Free Love in Paris (The Art Models Club Book 4) by Amanda Meadows Page B

have a glass.”
    Amber giggled. “You shouldn't feel embarrassed. It isn't that I don't like wine. It's that two glasses is enough to get me drunk.”
    “I see you've found some of my few attempts at painting,” Mrs. Webb said. “I wasn't very good but Mr. Webb insisted that we put it up. I think it reminds him of our early dating days.”
    Amber smiled. “I didn't realize that you painted at all. I don't think that Hunter ever mentioned it.”
    “Oh, that was a part of my life before he came along,” she said. “I was one of those aimless students who couldn't decide what they want to do in life. I flitted from major to major like a honeybee trying out different flowers.”
    “ It's rather good,” Amber said. “It radiates a happy feeling.”
    Mrs. Webb laughed.
    “My instructor liked that particular one as well. Perhaps it's because I had just fallen in love. I remember feeling as though I was simply floating most of the time. I suppose it made its way into the painting.”
    “ And then you stopped painting?” Amber asked. “For good?”
    Mrs. Webb smiled. “Oh, I played around with drawings when Hunter was younger because I wanted to expose him to art at a young age. But I ended up getting a degree in Literature when I graduated. And then we had Hunter and I was simply busy with having a child.”
    “Hunter said that you had him a bit late in life?”
    Mrs. Webb patted the sofa next to her.
    “Please have a seat, dear. And, yes, it seems almost miraculous that we had him at all. I was already in my mid thirties when we married and it took us a couple of years before he was conceived.”
    She laughed. “Perhaps that was why he grew up so serious minded. All of our friends had much older children. It wasn't until we moved to the United States that he started hanging around children his own age more regularly.”
    Amber took a large sip of wine, not sure she should even be asking her next question.
    “ Has Hunter ever had any negative experience that might make him more . . .um . . .protective than the average guy?”
    Mrs. Webb smiled wryly. “You mean beyond you being kidnapped at gunpoint?”
    Amber swallowed. “Uh, yeah. And that was horrible but he doesn't even want to discuss it.”
    Mrs. Webb shook her head. “I'm afraid that's more of a guy thing,” she said. “Or I should say more of a guy thing in my experience.”
    She put her hand on Amber's knee. “When we were trying to conceive, I had three miscarriages.”
    Amber's hand flew up to her mouth.
    “Oh, I'm so sorry to hear that.”
    Mrs. Webb squeezed Amber's hand reassuringly.
    “It was a long time ago and I've mostly healed from it.”
    She took a sip of her wine.
    “The only reason I brought it up is to say that I think that women and men deal with things so differently. Most women I've encountered instinctively know how to grieve properly and move on. But men are . . .”
    She shrugged her shoulders helplessly.
    “If something bad happens they seem to take it personally. With the miscarriages, it was almost as if my husband thought that there was something he could have done to avoid it. He didn't want to talk about my experience so much as he simply wanted to eliminate it altogether.”
    Amber nodded. “I think that sums up Hunter as well. But he was overly protective even before the kidnapping.”
    Mrs. Webb pressed her lips together and studied Amber.
    “ I think it is up to Hunter to share particular parts of his past with you,” she said. “All I can say is that you are right that there was an incident when he was younger.”
    She held up a warning finger.
    “But please don't say that I mentioned it to you. He would be devastated that I even hinted about something so private.”
     

     
     
     
     

Chapter 9
     
     
    Amber sat there perplexed. So, there was something in Hunter's past but she wasn't allowed to talk about it. This was even more frustrating than not knowing anything at all!
    Mrs. Webb winked.
    “ Let me