Dawn in Eclipse Bay

responded to art. Unwillingly.
    She began to draw, compelled by the shadows in her subject.
    “You meant everything you said about Dr. Montoya tonight, didn’t you?” she asked, not looking up from her work.
    “He was the closest thing I had to a mentor.” Gabe studied a picture of an old man sitting on a bench in the park. “I was a kid from a small town. I didn’t know how to handle myself. Didn’t know what was appropriate. I had no polish. No sophistication. No connections. I knew where I wanted to go but I didn’t know how to get there. He gave me a lot of the tools I needed to build Madison Commercial.”
    “Now you repay him by allowing him to send some of his students into Madison Commercial every year.”
    “The company gets something out of it, too. The students bring a lot of energy and enthusiasm with them. And we get first crack at some bright new talent.”
    “Really? I’ve heard my father talk about what a nuisance student interns are for a busy company. They can be a real pain.”
    “Not everyone is cut out to work in a corporation.”
    Her pencil stilled for an instant. “Me, for instance.”
    He nodded. “You, for instance. And apparently your sister and brother, too. You’ve all got strong, independent, entrepreneurial streaks. You’re all ambitious and you’re all talented but you don’t play well with others. At least not in a business setting.”
    “And you think you’re so very different? Give me a break. Tell me something, Gabe, if you were only a vice-president instead of the owner, president, and CEO of Madison Commercial, would you still be on the company payroll?”
    There was a short pause.
    “No,” he said. Flat and final.
    “You said that not everyone is cut out to work in a large corporation.” She moved the pencil swiftly, adding shadows. “But not everyone is cut out to run one, either. You were born for it, weren’t you?”
    He pulled his attention away from a canvas and looked at her down the length of the studio. “Born for it? That’s a new one. Most people would say I was born to self-destruct before the age of thirty.”
    “You’ve got the natural talent for leadership and command that it takes to organize people and resources to achieve an objective.” She hunched one shoulder a little, concentrating on the angle of his jaw. Going for the darkness behind his eyes. “In your own way, you’re an artist. You can make folks see your objective, make them want to get there with you. No wonder you were able to get that initial funding you needed for Madison Commercial. You probably walked into some venture capitalist’s office and painted him a glowing picture of how much money he would make if he backed you.”
    Gabe did not move. “Talking her out of the venture capital funds I needed wasn’t the hard part.”
    She glanced up sharply, her curiosity pricked by his words.
    “Her?” she repeated carefully.
    “Your great-aunt Isabel is the one who advanced me the cash I needed to get Madison Commercial up and running.”
    She almost fell from her perch on the worktable.
    “You’re kidding.” She held the point of the pencil in the air, poised above the paper. “ Isabel backed you?”
    “Yes.”
    “She never said a word about it to any of us.”
    He shrugged. “That was the way she wanted it.”
    She contemplated that news.
    “Amazing,” she said at last. “Everyone knew that it was her dream to end the Harte-Madison feud. Hannah figures that’s the reason she left Dreamscape equally to her and your brother in the will. But why would she back you financially? What would that have to do with ending the old quarrel?”
    “I think she felt that the Madisons got the short end of the stick when Harte-Madison went into bankruptcy. She wanted to level the playing field a little for Rafe and me.”
    “But when Harte-Madison was destroyed all those years ago, everyone lost everything. Both the Hartes and the Madisons went bankrupt. That’s about as level as it gets.”
    “Your family recovered a lot faster than mine did.” He concentrated on the painting in front of him. “I think we both know why. So did Isabel.”
    She flushed. There was no denying that the tough, stable Harte family bonds, not to mention the Harte work ethic and emphasis on education, had provided a much stronger foundation from which to recover than the shaky, shifting grounds that had sustained the Madisons.
    “Point taken,” she agreed. “So Isabel, in her own