Page 5 of Second Chance with the Half-Elf
“Bundle the cables tighter, or we’re losing lights to the first wind gust.”
“Stack the extra sandbags behind the main tent.”
Efficiency. Precision. It’s how I hold my ground.
I’m halfway through checking the lighting rig when a familiar voice cuts through the clamor.
“—I don’t care if it’s last minute, you’re the best eye we’ve got. Besides, you need the distraction.”
Rowan.
I glance toward the central walkway and there they are—Rowan, boots planted like a damn general, and Evie standing beside her in worn jeans and a weather-beaten leather jacket.
Camera slung over one shoulder, eyes scanning the chaos like it’s a foreign country.
I catch her gaze for one breathless moment. She looks away first.
Smart.
I turn back to the rig, jaw tight.
“Thalen,” Rowan calls, striding over like she hasn’t just kicked a hornet’s nest. “We’re setting Evie up with coverage for the opening and vendor portraits. Clear?”
I meet her gaze. “Clear.”
Evie lingers a few paces behind, fingers adjusting the camera strap like it might choke her.
“You’ll have final run of the boardwalk,” I tell her coolly. “Stick to the perimeter this afternoon—the center rigging isn’t secure yet.”
“Understood,” she says, voice level.
Another flash of those gold-green eyes. Another slash across my carefully built walls.
Rowan smirks between us. “Play nice, boys and girls.”
She strolls off to wrangle another crew.
I face Evie fully then, tension humming beneath my skin.
“You didn’t have to do this,” I say low.
She lifts her chin. “Maybe I wanted to.”
The corner of my mouth twitches. “Since when?”
“Since I needed something to point a lens at that wasn’t a box of my mother’s regrets.”
Blunt. That’s the Evie I remember.
I nod once. “Stay out of the rigging zones. And watch the east stairs—they’re warped.”
“Copy that, Harbor Master,” she says, with a bite of sarcasm that shouldn’t make my blood heat the way it does.
I watch her move off through the crowd, camera raised like a shield.
Damn her.
Distance, Thalen. You promised yourself.
