“I want one, too,” Cole said, grinning.
Ren gave Sarah a look filled with pretend horror. “What have you done to my workshop? This is a night sky workshop! We don’t shootpeople!”
Sarah laughed. “How about this? I will do one portrait of everyone by the end of the week. I want to get one of Rita rising naked from the sea.”
Rita laughed, but Grisha practically snorted, which irritated Sarah; he seemed like one of those men who didn’t believe women should bother trying to be sexy once they had passed the geriatric age of thirty.
Ren gave a weary sigh. “Fine,” he said. “Breaking my heart with flash photography. This is the problem with bringing someone along to help who has actual artistic opinions.”
The most fun part of the afternoon was that Ren kept asking for her feedback about the various shots everyone had taken. He often deferred to her on questions of composition, even though his own eye was excellent. She got to talk about photography and debate with him for over an hour. She had forgotten how much she missed it.
“Given the weather coming in, let’s meet a little earlier than sunset tonight,” Ren suggested as they finished the discussion. “We’ll put off some of the classroom stuff until Wednesday when it will probably be rainy. Tonight, I think everyone should eat dinner at five, and we’ll go out to a fjord and get some sunset shots looking west. It’s going to turn cloudy by nine and rainy by midnight, so we might as well take advantage of it and use the clouds to get some nice color.”
When the groupbroke apart for dinner, Elka waved her over.
“Can I talk to you?” Elka’s voice was low and serious.
“Yes, of course.” Sarah couldn’t fathom a possible topic of conversation between them, but she nodded politely.
“Outside, maybe? I’d like it to be private.”
Sarah followed Elka out onto the hotel’s large deck with its view of the distant, sparkling bay. The trees dropped away a few feet below them, so they could see an expanse of tumbling hills and pristine forests.
“Sorry to bother you,” Elka began. “I had a question about Rene.”
Of course she did. “Yes?”
“Are you and Rene…”
Sarah shook her head. “No. We’re just friends.”
“Good, yes. Because the truth is,” Elka said, “that I think I have fallen in love with him.”
Sarah grimaced. She really didn’t want to be having this conversation.
Elka continued. “He and I…we met on one of his workshops. Two years ago. And when I meet talented, handsome men, they are usually so arrogant. But Rene is so patient and kind. I haven’t been able to get him out of my head. Please don’t tell him this.”
“I promise,” Sarah replied flatly. Ren did have that effect on people. She knew that from personal experience.
“And I think there is something between us,” Elka said. “I mean, I hope there is.”
“Honestly, Elka,” she began, “you should talk to Ren about this. Just remember that he’s at work.”
Elka frowned. “Of course. I’m not going to harass him.” She looked a little offended at the suggestion. “I just wondered if you could tell me, as a woman, whether you think he is over Freya yet.” The words felt like a kick in the gut.
“It’s not something we’ve discussed,” Sarah said truthfully.
“So you and Rene aren’t close?”
Sarah wanted to argue the point, but it seemed easier to concede it. “I suppose not about that kind of thing.”
“Okay. The way he talked, I thought you knew him well.”
Sarah shrugged. “We mostly talk about photography.”
“Okay, good,” Elka replied. “I see. I misunderstood. I was trying not to be worried about you and him, because I know you’re not his type, but I thought you were friends because you were sharing a room.”
Not his type? Was Elka being malicious? She didn’t seem to be, which made it worse.
