"Good morning," James said cheerfully as he walked into the gallery office. Bette was already there looking over some paper work, nursing a warm cup of coffee.

"Hi James," Bette said looking up. "Oh Trey, how are you?"

"Hi Ms. Porter, I came with dad today cause I’m interested in art," Trey said.

Bette stood up with a broad smile, "really? I’m happy to hear that, are you better at drawing than your old man?"

"Hey, I’m good with clay!" James protested with a grin.

"Yeah you can make stick figures," Bette said with a scoff.

Trey pulled out a sheet of paper with several sketches of nature on them. He hadn’t drawn them of course, since he inherited his father’s ineptitude for art, Mikah drew these. He always said she had an amazing talent for it but she preferred to sing and write songs.

"Wow," Bette said looking over the sketches, "this is amazing." She looked over Trey carefully then said, "you don’t look like the type to these kinds of strokes. But hey, I’ve been surprised before."

James looked at the sketches in surprise, "how come you didn’t show me these before?"

Trey shrugged, "it’s not a big deal dad, I’m not gonna have a career change or anything I just wanna learn more that’s all."

"This artwork," Bette said examining the sketch, "it expresses a person who is loving and caring. Someone who has a so many different paths to choose from but doesn’t know which one to take. Someone who worships love and life, family and friends. Someone who appreciates the little things in life. Someone who knows what loss is and appreciates everything knowing that one day those things could be lost."

Trey just watched her in astonishment. By just looking at a few trees and birds Bette had managed to describe Mikah to the T. James, on the other hand, looked rather confused.

"What?" Bette asked him handing Trey the sketches back, "did I get it wrong?"

James shook his head, "you had everything great until you got to the part about loss." He looked at Trey questioningly.

Bette looked at Trey gently, not accusingly or harshly. Trey knew at that moment that this woman was just…amazing, she was perfect for Mikah’s mom and he felt bad for deceiving her. He didn’t know what compelled him to speak the truth, he just did.