Page 316 of Safe With You

She nodded. “She didn’t know.”

Of course she didn’t.

I heard Ellis come into the room behind me.

“You took this?”

His eyes moved to the photograph.

“Yeah.”

“She didn’t know?”

A smile touched his mouth.

“Not until after.”

I looked at it again.

“She looks happy.”

“She was.”

No hesitation.

Just truth.

“What was she laughing at?”

“Me.”

I turned toward him. “You?”

“I fell.”

A laugh slipped out of me.

“You fell?”

“Almost.”

“That’s not the same thing.”

“It is when somebody gets a picture of you halfway to the ground.”

“Where’s that picture?”

“Deleted.”

“Convenient.”

“Very.”

I looked back at Elena.

Now I could almost see the moment around the photograph.

Ellis behind the camera.