Page 111 of A Moment In Time

Gage laughed. “You’re enjoying this, aren’t you?”

“Immensely.”

He sat on the steps. “One more.”

“Look out at the trees.”

“Pensively?”

“Yes.”

Gage looked beyond her at the trees, and she took several shots. “Hey, that’s not one.” He stood and went to her again. “Give me my damn camera back.”

She handed him the camera. “We should use the rest of the film, right?”

“Yes. On you.”

“Me?”

“A much better subject.”

“But I’m not headlining the front page on Tuesday.”

“Just move around and pretend I’m not here.”

“Hmm.”

“Relax. This is payback. There are only nine more shots.”

“Only nine?”

“Cooperate.”

“Yes, boss.”

They finished the roll of film, even though Sydney didn’t fully cooperate. Then they sat on the front porch. When two deer wandered by, she got excited and Gage shushed her.

“You’ll scare them away.”

They watched the deer browse on the grass coming up where the snow had recently been. Spring had finally decided to arrive.

When the deer moved on, Sydney looked at Gage. “It’s so pretty out here.”

“Yeah. I love it.”

“Even though you get snowed in once in a while?”

“I never get truly snowed in. I can always walk to Cooper’s.”

“That’s true.”

“I lose power quite frequently and cell service is intermittent. But that doesn’t bother me.”

“And no Wi-Fi?”

“That doesn’t bother me either.” He leaned forward in his chair. “Let’s go into town and developed the pictures we just took.”

“Are you sure you don’t want to stay out here and relax today?”

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