Mirror Me

by Stephanie Tyler

  Before she could sleep, she decided to finish up a few things. Tied up the garbage neatly, because she wouldn’t be going to put it out in the dark. She opened the door, and seconds later a giant dog hurtled through the old screen, ripping it neatly in half.

  “Are you trying to give me a heart attack?” she asked the wiggling, barking Hanny. “And did you hurt yourself?”

  She inspected the dog, saw a scrape on her nose where the screen had snagged her. “Let me fix that up.”

  “Shit.” Teige was standing in the wreckage of the door. “She never does this.”

  In response, Hanny sat quietly and looked between them.

  “The door was old.” She pushed a hand through her still-damp hair, realized she’d forgotten her glasses upstairs. And her bra. The T-shirt was thin—see-through on the best of days. She was so not company-ready.

  “Teige, honey, I’m going to make us some dinner,” the blond was calling from his back porch, and when Kayla glanced out she saw the women was dressed in nothing more than the T-shirt Teige had on in the park. He was bare chested, and he didn’t flush when she looked between him and the blond. But she did, her face hot.

  Since the blond chick was wearing Teige’s tee, that easily made her the winner.

  “Hanny can stay here,” she blurted out, because she didn’t know what else to say.

  “Doesn’t look like she’d have it any other way. I’ll pick her up later.”

  “That’s fine. I don’t sleep much.”

  “I know.”

  Chapter Seven

  Teige had come by for Hanny sometime after eleven. She noted that the red car left his driveway long before, and that he was dressed to go running, just as he’d been the other night.

  She guessed there hadn’t been any dinner with the blond, and that made her stupidly happy.

  Hanny perked up when she saw the leash and Kayla did the same upon seeing Teige and told herself to stop it. Teige looked like his mind was somewhere else—he didn’t say much except “Thanks,” before he led Hanny outside. Man and dog took off in a happy rush into the woods.

  She stayed up all night, printing out the pictures, realizing she hadn’t paid any attention when Mrs. Mueller was introducing people. They all looked nice. Regular people, going about their day.

  She was the new girl.

  By nine the next morning, she was starving. She locked the house up, left the cameras on, the portable hookup in her bag with the camera. After she ate, she might go down to the lake Marshal Daniels mentioned, to take some pictures. Inside the safety of the car, with its tinted windows, she felt foolish at how nervous she was.

  “You’re being ridiculous,” she told herself, and decided that maybe there was something to being a hermit after all. In this day and age, you could have just about everything delivered directly to you. She never had to worry about coming into contact with people.

  Isolating yourself is the worst thing you can do, Marshal Daniels would lecture her.

  “I know, I know,” she muttered as she backed out of the driveway, studiously ignoring anything to do with Teige’s house.

  Today she’d worn old, comfortable jeans, a black sweater over her tank top. Black Keds.

  “You look like a woman who needs a good night’s sleep,” she muttered to herself, flipping up the mirror without bothering to adjust anything. Nothing was going to change.

  The lot was crowded, the diner more so. She walked in and the old-fashioned bell attached to the door rang, signaling her arrival. Everyone, it seemed, turned to look at her and she gave a brief smile and headed to the closest empty table—thank God there was one—and pretended to study the menu as if her life depended on it.

  This was a huge mistake.

  “Kind of like being the new kid on the first day of school.” The tall redhead with the wide smile slid into the seat across from Kayla. She’d brought her glass of soda with her, and she looked familiar. Kayla mentally scrolled through the pictures and recalled her as part of the crowd at Mrs. Mueller’s table at the picnic.

  “Hey, I’m Penny. We met yesterday but I’m sure you were pretty overwhelmed. Heard you moved into the old Kennen place.”

  “Mrs. Mueller didn’t tell me the house had a name.” She flashed to the odd noises. “Don’t tell me Kennen died in the house?”

  Penny laughed. “Yeah. But don’t worry—Old Man Kennen was cool. A retired general. Rumor is, he still haunts around the place, keeping things in order.”

