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“Can we leave on Friday?” she asked Ben that Wednesday evening, after returning from yet another day of solitary sightseeing. “You said we could go home after a week.”
He was sitting at the desk, laptop open, as he did what she assumed he’d been doing every day. Work. She’d never bothered to ask and suddenly she found herself curious.
“Have you been working every day?” She sank down on the bed, folding her legs under her butt as she watched him. He swiveled his chair around to face her.
“Why the sudden interest in how I’m spending my days?” His voice was laced with sarcasm and she immediately regretted her question
“Never mind.”
He sighed and rubbed the back of his neck, then rolled his shoulders—exhaustion evident in his every movement. “No, I haven’t been working every day. I’ve explored the island a fair bit myself. I’ve seen you around, taking pictures.”
“You have?” That was an unexpected revelation. “I haven’t seen you.”
His lips tilted at the corners. “That doesn’t surprise me. I never appreciated the amount of focus—no pun intended—you put into your photography. Once you’ve honed in on a subject, you’re fixated. I watched you sitting cross legged in front of some shrubbery for nearly forty-five minutes a couple of days ago. You barely moved.”
Lilah’s lips spread into a delighted grin as she recalled the moment he had to be referring to.
“I spotted this adorable little oriental garden lizard. He was shy and reluctant to come out with me sat right there. So I stayed very, very still, hoping he’d realize I wasn’t a threat and venture out.”
“And did he?”
Her smiled widened and she nodded. “Oh yes. At first just his head, he was super cautious, but I could see him eyeballing me. He was absolutely beautiful. Bright orange, with this awesome little spiny crest at the back of his neck. I would have been happy with just those shots of his head as he side-eyed me. But he decided I was no threat and came out onto a little rock to sun himself completely. I got some amazing shots of him.”
“I’d like to see them sometime.” Ben’s voice was quiet and startled her back to the present, where she realized she’d been yammering on about that lizard like an idiot. He was staring at her with a peculiar expression on his face, one she found herself unable to read. His eyes were narrowed, but there was a soft smile playing about the corners of his lips.
“See what?” she repeated blankly, and his lips stretched into a smile of genuine warmth.
“Your pictures. Of the lizard.”
“Oh.” A thought struck her and she tilted her head to regard him quizzically. “How do you know I sat there for nearly forty-five minutes?”
“Because while you sat watching a lizard for forty-five minutes, I sat watching my wife for the same length of time. You were luckier though… at least the lizard noticed you were there.”
Well, hell. What was she supposed to make of that?
“At first, I thought it was deliberate. I thought that you were trying to prove a point, you didn’t want to be here with me, you didn’t want to spend time with me. But after that I soon recognized that for someone who’s generally quite observant and clued in to the people around her, you just never saw me.”
She wasn’t sure how to respond to that. She always noticed Ben. If she hadn’t seen him, it was because he didn’t want to be seen.
“Were you following me?”
He laughed, a short, sharp sound. “Hardly. Like I said before, it’s a small island.”
“So no lurking in the bushes, watching me like a creeper then?”
“What the hell kind of question is that?”
“I would have seen you otherwise,” she said with a shrug.
“I wasn’t lurking, but I was keeping a low profile. Because I didn’t want you to think I was lurking in the bushes watching you like some creeper.” His smile invited her to join in on the joke, but she didn’t crack a smile, instead watching him intently.
“Were you spying on me in the hopes that I’d do something stupid or childish that you could lord over me forever after?”
“No. But I tell you what, that has to go down as the most stupid and childish thing you’ve ever asked me… and there have been some doozies in the past.”
She glared at him, hating that he was right about the question.
“And yet, it’s a valid query.”
“No, Lilah, I wasn’t spying on you. I just happened to spot you on the odd occasion. And I kept a low profile because I didn’t want you to think I was intruding on your privacy.”
She gnawed her lip pensively before nodding, deciding not the argue the point any longer.
“So back to my earlier question, can we leave on Friday?”
He sighed and nodded.
