Page 85 of Between the Blue
“Really?” I sit up, looking back at her. “You think so?”
“Yes,” Caroline insists, stealing my mouse from me and continuing to click back and forth through to the photos of Luke. “I mean, I’m no photographer, nor do I consider myself a creative person of any form, but even I can tell these are special. They look so…professional. I mean, you turned the guys into models.”
A smile lights up my face at Caroline’s words. I totally agree with her, but it’s so nice sometimes to get some validation. My mind instantly begins to spin once again with even more ideas for what I could do next when Caroline’s voice pulls me back to reality.
“Um…Oh my God?”
I let my eyes refocus, a rock instantly dropping into my stomach as I realize Ben’s singular photo is on the screen.
“Shit,” I mutter.
I move to click to the next photo, but Caroline picks my laptop up altogether, zooming in on the photo and into Ben’s burning gaze. “Oh my God,” she repeats.
“Yeah, that one didn’t come out as planned.”
“Really?” Caroline asks, holding the screen up in front of my face and pointing to the photo like it isn’t already burned into my memory. “Because what I’m trying to figure out is if Bennett James is planning to kill you or eat you for dinner.”
I chuckle uncomfortably. “Yeah, I can’t say he’s my biggest fan–Wait.What?”
Caroline’s eyes light up as she bends down to whisper to me, even though we’re the only two people in here. “Would you let him?”
“Let himwhat?”
“Eat you,” she mouths.
“What?” I tilt my head at her. “You mean…like…”
Caroline bounces her eyebrows.
“Oh my God. No. I–No,” I sputter. “And that’s the last thing he wants. He barely wants to speak to me.”
“Talking isn’t required for that, you know.”
“Caroline,” I hold my hands up. “No. We can barely be in the same room together.”
“You andBennett?” she questions me, dropping her shoulders.
I nod. “I don’t know why. But it’s like he’s hated me from the first moment he saw me.”
“That can’t be true.”
“It is,” I insist. “It’s like… I don’t know how to explain it.”
“Try,” she pushes me.
I let out a sigh. “It’s like…he recognized me. Or something. His whole demeanor shifted the first time I spoke to him. And it’s been that way ever since. Any time I’m around him.”
“Hmm…” Caroline hums. “Well, I have no idea what that’s about. But, regardless, you two clearly have some magic going here. At least when it comes to your photo chemistry.” She looks back at the photo once again. “It might be worth you two exploring–”
“Nope,” I declare, clicking to the next picture. I instantly relax, seeing Rhett’s photo pop up. “That’s better,” I sigh.
“Yeah, you can have this back now,” Caroline says, handing my laptop back to me with only her fingertips, as if it’s suddenly carrying an infectious disease.
“What is it with you and Rhett?” I ask her.
She snaps her head back to look at me. “There is noitwith me and Rhett Sutton. Not in this lifetime.”
“Okay then,” I quip, hiding my grin as I turn the laptop back to her. “So you don’t think he looks good in this photo?”