  “I might’ve heard him,” Kayla admitted and Penny’s eyes grew wide.

  “Man, I so have to sleep over and hear it for myself. We’ll do a movie night. I’ll cook and everything.”

  “Good, because I don’t.”

  This was nice. Easy. The way it was supposed to be. Eventually, Penny would ask more questions, but for now she seemed content with this.

  As she and Penny continued their easy repartee, Kayla sat back in the chair and actually felt herself relax a little. She glanced around, feeling a little less on display. This was obviously the hot spot. She recognized a few more people from the picnic in the sea of faces, but here, families were more orderly, apparent as babies sat in mother’s laps and boys sat next to their fathers, eating pancakes and eggs.

  She’d never been a big breakfast fan. She ordered a chocolate shake and a BLT instead and the waitress didn’t blink an eye.

  “My boyfriend’s in the Army—he’s a Ranger. We live together three blocks over.” Penny pointed toward a booth where Kayla saw the back of a man’s head.

  “That must be hard—all the separation.”

  Penny shrugged. “I’m an Army brat, so I guess I’m used to it. We moved constantly when I was younger—every two to three years we were stationed in a different country. I can curse in nine languages.”

  “That probably comes in handy.”

  “You have no idea.” Penny sipped her soda and pointed at the camera. “Plans for the day?”

  “I was thinking about going to the lake.”

  “It’s pretty there.” Penny sat back. “Do you take posed pictures of people?”

  “Um, sure.”

  “I could use some new headshots.”

  “For modeling?”

  Penny burst out laughing. “Thanks for the vote of confidence but no, I’m a character actor. I’ve done a few commercials—very small stuff. The pictures would be for my look book, when I go on auditions. I’d need different looks, to show I can play different roles. I’d give you full credit.”

  Even though it would be under her new, false name, Kayla’s gut twisted at the prospect.

  It must’ve shown through on her face because Penny simply said, “You let me know when you have time. No pressure. We just like to help out our locals.” Penny looked up and waved at whoever came in and Kayla made a note to never sit with her back to the door again. “Your buddy with the dog.”

  “He’s my neighbor,” she offered and Teige walked by with a slight nod in their direction. She automatically looked back to see if Hanny—or the girlfriend—was behind him, but he was alone.

  “What did Willa tell you about him?” Penny asked.

  “Not much.”

  “Oh.”

  “Well, you can’t stop now,” she said and Penny grinned and lowered her voice as she confided, “He’s been written about in some books—and portrayed in movies for his part in some famous missions. It’s one of those things people around here know, but no one asks him about.”

  “But he’s out of the military, right?”

  Penny shrugged. “Men like him don’t ever talk about their military jobs. And just because he’s out doesn’t mean he’s not doing similar work, like those private contractors in Fallujah. You know, like mercenaries.”

  “Teige is a mercenary?” That certainly fit—she’d sensed he was a dangerous man, but even though he frustrated her, she wasn’t scared of him.

  “Rumor has it.”

  “His dog likes me. Him, not so much.�
��

  “Don’t you remember elementary school? It’s always the reverse of how they act.” Penny looked like she wanted to say more but didn’t.

  The waitress put down Kayla’s food and shake with an approving nod as she left.

  “They don’t like new people who come in and order egg white omelets and other diet food. Here, they like to feed you until you drop,” Penny explained just as Teige came back their way and sat at their table without a word. The waitress brought his meal a minute later. Penny raised her brows, wrote her number on a napkin and slid it across the table. “Call me anytime about the photos.”

  After she left, Teige picked up a fry. “More pictures?”

  “Some people actually like having their picture taken,” Kayla said as casually as she could.

  “Are you one of them?”

  “No.” She paused. “Are you the welcoming committee?”

  “Do I look like the person the town would entrust that job to?” He pushed the plate of fries between them.

  “Is this a peace offering?”

  “They’re fries.”

