Page 109 of Safe With You

I looked at him. “You’re enjoying this entirely too much.”

“A little.”

He switched lenses and nodded toward Naomi.

“Your turn.”

Her entire demeanor changed.

“Oh.”

I folded my arms. “What happened to all that talking?”

“I’m preparing.”

“For what?”

“To be photographed.”

“You’ve had hands your entire life,” I said.

Ellis looked at me.

I smiled sweetly.

Naomi frowned. “What does that mean?”

“Nothing.”

“Inside joke,” Ellis said.

The words landed before I could prepare for them.

Inside joke.

Naomi caught it.

Of course she did.

I turned away before she could decide to become unbearable.

For the next twenty minutes, I got to enjoy watching her discover that being on the other side of Ellis’s camera was significantly harder than she’d assumed.

I leaned against the counter.

Eventually, the front door unlocked for the day, the café equipment came on, and the bookstore began its familiar shift from quiet to open. Ellis worked around us as the morning got underway, getting the rest of what he needed in pieces. He photographed Naomi behind the espresso machine, the pastry case before we sold half of what was in it, and coffee being poured for some of our first customers. He even got a few shots of the two of us behind the counter, although those took entirely too long because Naomi couldn’t stop making me laugh.

Once the first customers started coming in, Ellis moved into the background and I fell into my usual routine. At first, I noticed every click of his camera. Somewhere between helping one customer and ringing up another, I stopped paying attention altogether.

By eleven-fifteen, I was behind the register checking an online order when he walked over with his camera bag zipped and hanging from one shoulder.

“All done?”

“For today.”

“That sounds ominous.”

“You’ll survive.”