Page 19 of Yo Ho Ho
"Oh, hi," she said. "Logan, this is Richard, our photographer."
Richard smiled and held his hand out. "Hey, I was just showing Max some of the shots I got from earlier."
Logan shook his hand firmly. "Hope you got some good ones."
"Definitely." The photographer turned back to Max, who was holding his camera, paging through some photos on the viewer. "That dragon thing you did with the kids was really cute."
Logan flinched a bit.Cute?He was a manly hockey player. He wasn't cute.
"Don't do that look," Max told him.
"What look?"
She scrunched up her face. "'I'm a manly hockey player. I'm not cute.'" She let her face relax into that natural smile of hers. "You know, that look."
Richard gave him a sheepish look. "Sorry, I usually shoot parades and carnivals on Saturday mornings, not sports."
"So you don't get to work with Max that often?" Logan asked.
"Not often."
Logan put his hand on the man's shoulder. "Consider yourself lucky."
Richard laughed while Max gave him a teasing scowl. He deserved it, but he would also be a liar if he said he didn't enjoy it. He actually enjoyed it very much. There was something about a woman being able to go toe-to-toe with him that he found appealing. Most women just agreed with whatever he said or went along with whatever he wanted to do. Max wasn't most women.
She pulled her eyes away from Logan and handed the camera back to her photographer. "Do you want to take a few more or do you think we're all set?"
Richard shook his head. "Nope, I think I've got it," he said. "Or do you need more?"
Logan bristled at the idea and shook his head. He didn't like all this attention in the first place at a charity event. Richard should have enough to work with already.
But Max apparently had other ideas. "Could you take something from the other side of the ice of Logan on the bleachers?"
The photographer nodded. "Yeah, that's a good idea. Maybe just one or two to help fill out the page."
"Exactly."
"I don't know. Do you really—"
Max gently reached out and put her hand on Logan's arm, stopping him in the middle of his thought. It even surprised him that such a soft touch could be so effective on him.
"Just a photo or two, Logan," she said sweetly. "You won't even know he's over there snapping away."
Logan looked at her and then down at her hand on his arm. She must have realized what she had done and quickly pulled away from him. But it was enough.
"Yeah." He shook his head, trying to clear the fog in his brain before turning to Richard. "Yeah, maybe Max is right. A photo or two isn't a big production, is it?"
"Nope. I'll just take a few from there and head back to the newsroom," the photographer said. "I'll see you back in the office?"
Max smiled. "Yep, I'll be there in an hour or so."
Logan watched as Richard walked away, waiting until he was out of earshot. Then he took a seat across from Max on the bleachers as she pulled out her digital recorder and set it down between them.
"So be honest. How attractive were those photos of me?"
She looked up from her recorder and smiled at him. "They weren't bad."
"Admit it, they were great."
