Page 82 of Castings & Curses

I shook my head, probably not. But I wasn’t exactly in shape to go on a quest looking for her.

“I have an appointment at Dr. Booth on Thursday. Can I leave Liv with you for the morning?”

“You aren’t going to the splash pad?”

“Not on Thursday. I need to get this thing looked after.” I poked myself in the belly a few times.

“Sure, no problem,” she said.

“Good. Can you keep an eye on her this afternoon? I need to head to the station. The photos are in and Ash wants me to take a peek.”

“I thought you worked tomorrow?” she asked.

“I do.” I said.

“So you need me to look after her today, tomorrow, and Thursday?”

I could tell which way this was going. “Never mind. I’ll take Liv with me today, but I'd rather her not be there on Thursday. Will that suit you?”

Wrapping my head around the fact that even if I stayed in Belvoir County, I needed to find my own place to live. And figure out how to balance child care, work, and being a single mom. I hated to think that Liv was going to be the one to miss out when it came right down to it.

I waddled down the stairs. I waddled when I was tired and my joints hadn’t fully warmed up yet. There would come a day in this pregnancy when all I could do was waddle.

“Livy, time to get your shoes on,” I called out

“Are we going to the park?” She ran over her words in her excitement. What she really said came out more like ‘army going ta park?’

“No, baby, I need to go to the station. The guys there can show you the trucks again. That was fun, wasn’t it?”

She cheered up. She liked the attention she got from all the guys.

“Hey Ash, you’ve got some pictures for me?” I asked, stepping into his office.

With my bag over one shoulder, Liv holding my hand, and my hair in a messy bun, I had foregone all pretense of looking professional today. Ash got the ‘freelancer not planning on seeing clients’ fashion option.

“Everything is in the mess. Bigger table. Let me call the guys, they’ll entertain Liv while you help us decide the top twelve pictures.” He pressed a button, and said there was a kid to play with into the intercom. Within seconds, there was a thundering of running feet as guys rushed to the office. One of the guys swept Liv off her feet and onto his shoulders. “Wanna go see the baby chicks we have out back?”

With a giggle, Liv was happy, and I was free to focus on the work to be done. If looking over a table full of printouts of hot shirtless beefcake was work.

“Did he send over the glamour shots of the chickens too?” I asked.

“Yeah, what are those for?”

“I thought we could put smaller images of just the chickens in the blank areas down on the month page. There’s plenty of room, so we can get in quite a few.”

I stopped in front of the long table with all the prints spread out.

“Oh, wow.” The shots were impressive. As I scanned over them, I realized there was no organization to the way the pictures were displayed.

I started grouping photos by fireman, by action sequence. How else was I supposed to compare the best options?

I stopped and admired an action shot that was taken during the hay bale fire. It was beautiful and amazing. Close to the camera, completely out of focus, a chicken blurred past. Slightly more in focus behind the bird, a lick of flames. White foam arched toward the viewer, and the shirtless fireman had the best look of intense focus and competency. And his arm was so perfectly flexed with foreshortening, it looked like a comic book action shot.

Another chicken was on his shoulder, pirate style. Only this bird had his wings up and was complaining. And in the background, men and chickens. And the perfect framing for a big title block. It couldn’t have been more perfect if we planned it.

I picked it up and drew a star on the back. I held it out to Ash. “This is your cover.”

“You’ve got to be kidding me. Damn, it’s a good action shot, isn’t it? This is going to go straight to Duke’s ego.”

---