"Tophyr, are you here?" Izzy asked as she walked into the art gallery Sunday afternoon.
Howling Wolf Art Gallery was opened Monday through Saturday and closed on Sunday.
Tophyr, Derek's wife and owner of the place, said it was because God had rested after six days of work. Also because the woman and her husband went to church every Sunday and had since they got married. It helped make their relationship stronger to have something they both believed in. Izzy went to church when she wasn't working but those Sundays were few and far between.
"Hey, Toph, where are you?" she called again as she dropped her bag to the cash register on the back wall. They rarely used it because most of the time the gallery was used by up and coming artists who weren't ready to sell their work just yet.
"Iz, is that you?" That was Derek. He must have joined his wife today since she hadn't been feeling well the last time she saw them.
"Yeah, it's me. Is Tophyr back there?"
"Yeah, we're working on something. We'll be out in a few. Would you mind hanging the paintings that have already been marked?"
"Sure and take your time."
It was two o'clock on a Sunday, she had just gotten back from New Orleans and was already working. It didn't matter really because Derek and Tophyr had done a lot for her in the past three months by giving her a place to live until she could get a place of her own. Now that they were expecting their own child, she was feeling as if she were taking up space. Maybe she really should start looking for a new place to live.
All of a sudden Dayton's proposal came flooding back. If she married him, she would always have a place to live because he would make sure of it. She remembered that he lived in Brooklyn instead of a high rise on the Upper East Side. He was like his brother; happy to live in a flat and use the money he makes as a lawyer to help others.
She would have to give him an answer soon because socialite season was coming up and he was expected to show up at every function with a date. It would be beneficial to him to have a fiancé or wife to show off. He deserved that much after all he had been through. He deserved someone who loved him as much as he loved and he loved deeply.
But if she said yes to his proposal, it would placed in the paper and be a social event of the season. That meant her brother would see it and would come crawling back to attempt to extort money from them. Her father wouldn't worry about it since he was living in Las Vegas. Her mother would be happy she had found someone and Gran would cry because she was the last one to get married.
The biggest question was did she love Dayton? If she did she would be happy all of her life. If she didn't there would be no way she could accept his proposal. She couldn't do that to him. It wasn't fair to either of them.
Dayton loved her work. She knew he loved the poetry aspect but did he love the novels she was working on? She'd have to give him a manuscript for him to read so he could decide if he wanted to back her books.
"Hey, Iz. We weren't expecting you until tomorrow," Tophyr said as she came from the back room with a dry canvas.
Izzy looked down at her friend. Three months pregnant and she was starting to show. If science were correct, there was a possibility she could be having twins considering she was a twin and they ran on her mother's side.
There was also a chance that it was a single child. Derek and Tophyr hadn't told anyone if there was more than one or the genders so they just had to wait until it was born.
"You are starting to glow, Toph," she said.
The younger woman rubbed her belly and smiled then set the canvas down. "What's up, Iz?"
"I needed to talk to you about something?"
Derek picked up on her tone as he hung the second canvas. When he was done, he turned around. "Does this have anything to do with my brother?" Izzy bit her lip and glanced at Tophyr. He sighed and rubbed his eyes. "What did he do?"
"Well, it's not something he did. It's more of something he said."
Tophyr pulled herself up onto the stool beside the cash register. "What did he say?"
Izzy wrung her hands so hard since winced when they started to ache. "He asked me to marry him."
Derek sighed as he covered his eyes. "That idiot brother of mine." He leaned over the counter and grabbed his messenger bag he always carried. He kissed his wife. "I'll see you at home."
"Where are you going?" she asked.
"I'm going to see what the hell that idiot was thinking." Kissing Izzy's cheek, he turned and walked out of the gallery.
Tophyr shook her head at her husband's sudden departure. "I swear one of these days those two are going to be the death of me." She rubbed her blond head. "What exactly did you say in response when he asked you?"
"I wanted to make sure he didn't just pop it out because we were walking through New Orleans on my birthday. And it's not like he officially asked me to marry him. He kinda posed it as a semi-question. It was more like a soft request."
"A soft request?"
"It wasn't like will you do this. It was more of would you consider doing this?"
Tophyr gave the a-ha look with wide eyes and expelling a soft puff of air. "Well, ever since he broke up with Caroline, he hasn't been the same. That woman hurt him when he didn't need to be hurt. His family had just come back into the public eye and he had just graduated from Harvard Law School. Everything was set up for him to succeed and here comes this shipment of fresh hell."
"Has he dealt with all of this?"
The younger woman shrugged. "Who knows? He doesn't talk about it much, not even to Derek. Derek usually has to force him to talk about it by prying the lid off." She tilted her head in question. "Why haven't you said yes? I know you're just getting to know him but if you look at Derek and me, you'll notice we didn't know each other very well before we got married."
"Yeah, but you fell in love with him before that, didn't you?"
"Yeah, but we were like you. We had only known each other a couple of months before we got engaged."
"Did Derek love your work before he met you?" Tophyr nodded. "He did?"
"Izzy, I'm a twenty-three year old genius with a masters in journalism and I own an art gallery. My art was being showed before I graduated from college. Derek saw plenty of my work before he met me." Something clicked. "Are you telling me Dayton says he was in love with you by viewing your art?"
"Yeah, that's what he said." She looked up at her friend when she was silent too long. "What is it?"
"Has he read your novel?" Leave it to Tophyr to hit the nail on the head. Izzy shook her head. "Well, you better give that man one of your manuscripts so he can read it because if you don't have his backing there's really no point in following through with it."
($)($)())))))))
Dayton opened the door after listening to the pounding for more than two seconds. Derek breezed through then popped him in the back of the head. His brother did that when he assumed he had done something stupid.
"Ow! What the hell was that for?" he asked as he rubbed the spot gingerly.
"You're an idiot, you know that," Derek said as he turned on his brother and stood in the hallway with his hands on his hips.
"What did I do?"
"Proposing to Izzy before she's ready? How stupid can you be?"
Dayton blanched slightly. So the first thing she does when she gets home was spill her guts to Tophyr. He shook his head slightly. He should have known she would go to Tophyr.
"Derek, I didn't technically propose."
Derek frowned. "What do you mean technically?"
Dayton shrugged. "I kinda asked politely." He made a face when his brother started laughing. "Don't laugh at me."
"Dayton, you can't ask a woman you don't love to marry you." When his brother didn't answer, Derek sank down on the couch. "Oh. Wow. I didn't know."
"No one did. I haven't really told anyone. Up until Saturday I hadn't even told Izzy and she's the one I'm in love with."
With his brother emotionally unstable, Derek grabbed his wrist and pulled him to the couch before he swayed and fell down.
"When did you realize you were in love with her?"
Dayton rubbed his head again, a nervous habit he did when he was being questioned. "I heard her read her poetry a year ago. Every now and again, I'd go back to the café to see if she was reading. She hadn't been. Then I ran into her at the café she was working at when I came to get you from the airport."
"Was that when it hit?"
He shook his head. "No. It hit when we stayed on your couch that night."
"So it's been about three weeks?" Dayton nodded. Derek watched him for a few moments. "I think you should talk to her about why she won't give you an answer. I also think you should read some of the stuff she's written that isn't poetry. It's really good."
Dayton looked at his brother in shock and annoyance. "You've read her books?"
Derek nodded. "I have and they're really good. You should see where her soul comes out."
"How can I get her to let me read them?"
"Ask her. The worst thing she can say is no."
Dayton chewed on his lower lip as he thought about his brother's advice.