Page 20 of Two Steps Ahead

She grimaced at his words, sure she was busted for taking his picture.

“It’s not?”

“That’s not your normal camera, right?”

Thank goodness, he wasn’t calling her out on being a pervy perv, shooting him without his shirt on.

“Yeah.” Her voice came out as a squeak so she started again. “Yeah, this is my film camera rather than digital. Despite my squeamishness in the dark last night, I really enjoy developing film in an old-fashioned darkroom. It’s therapeutic.”

“A darkroom isn’t totally in the dark, right?”

“Only for a few seconds when you’re first taking the film out of the cassette and putting it in the tank. But I know that darkness is coming and I control everything about it, so it doesn’t frighten me. The rest is done with a red light that doesn’t harm the film.”

“Sounds unique.”

She smiled. “I enjoy working with the prints. It’s almost a lost art. Shooting with a film camera is different than digital too. It requires me to be more precise and deliberate in my choices.”

He stretched his long legs out in front of him and took a bite of his sandwich. “Did you study photography formally or were you self-taught?”

She shrugged. “Both, I guess. I did major in photography in college. I minored in horticulture. A blend of both my loves.”

“I minored in horticulture also. Majored in sociology.”

“You went to college?” As soon as the words came out of her mouth, she wanted to take them back. How obnoxious of her. “I just mean in your line of work, I didn’t think a college degree was necessary.”

He didn’t seem to be offended, thank goodness. “I guess it depends on what aspect of my line of work you’re referring to.”

She agreed. “Right. You have your own business, so college makes sense. But sociology? That’s an unusual choice.” She didn’t want to stick her foot in her mouth further by including the rest of the sentence...for a landscaper.

He looked out at the lake and then back to her. “I wanted to understand the system and figure out how to help kids who were trapped in it like I was. I’m not sure what form that will eventually take, I just know it will happen. I was a cop for two years, but figured out quickly that wasn’t what I wanted to do full-time, so I went into business with my brothers. It keeps me pretty busy.”

She had so many questions. His brothers were in the landscaping business too? He’d been a police officer?

But mostly,“Brothers?”

He grinned. That dimple was back and it was all she could do not to grab her camera and take a close-up of his face.

“I was bounced around the foster care system from the time you knew me with Henry until I was adopted by the Pattersons when I was thirteen. They adopted three other boys around the same age.”

“Wow. Here I was thinking you were an only child like me. I guess if you guys went into business together, you’re pretty close.”

He pulled his phone out of his pocket and stepped over to her to show her a picture.

“This is Luke.” He pointed to a white man. “He’s the oldest by a few months. And this is Brax.” That man was biracial. “He’s married now and has a son.”

He pointed to the Hispanic man with his arm around Weston in the photo. “And this is Chance. He’s probably most similar to me—a little more quiet than Luke or Brax.”

All four of them were completely different in skin tone and looks, but each so handsome. And obviously very comfortable with each other.Brothers.

She grinned at him. “Wow. You guys are like quadruplets. How do people tell the Patterson brothers apart?”

Weston belly laughed as he sat back down—the deep boom of it echoing across the water. It was possibly the most wonderful sound she’d ever heard.

She grabbed her camera, taking multiple shots, uncaring about whether it wasted film. She didn’t stop even when his laughter died out. He was studying her, eyes serious, completely unselfconscious about the lens pointed at him.

He wasn’t looking at the camera at all. He was looking at her using the camera. She finally set it down.

“I like to watch you work,” he said.

---