Evan wasn't one to judge. Except for his incident with his knife and the box that he dropped on his toe, he'd been incident-free for the past few years as well. So any chastising or disapproval leaked from his tone and he felt guilty for it.
Shock crossed his face when she mentioned staying for a couple of days. "Oh?" he asked when she mentioned staying a day or two. "Do you have your bedroll or a sleeping bag? You can set up shop with us, if you want," he offered, motioning broadly to his siblings and the Drakes, too. "I'll introduce you to my brother and sister when they wake up."
His hand traced down Eloise's arm to her fingers as she traced the image and his smile went from obviously pleased with himself and the situation to something softer, gentler.
She asked about his inspiration behind drawing, turning his head to look at her again, catching her eye and raising a shoulder in a shrug at the question. Inspiration was a funny thing. It came from strange places. "It depends on what I'm doing, I think," he said softly, putting his hand on the sketchbook and sliding it from beneath her fingers, flipping back a couple of pages to an abstract sketch. "Abstract drawings like this one have more to do with what I'm feeling and thinking than things from my past," he explained, setting the sketchbook back down on her lap.
"And then there are things like this," he flipped back another three pages, to a sketch of a ramshackle house. "I saw this one spring walking in Plan-de-Cuques and I had to draw it. You can have a look through them if you'd like."