Finally, he gave a nod. “Yes. It’s a well-done piece. I like the little yellow bits between breaks in the branches, which make it look like the sun is shimmering through. You were right not to put the cardinal in the center. Even though it’s the focus of the piece, its placement to the lower right gives a better balance to the scene overall.”

Beth smiled, basking in the approval of another artist.

“But”—he leaned forward, tapping one dogwood blossom with a blunt finger—“should this petal have been placed lower to give the illusion of lapping over the cardinal’s tail feathers a little more? It would have added more dimension, I think.”

She sent him a brief scowl. “I think it’s fine the way it is. I’ve built in dimension with the varying background sky colors and the deeper green on the undersides of the leaves, which creates shadows.” Defensiveness increased the pitch of her voice as she pointed to the elements she mentioned. “And look at the cardinal itself—the way it’s positioned at an angle on the tree branch. There’s plenty of dimension.”

He looked at her with one eyebrow raised. “Yes, there is. But you asked me what I thought, and I think if the flower right above the cardinal had been brought down some—maybe a quarter of an inch—it would have enhanced the dimension.”

Beth set her jaw, wishing she could return to the days when all he said was Hi.

Nudging her with his elbow, he grinned. “I made you mad.”

She jerked away. “I’m not mad!” But even she recognized the irritation in her voice. Taking a deep breath, she said through gritted teeth, “Thank you for your opinion. I’ll take it under advisement if I choose to duplicate this piece. Now. . .” Tipping her head, she pushed her long ponytail over her shoulder. “What are you doing here again? I thought you went home.”

He shrugged. “I came back to do that soldering. But I guess I don’t need to.”

She grinned, satisfaction filling her as she looked once more at the cardinal. “Nope. You don’t.” Much work went into the completion of a stained-glass project, but Beth enjoyed each step of the process, from drawing the design to adding the reinforcement bars that prevented buckling of the leaded-glass piece. Yes, whether creative or structural, she relished every facet of stained-glass art.

With the tip of her gloved finger, she traced the line of soldered zinc that bordered the cardinal’s wing. She shook her head, chuckling to herself. Never would she have thought when she made the journey from Cheyenne, Wyoming, a little over a year ago that she would stay in Kansas. Her goal had been simple—sell off the unexpected inheritance from her great-aunt, collect as many antiques as possible from the Old Order Mennonite community citizens, and return to Cheyenne to open an antiques boutique.