  “Who has fries for breakfast?”

  “Anyone who runs fifteen miles a day,” he offered, and she didn’t run at all, because she was too thin anyway. He pointed to her BLT and her shake with raised brows in a pot meet kettle sort of way.

  He didn’t apologize for the incident with the camera, still wasn’t going to. A peace offering was the best she could hope for and it wasn’t bad at all. She gave a small grin and had a few fries. They went perfectly with the chocolate shake. Reminded her of some of the more pleasant memories of childhood, when her parents did everything they could to give her a normal life.

  He looked at the pile of photos she’d set down.

  “From the picnic. You can look,” she offered. None of you.

  He took them, gave her a wry smile like he’d heard that last part. His big hands dwarfed the pictures as he sifted through them. “These are good.”

  “Thanks.”

  “Do you know any of the people you took the pictures of?”

  “I know Mrs. Mueller.”

  “Taking pictures to learn names is a good trick,” he said, and although that wasn’t exactly the entire reasoning behind it, she nodded and allowed him to write out the names for her in light pencil, borrowed from the waitress, along the backs of the photos. “I’ll let Willa fill you in on the details surrounding them. I don’t want to take away her fun.”

  “Ha.” She took a drink from her shake. “She does make a good welcome wagon.”

  “I thought that was my job.”

  “I wouldn’t count on it being a permanent position.”

  He smiled when she said that, then concentrated on the new plate of fries the waitress placed down beside him.

  “Sundays he eats three or four plates while he’s reading the paper,” she told Kayla.

  “Maybe you should just bring them on a bigger plate,” he groused to the waitress who wagged a finger at him and then winked.

  When she left, Kayla told him, “I didn’t mean to invade your privacy.”

  “Then why did you?” He was referring back to the pictures she’d taken that first night, and his tone was part defiance, mixed with curiosity.

  “Because you looked beautiful. I wanted to be a part of it.”

  His expression told her he hadn’t expected her answer. She hadn’t expected to blurt that out and she fought the urge to get up, leave—or at the very least, go hide in the bathroom.

  But she didn’t. Speaking what was on her mind was something no one could take from her, not in situations like this. “Mrs. Mueller said that you were away a lot. And since Hanny seems to like me, I wouldn’t mind taking care of her when you’re gone.”

  “Good protection, right?”

  He’d seen the security cameras, no doubt about it. “Yes. Good company too.”

  “I never know exactly how long I’ll be gone. Might be a week. Maybe longer.”

  “That’s okay. I’m freelance. I’m around all the time.”

  He nodded curtly. “I’m not leaving for at least a week. When I do, I’ll give you my friend’s number, so if Hanny gets to be too much for you—”

  “She won’t.”

  He gave a small smile and ate some more fries. He was about to say something else but that tall blond strolled in and she swore Teige’s entire demeanor changed. His shoulders tensed, his expression hardened and she mirrored his mood as the woman the waitress called Diane waved to a few people in the diner.

  Of course she’d seen Teige, but she focused her gaze on Kayla, her eyes boring into her.

  “I’ve got to go, okay? Just let me know when you’re dropping Hanny off. You know where I live.” She tried to sound upbeat but failed. Teige nodded and she was all but forgotten again.

  *

  Beautiful. In his entire goddamned life no one had called him that, at least not to his face. The thing was, she meant it. And it warmed him in a way he thought he couldn’t be.

  “Teige.”

  Diane. Wrong time, wrong place, as always. “I told you last night that we’re done and I meant it.”

  She gave a small pout that might’ve worked on him once, years ago. When he’d walked back into the house last night, he’d known that her idea of dinner meant more sex. And that’s when he’d told her to leave.

  Now she said, “I’m not staying away from the diner.”

  “You don’t get it, Diane.”

  “Does your new plaything?”

  “Stay away from her,” he warned, not looking back in Kayla’s direction.

  Diane crossed her arms across her breasts, leaned over and whispered, “Or what? You’ll spank me?”

