For a split second, he thought she looked wounded, but it was just the situation she was in. Her emotions were all tangled up, as any normal person’s would be.
Sure, she’d had dinner with him, but that didn’t mean she wanted anything beyond a good meal and decent company. He sure didn’t want anything beyond that. All it would take is a few days of dealing with his schedule before Elise came to the same conclusion. He just had to keep his head on straight and remember she just needed a friend.
Chapter 13
With her work planner handy, along with her phone on the counter with the speakerphone on, Elise waited for her client to answer the phone as she fried bacon. Bryan would be home soon, and she wanted to do something for him for a change. It had been a little more than a week since he’d offered to let her stay, and this was her way of saying thanks.
Normally, she wouldn’t call clients so early in the morning, but Marissa worked at a sleep-study center, so she had hours much like Bryan. The last time they’d had a chance to speak, Elise hadn’t been nearly as awake during the call.
“Hello.” A voice on the other end filtered through the phone.
“Hi, Marissa. This is Elise Richards. I’m calling to confirm our appointment for this afternoon.”
After a quiet little choking noise, Marissa gasped. “Oh. This is awkward.”
Elise squeezed her eyes shut. “Is anything wrong?” She took a quick peek to make sure she hadn’t looked at the wrong date. Nope, right date. This was supposed to be a normal, run-of-the-mill family session. The sort of thing she’d been doing for years. She’d never received a reaction like this before, though.
“I knew I should have called you, but my husband was the one who took the call from Andy’s office,” Marissa said.
What did that have to do with Elise? “I’m sorry, I don’t know what that means. Andy who?”
Marissa responded with a nervous laugh. “Andy Adams. You know, that photographer on the other side of town? My husband knows him, and Andy called him yesterday to say you had an accident and wouldn’t be able to do our shoot. I guess they talked about it before. I don’t know. So we rescheduled with him for tomorrow instead. Like I said, I wouldn’t have made that arrangement without calling you first, but I did think my husband at least called you after the fact. I guess we got our wires crossed.”
What in the world was going on? Since when did other photographers call up and poach her clients? How in the world did Andy whoever-he-was find out about the fire? Elise put on her professional hat and replied, “Yeah, it’s okay. Those things happen. I’m fine and working, so I’m not sure where this Adam got his information. But I hope you call me next time you need photographs taken.”
For the first time, she started to wonder whether she’d made an enemy without knowing about it. When the police had asked her, she’d been absolutely sure of herself when she told them she had no enemies. Before the fire, she would have been confident she knew, but this was making her question herself.
After a few moments of more apologies from Marissa, Elise ended the call, still not really understanding why or how she’d lost a booking. It didn’t make sense, but then again, another one of her dad’s philosophies had guided her.
Always keep your eyes on your own paper. It had served him well in business and in life. Don’t worry too much about what the other guy is doing. Worry about what you’re doing. She had to live with herself, not the other guy.
How could she have rubbed anyone the wrong way while doing that? It wasn’t like she’d trolled the competition and went around actively stealing clients. The way some people clearly did.
She was so absorbed in her thoughts and keeping the bacon from burning that she didn’t even hear Bryan’s pickup stop next to the house. Smokey went to greet him, circling like mad at Bryan’s feet when he entered.
“Hey, boy!” Bryan beamed, dropping to one knee. He lifted his gaze to Elise’s. “Hey, what’re you doing up?”
Moving to the side, she tipped the frying pan to show what she was doing. “I thought you’d want something to eat before going to bed.”
Straightening, Bryan walked to her and smiled. “Uh, thanks. You didn’t have to do that.”
She knew that, but he’d called several times to make sure she was okay. It was sweet, and she’d appreciated not feeling so alone anymore. “I know, but the last time you came off a shift, you grabbed a small bowl of cereal and said if you weren’t so tired, you’d cook a real breakfast. You’ve been so—”
Before she could get the rest of the sentence out, he wrapped his arms around her and hugged. “Thank you. I think this is the nicest thing anyone has ever done for me.”
Hugging him around the chest, she smiled. When she’d decided to cook breakfast, she figured she’d get a thank you, but the hug attached to it made her pulse jump.
“You’re welcome.” She leaned back. “Want to tell me about your day?” She’d tell him about Andy later.
“Nothing much happened. A few fires, but all easy ones.” He smiled, and her gaze dipped to his lips. More than once, she’d caught herself daydreaming about kissing him.
“How about you? It was suggested that maybe I called too much.” His voice grew softer with the last few words.
“I didn’t think so. I’m perfectly capable of telling someone if they’re bugging me. You’ll never fit in that category.” She chuckled.
When he didn’t respond, she cupped his cheek. “Are you okay?”
Nodding, he held her gaze as the tension built to the point that she could feel it in her chest. Before she could stop herself, she lifted on her toes and circled her arms around his neck. She could picture this exact scene playing over and over for years. Holding onto each other when it seemed the world was too much to handle alone.
Just when she thought he’d bring his lips down to hers, the pop of bacon pierced the bubble she’d been lost in, and he pulled back.
She chuckled. “Uh, I guess it would be good if the bacon didn’t burn.”
