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I directed a look to the ground before wrestling a hand through my hair. “And you’re okay?”
“Yes, and thank you. Fuck, that was stupid.” She arched her neck, staring up into the dark tree. I guess there was a little bit of light since the Reeds had various ones posted throughout the grounds. “I was trying to get a shot of a bird.”
“A bird?”
“Yeah, an owl. Trying to stay loose, you know? Since I’m here.” She was looking up again, and I fought my smile. I forgot about her love and drive for photography, and I knew what that and her camera meant to her. The camera was her dad’s, and they shared that same passion for taking photos.
Fawn’s drive was one of the things I’d admired about her back in the day. She used to carry her camera around with her everywhere. I angled close. “Did you get the shot?”
“Not quite.” Her focus returned down here, and when she did, we were a few inches away from each other. She’d been that sweet smell before, flowers or something like that. Her blink was slow. “It moved.”
“Ah,” I said, noticing the slight twitch in her throat, a swallow. She rerouted her attention to the tree after that. I smiled a little. “I can help.”
I heeled my weed butt. I’d dropped it when I broke the fall of an unexpected photographer. Laughing to myself, I scaled the tree and think I surprised Fawn and me both when I did. I mean, I was still in this tight-ass tuxedo, but I managed without ripping anything.
“You know, it’s probably gone,” she said from below. She laughed. “What are you doing?”
“Do you want to take a photo or not?” She hadn’t been far off the ground and thank God for that. She could have broken her neck. I reached for her. “I see it.”
“Really?” Taking my hand, she climbed up to meet me. I got her secure, and once she got herself situated, I put a finger to my lips.
She spotted the owl right away. The thing had its back to us. I made a noise with my hands, and not only did it turn around but opened its wings.
“Holy fuck,” Fawn whisper-shouted. Acting quick, she picked up her camera, snapping a photo. “Holy fuck, Bru. Are you like an owl whisperer or something?”
Not really, but it sure looked like it when the thing showboated the way it did. That’d been a nice little surprise. I’d just been trying to get its attention so she could see it. I shrugged. “I know an animal call or two.”
“Really?” After she got her shots, I helped us both out of the tree. Not far from the ground or not, the distance was dangerous, and I was there to catch her when she came down. It was the right way this time, and my hands didn’t leave her until I knew she was stable, her curves in my hands.
I felt that heat leave again when I let go of her, and I wasn’t sure I could blame that on the fact that it was chilly and she was just, well, a human person. That she held heat my hands missed, warmth…
I think Fawn noticed my fingers accidentally brushed her skin before I let go. Her own fingers lingered over that sliver of charged flesh that exposed beneath her hoodie.
She tugged it down. “So, they’re teaching animal calls in college?” she asked, her tone playful and even teasing. It was nice to see considering how everything had been with Wolf and everything.
I nudged a stick with my patent leather shoe. “Nah. Not really. I did some volunteer work at an animal reserve last semester. Volunteered there and a few other places. Just trying to stay busy.”
And it worked for a time, stamped down my energy. I had a lot of it.
Anxiety bloomed in my chest again, made me shift. Fawn asked me if my volunteer work had to do with my major, and I was glad. It made me focus on other things. “Undecided.”
She nodded, and I was also glad when she didn’t ask any more about it. I’d have to tell her how I deep dived into every area of focus under the sun. How I’d gone looking for something just to stay busy.
And how it ultimately hadn’t been enough.
I’d had a difficult semester, but unlike most, it hadn’t just been the casual stresses of term papers and final exams. It’d been some deep fucking shit.
Trauma shit.
Rather than focus on that now, I smiled at her. “If you want, I can help you find some animals tomorrow. Get some more pictures to help you stay loose.”
The alternative was me doing something a lot less productive. Like smoking weed and shit just to do something. I still hadn’t told my parents about what had happened last semester, and with all this shit with Wolf, I wasn’t planning to right away.
I also wanted to help her, be there for her. My brother had treated her like shit, and though I knew that wasn’t my fault, I wanted to do what I could to make up for it. Once more, I knew this wasn’t my obligation but…
I wanted to help her, and this shouldn’t surprise me. That’d been the way we’d met back at school.
“I’d like that,” she said, and for some reason, my insides did funny things. Things like dance and hop and shit. She grinned. “I’d like that a lot.”
