The Genius and the Muse Read Online Free PDF Page A

I’m going to miss you so much when you graduate. You’re Chris’s favorite student, you know. He’s probably not supposed to have one, but I know you are.” Dee smiled at her. “Do you and Cody have plans to move? Where is he tonight, by the way? I thought you would bring him.”
    She shrugged. “He’s meeting the guys to talk about some promotion for the shop. I’m not sure. He knew I wanted to talk to you about O’Connor, and he’s sick of the whole topic, so he begged off.”
    “No apologies needed. I remember Chris when he was doing his master’s thesis on Adams. If I never heard another word about the revolutionary development of the Zone System, I would have been a happy, happy woman.” Dee rolled her eyes, but smiled fondly at the memory.
    “Is it nice, though, to be with another photographer? Sometimes I wish Cody had more interest in what I do.” Kate propped her chin on her hand as she studied the woman who had come to feel very much like a trusted friend over the previous years.
    Dee cocked her head and thought before answering. “It has its good points and bad, I suppose. There’s a level of understanding when you’re married to another artist. Chris understands when I get in a creative mood and want to lock myself away and work, because he feels the same way sometimes. It’s harder when you have a family. Since the baby has come, we’ve had to temper those impulses, so we don’t let each other get overwhelmed taking care of Sabina. I think he’s better at that than I am. I still get much more obsessive about things.”
    “See, I don’t think Cody really gets that.” Kate shook her head. “Sometimes I’ll be working on a project, and he’ll want to do something and want me to just stop and drop everything. He doesn’t understand why I can’t take a break and pick it up later.”
    “But that’s balance too, Kate. There’s value in that, because life isn’t always going to be about you and your art. It can easily become your whole life, and some artists choose to live like that, but you’ll end up missing out on a lot. In the end, I think your photography would suffer for not living a full life.”
    Kate mulled over what the other woman had said before she spoke again. “How much time do you have now, for your non-work stuff?”
    “What, the stuff that doesn’t pay the bills?” Deepali laughed. “Not as much, of course. Between the commercial aspect of my business and then having Sabina, it’s not as much. But… it’s important to remember that this is just a season of my life, too. I’ll always be a photographer, but my daughter won’t always be small and need me to take care of her like I do now. In fact, according to my grandmother, I’m going to blink one day, and she’ll be a grown woman.” Her dark eyes danced with laughter.
    “Your grandmother sounds like a wise woman.”
    “Yes, she is. I’m named after her, you know? I became ‘Dee’ later. In fact, Sam Rhodes gave me that nickname. Did Chris tell you? She’s the first person that ever called me ‘Dee.’ I never had a nickname before that. Well, Reed called me ‘Deedee’ sometimes, but only to tease me when we were young. Sam though…” Dee started laughing. “When we first moved in together, she warned me that she would get in moods when she painted, and she only communicated in monosyllables, so I needed a one syllable nickname because Deepali was too long.”
    Kate smiled. “She sounds like she had a great sense of humor.”
    “She did—still does, though we don’t talk as much now. I think…”
    “What?” Kate leaned forward in her chair.
    Dee just smiled enigmatically. “You know, I introduced Sam and Reed. He and I grew up together.”
    “I didn’t know you were so close, or I probably would have bugged you about him before. And weren’t you born in India? How did you and Reed grow up together?” Kate’s eyebrows knit together.
    Dee took a breath as if to speak, but then