely. It’s so neat and pretty and…I don’t know, safe.”
    She stared at the painting for a minute longer, obviously dissatisfied—with the painting or with him, he couldn’t say. For all he knew, his critique might have screwed his chances for getting any money from her for the program. It had probably screwed his chance to be anything more than a former classmate to her—if indeed that chance had ever existed. And it hadn’t. It wouldn’t.
    Her silence continued, unsettling him. It occurred to him that he was never going to see a penny from this meeting, and he was never going to feel anything but uncomfortable around Lily. “Anyway, thanks forhearing me out,” he said, edging toward the side of the house. “I won’t take up any more of your time.”
    She turned from the painting. Her eyes had come fully back to life, he noticed, glittering like stars in a night sky. “Safe, huh?”
    “I shouldn’t have said anything.” He didn’t care about the money. He just didn’t want her to feel offended. “When it comes to art, I don’t know what I’m talking about.”
    “I’m not so sure about that.” An enigmatic smile flickered across her face. “I’ll think about your program, Aaron.”
    “Thanks.” He nodded, pivoted on his heel and walked away, one long resolute stride after another. The farther he got from her, the more certain he was that she