“Probably.” Bryan touched his lips to her forehead, and her skin tingled. It was sweet and comforting, which seemed to sum his character up as a whole in her mind. “How about you tell me about your day while we eat breakfast?”
“Okay.” Elise was more than a little disappointed that he’d agreed with her. At the moment, she wanted his kisses more than she’d wanted anything, but with the way his stomach grumbled, it was time to eat. He was probably only trying to comfort her with his embrace, and she’d almost taken it to another level.
He slowly loosened his hold on her, and they worked on scrambling some eggs and setting the table.
It was nice. Depending on someone and being depended on. It didn’t feel suffocating or like weakness to need someone else. More like satisfying. The way he’d lit up and hugged for something as simple as breakfast.
Once everything was ready, they sat at the table, quietly eating. About halfway through the meal, Bryan came up for air and took a swig of orange juice. “This is delicious. Thank you again.”
“You cooked the eggs. All I managed to do was get a few slices of bacon done.”
He gave her a crooked smile. “Yeah, but I think this is a case of the thought counting.” He stabbed some eggs with his fork, took another bite, and swallowed. “So, your day?”
Her poached client roared back to mind. “Nothing much. Just checking out the jerk who stole the client I was supposed to work with tomorrow.”
Setting his fork down, Bryan’s eyebrows knitted together. “Who?”
“Andy Adams. He’s a photographer that lives on the other side of town.”
“And he stole a client?”
Nodding, she gave a quick version of her call with Marissa. “Somehow, this man knew about the fire and called to cancel the session. I guess I buy the idea of him being friends with the husband and, I don’t know, the husband complaining that he had to give up his day off to have pictures taken. But to put it all together like that? He’d have to know
about the fire first, and it’s not like my name was blasted all over the news.”
“For him to have thought to call his friend and reschedule, he must’ve had time to think about this in advance.” Crossing his arms over his chest, Bryan sat back. “I think we need to pay him a visit tomorrow.”
Elise shook her head. “No, you don’t need to do that.”
He dropped his arms and picked up his fork again, taking bites in between talking. “Why not? If he’s got a problem with you that’s big enough to make him break into your house and turn on the gas, I don’t want you going over there alone.”
“I never said I was going anywhere. You’re the one who said that.”
He chuckled. “Tell me you weren’t already thinking of going.”
She rolled her eyes. “Of course I was, but that’s not the point.”
Taking the last bite of his food, he washed it down by polishing off his juice. “I’ll clean up the kitchen, catch a few winks, and then we’ll head over there.” He stood, picking up his plate as he did.
Jumping to her feet, she palmed his chest. “I’ll clean up the kitchen. You go get some sleep. If you happen to wake up later, we’ll go see him. Okay?”
“But you cooked.”
“And you worked. I’ve got it.” She sauntered away from the table, glancing at him over her shoulder. “Get some sleep.”
His grip on the plate loosened as he held her gaze a moment. “Okay.” He walked to the stairs and paused. “I know I said thanks, but really, this meant a lot to me.” He tapped the banister and disappeared up the stairs, leaving her heart happier than it had ever been.
Another one of his qualities she’d add to the list of things she liked about him: gratefulness for the small things. Or small to her. He appreciated her. For once, there was someone who didn’t think of her as invisible. It was a feeling that would be easy to get used to.
Smiling to herself, she cleared the table while daydreaming about his kisses. Now that she knew what it was like to be so close to kissing him, they were all that more fantastic.
Chapter 14
As Elise sat in the passenger seat of Bryan’s sleek black truck, she looked out the side window to the storefront across the street with her heart in her throat. She pulled her gaze from the store to Bryan, taking a quick glance.
Thanks to their almost-kiss, it had been awkward since he’d woken up a little more than an hour ago, which had stung a little. But she’d chalked it up to the mission they were on. Instead of giving her every reason in the world not to confront the man like most people would have done, he’d not only backed her up, but he’d driven her across town to do it.
Still, nearly kissing him had been a bad idea. She’d acted too impulsively. She sure hadn’t planned on it. He’d been standing there, eyes sparkling and a goofy smile like she’d hung the moon just by simply cooking him breakfast.
“You’re sure this is what you want to do on your day off?” she asked.
Dark sunglasses hid his eyes, but the wide grin he shot her had an edge to it. “Positive. I’m looking forward to it.”
“Now, listen.” She turned in the passenger seat, angling to position herself between him and the modest little storefront sitting at the far end of Baker Beach’s commercial district.
The businesses in this area were a bit low-rent, but Andy still had a leg up on Elise. He had his own storefront, while she worked from home when she wasn’t shooting a client.
Bryan slid the sunglasses up, resting them on top of his head. “I’m not going to jump to conclusions, and I won’t breathe a word unless you ask me to. I’m only here to have your back. I promise.”
Elise was near giddy with the thought that he felt protective of her.
“Thank you for coming with me.” She wrapped the hem of her shirt around her finger as she cast her gaze to the seat. “Really. I’ve felt alone…I mean, forget it.” Why was she even saying anything? Sure, they’d grown closer…almost kissed, but that didn’t mean he wanted her dumping all her emotional baggage on him.
