Page 40 of Sutton's Shadow

“I didn’t mean to interrupt your work.” He noticed her wince as she glanced at the laptop.

“You didn’t. Would you like something to drink?”

“Got any coffee?”

“Sure, just give me a few minutes to make it.”

She left for the kitchen, and he moved to get more comfortable, adjusting his still hard dick.

“Oh, before I forget, I found these for you, Wyatt,” Sutton said, bringing him out of his reverie. After handing him a mug, she touched the track pad on her computer. On the screen were dozens of thumbnail pictures of the young Afghan girls.

“Is this from that day at the girls’ school?” Smiling, she nodded as she sat down beside him. He picked the laptop up and placed it on his knees as he sat back on the couch. After clicking on the first image, he scrolled through them, more amazed than ever at Sutton’s skill.

“They all look so happy,” Sutton remarked. Wyatt would have to agree with that sentiment. They did all look happy in that moment. Even knowing their young lives had not been easy, Sutton had brought them a bit of joy in an otherwise dark world. She had found each girl’s light and captured it in the images. It was a remarkable talent.

“It’s amazing that most had never had their picture taken before that day. They’d clamored to see themselves on the viewscreen on my camera,” Sutton said. “After I got back to the states, I emailed all the pictures to the headmistress.”

Wyatt reached the picture of Ameera and felt a tightness in his throat. The shy girl he’d worried would never find joy looked amazing. Sutton had captured the light falling across her face, making her dark skin glow with a radiance that took his breath away.

“Ameera,” he whispered. “She’s beautiful.”

“She was so reluctant to have her picture taken, but I’m glad she finally relented.”

“The end result is amazing,” he extolled.

He continued to flip through the images, going stock-still when he reached the last one. He and Liam were sitting on the low wall together. Liam was staring across the playfield, directly into the camera. He remembered the moment. Liam had just made a comment that had stunned him. She’d captured the moment he’d glanced at his friend to find him completely smitten with the woman behind the camera.

Sutton placed a hand on his arm, having noticed his stillness. “Are you okay?”

“Yeah.” He nodded, still unable to take his eyes away from his fallen friend. “This was the moment,” he murmured.

“What moment?”

“The moment I knew I had no chance.”

In his periphery, he could see her head tilt in curiosity. “No chance at what?”

“No chance of ever finding what he had,” he answered, lifting his gaze to hers.

A little furrow creased her brow, and her cornflower blue eyes fixed on him. “What did he find?” she asked breathlessly.

“The one.”

Her gaze dropped to the picture, a slight hitch in her breathing reaching his ears. “I don’t understand.”

“Do you know what he’d just told me when this picture was taken?” She shook her head, her hand covering her mouth while she stared at the image of her fiancé. “He’d just told me he was gonna marry you someday.”

“What?” she gasped, her hand clenching over her mouth as if to hold in a sob.

“As we watched you take the pictures of the girls, he couldn’t take his eyes off you.” Neither could Wyatt, but he’d had to with his friend’s next words. “He said, ‘Tin Man, that’s her. That’s the girl I’m gonna make my wife someday.’”

“Oh God.”

“I’d never heard him talk like that before. He’d never struck me as the type of man to settle down. But that day, I saw it in his eyes. That was the moment I knew I would never have a chance with you.”

Sutton gasped, her gaze shooting to his. “Wyatt.” His name from her lips, uttered with such care, made his heart thump wildly.

“He was my best friend,” he continued. “Seeing that look, I knew I had to step back. He deserved to be happy. And no matter how I felt about you, I knew I wouldn’t get in the way of his happiness.”

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