Page 20 of Slow Burn Summer

“That’s good,” Tori said, peering through a viewing rectangle of her own fingers. Kate studied the intricate mandala tattoo covering the back of one of Tori’s hands and found herself wondering if body ink was something she might consider. Maybe she would, now that she didn’t have anyone else’s opinion to take into account.

Tori fired off a volley of shots and then paused. “Show the camera a little love, Kate,” she said. “Smolder.”

Kate instantly frowned, making Tori shake her head. “Okay, so who do you love? Think of them.”

“My daughter?” Kate said, uncertain.

Tori all but growled. “Your husband, your lover, your fantasy. Someone who makes your heart race.”

Kate’s gaze auto-flickered to Charlie and then back to the camera, flustered.

“Better,” Tori said, camera flashing. “Much better. Whoever you’re thinking of, it’s working.”

Rolling the stiffness from her tense shoulders, Kate sat on the low wall beside Tori when she was finally done. Charlie perched on the photographer’s other side as they took a first glance through the shots. The earliest ones of the shoot were definitely no use.

“You look as if you’re in the dentist’s waiting room,” Tori sighed. “Shoulders around your ears, too tense.”

Kate was grateful when she skipped right through the poses with the headstone in shot, no doubt realizing she’d made the wrong call.

“These final ones, though…whoever you’re thinking about is a lucky guy.”

Tori glanced at Charlie. Kate did the same and found him studying the camera screen over the top of his sunnies. Much as she didn’t enjoy having her photo taken, the last handful of shots were undeniably excellent. The late-evening sun had picked up the green in her eyes, and her expression had shifted from uncomfortable to confident, a boldness that wasn’t generally there.

“Definitely less teenage,” Charlie said, clearing his throat. “Job done.”

Tori packed her equipment away with the speed of someone who could do it in their sleep, loading it all into a huge carpetbag with a blown kiss and a promise to send the images over in the next couple of days.

—

“So that was up thereamong the worst hours of my life,” Kate said when they were alone.

“You hid it well,” he said, side-eyeing her behind his aviators.

“I’m just amazed she got anything decent.”

He looked away. “Draped over a headstone is definitely an under-used angle for a romance writer.”

“Hilarious.” Kate pushed her hands under her thighs on the low wall and looked up at the blue sky, stark against the soaring granite-gray walls of the church, the birdsong louder than the low hum of the city. “This place is something else.”

He nodded, his eyes on the church tower. “Bombed in the Blitz, lost its roof.”

“It’s like a film set, a jungle oasis or something.”

“Is that who you thought about for the photo? Tarzan?”

She laughed, despite herself. “You got me.”

He reached down into his slim black-leather backpack. “You might want to close your eyes for this.”

“Oh,” she breathed. She’d forgotten he’d said he had something for her. Nervous awareness rendered her vulnerable when she closed her eyes, chewing the inside of her lip.

“Hold your hands out.”

He drew the moment out just long enough to make her consider peeping through her lashes, then placed the unmistakable solidity of a hardback book in her upturned hands.

Her eyes flew open and her heart quickened as her fingers curled around its gilt edges, a sigh of pure pleasure as she took in the full glory of the book for the first time.

“Oh my God, will you look at that,” she said, tracing her finger over the golden slopes and loops of her name. She didn’t even care that it wasn’t Dalloway anymore. “Isn’t it the most beautiful thing you’ve ever seen in your life?”

---