“Hey.” He touched her shoulder, letting his hand slide down her arm. “It’s okay. I think I know how you feel. Sometimes, being on your own isn’t all that great. Sure, you do what you want, but it’s not nearly as great as having someone with you.”
As she lifted her head, their gazes locked. “Exactly.”
He set his hand on the door latch. “Let’s go find out why Mr. Adams decided he needed to steal one of your clients.”
Nodding, she let out a long sigh. “Yeah, I guess it’s now or never. I don’t expect him to come out and admit to setting up the explosion—”
“—but if he starts acting shady, we’ll know to take his name to the police.”
Up to that point, Elise had been pretty confident about confronting Andy Adams, but now? Not so much. Her knees shook as she climbed down from the truck and crossed the street, her pulse pounding. Whoever this man was, he was a liar. He’d stolen from her. She had to remind herself of these things to keep from chickening out.
Bryan’s hand came to rest on the small of her back as they reached the storefront. “You can do this. I know you can.” He winked.
Just like that, her fears were fading away. He had her back, and he was right. She could do this.
* * *
Coming home to an excited Smokey was expected, and if Bryan was honest, he’d been expecting Elise too because she’d waited for him the last few times he’d returned from a shift. What blew him away was her cooking breakfast for him. To most, it probably wasn’t a big deal, but to him, it was on par with running into a burning building.
Then she’d gone one step further and almost kissed him. At first, he’d been taken off guard, but it was quickly replaced with desire. His head and his heart had raged war, and his head had finally won. They had to be careful, or they would both be hurt. Even holding her, cooking breakfast with her, and then sitting down to eat was risky. All mundane things to other people, but not to him. But he couldn’t help his desire to get to know her better.
She’d even cleaned up the kitchen so he could get some sleep. He hadn’t told her he’d set an alarm so he wouldn’t sleep the day away. Not only did he not want to chance her confronting Andy Adams on her own, but he wanted to spend time with her.
Now, as they walked into the Andy Adams photography studio, the woman who’d been brave enough to almost kiss him was flat-out terrified. He’d already figured out she wasn’t the type of person who enjoyed conflict—far from it.
That was probably part of the reason why she avoided the photography competition. Life was simpler when a person walked their own path and ignored everyone else. She wasn’t used to calling people on their tricks and lies. She might not even have known tricks and lies were going on around her. It was either innocence or ignorance, which if he were a betting man, he’d go with innocence. One of the reasons he wasn’t about to let her meet this Andy person alone.
They both blinked hard to adjust their eyes to the sudden change, going from a sunny day to a dimly-lit front office. The walls were lined with dozens of framed pictures, some of them old enough that the images had started to yellow.
A pair of metal chairs sat in front of a simple desk. There was a large clunky monitor perched on one corner and an equally clunky keyboard. Whoever Andy Adams was, he didn’t care much for advanced technology.
A door opened, and out strode the man he knew had to be Andy. “Can I—” He stopped short as he realized who was waiting for him.
Bryan looked at Elise.
Putting her hands on her hips, she pinched her lips together and glared at him a second. She was terrified and hiding it as well as she could. “You can tell me what business you have calling and canceling my sessions with new clients.”
Andy blinked, looking from Elise to Bryan. “You the boyfriend?” he asked with a small tremor in his voice.
“No, but I can do all the things an angry boyfriend can do.” Bryan straightened to em
phasize his point.
Elise nudged him. Right. He wasn’t supposed to talk. He was the silent threat.
Licking his lips, Andy said, “Listen. I didn’t mean anything by it. I heard about your fire, and I called my friend Jim since he’d said they were doing a session with you today. I didn’t know if he heard about it or what, but I figured he should reach out to you and make sure you were still available, you know. He took a day off for the session and everything.”
“Right.” She narrowed her eyes as she nodded.
Elise didn’t believe him any more than Bryan did.
“Anyway, that’s all I did. He asked if I could do it. I figured, sure, I’ll do a friend a favor. Of course, he thinks he’s getting a discount, but that’s another story. I didn’t go into it trying to steal your job. I swear.”
He looked from Elise to Bryan, his hands held up in defense. “Really. Ask anyone. I’m not like that. I’ve been in this business for decades. I don’t steal clients.”
“How did you know about the fire?” Bryan asked. That was the question they really wanted answered.
“My daughter and son-in-law live a few doors down from there.” Andy let out a short little laugh. “Don’t tell me you’ve never seen me around. I’ve seen you a hundred times.”
Elise’s mouth fell open. “Um, no. I honestly don’t recognize you. I’m sorry.”
“You went to school with my daughter.” Andy tilted his head. “I thought for sure you knew she lived there. Well, that’s life. Sometimes we don’t see things when they’re right in front of us because we’re busy with other things.” He looked at his watch. “Which reminds me, I have a quick session in a few minutes before getting together with Jim and Marissa later.”
He then gave a little start. “Oh, gosh. Unless you want the job back. Listen, I completely understand if you do. Like I said, it was all a mix-up.”
“No.” Elise shook her head and sighed. “Go ahead. They’re expecting you now.”
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