  What the hell had he ever seen in her? He blamed the jungle, got up from the table and brushed past her without another glance in her direction.

  *

  Kayla didn’t want to walk by Diane, who was still talking to someone at the door. Instead, she went toward the back and stopped at Penny’s table. Penny’s boyfriend was in green camouflage pants and a khaki colored T-shirt, his tags tucked inside.

  “I’m sorry to interrupt, but I’ll do those pictures if you want.”

  “Oh cool! John, this is Kayla—she’s the new girl,” Penny bubbled as John shook Kayla’s hand. “When can we do them?”

  “Anytime you want.”

  “I have time this afternoon—the lake background would be awesome and the weather’s perfect, don’t you think?”

  Kayla nodded. Penny seemed nice enough and Kayla wanted to help. She knew headshots were notoriously—and ridiculously—expensive, and she could give Penny some great ones at half the price.

  “What should I wear?”

  “They always tell you to stay away from black, but I can work with any color. Put your makeup on heavier than normal or you’ll look washed-out.”

  “Got it. What time?”

  She checked her watch. It was already half past ten. “How about an hour? Will that give you enough time?”

  “Plenty, yes. John needs to go save the world anyway.”

  John laughed a little and Kayla noted how easy things were between them. “I’m going to the lake now to do some test shots.”

  “Give me your phone number, just in case,” Penny said, and Kayla recited the new numbers she’d memorized.

  “I texted you so you’ll have mine. And thanks, Kayla. You’re totally saving my life.”

  Kayla just nodded, her belly tightening, and walked out. Teige was gone, but Diane was still there, staring her down. Kayla smiled, because she had a feeling she’d won this round.

  Chapter Eight

  She was at the lake for an hour before Penny came. She’d taken a few pictures but mostly she lay on the grass and stared up at the sky, enjoying the quiet. She didn’t dare close her eyes, because she knew when she woke up she’d be disoriented and she hated that.

  She heard Penny call her name and then she was next to Kayla on th
e grass. She’d brought a bag of clothes, wore a simple white collared shirt and more makeup than she had that morning.

  “You look great,” she told Penny, who blushed a little.

  “Thanks. I went to cosmetology school. I figured it would come in handy. Oh, and listen, I forgot to ask how you wanted to be paid. I’m assuming cash?”

  “Cash would be fine. And you can credit the shots in your portfolio to KC Photos, okay?”

  “Fine with me. Do you have a website?”

  “No.”

  Penny assumed there was an ex Kayla was hiding from, and whether it was a husband or boyfriend, it didn’t matter. The town had its share of secrets and Kayla seemed nice. Friendly-ish. And she was doing Penny a heck of a favor.

  Kayla picked up the camera and motioned where Penny should stand. Penny took direction well, and she also had fun with the shoot.

  “Put your chin down,” Kayla directed. “Smile smaller.”

  “You’re a real pain in the ass,” Penny teased without moving her lips.

  “Tell me something I don’t know.” Kayla’s perfectionistic tendencies were shining through full force. It was the only way she knew how to do this.

  Penny wasn’t conventionally beautiful, but she had an interesting face. The camera really liked her; the angles were perfect. She would get work from them, and in between smiles and serious poses, Penny explained that she’d be happy doing commercials and B-type movies. She wasn’t expecting much but she had a goal.

  After two hours and a couple of quick changes behind a towel, Kayla had what she needed. She showed Penny several of them on the viewfinder while she held her breath.

  “These are great—oh my God, Kayla!” Penny threw her arms around her. “You’ve made me look so good.”

  “You’re really pretty, Penny. It wasn’t hard to do.”

  Penny waved her off and then continued to stare at herself in the viewfinder. “How soon can we get these into my book and onto my website?”

  “I’ll email them to you when I get home. I’ll touch up anything that needs to be touched up, like this smudge of makeup here. I’ll crop some of the background too and then they’re all yours.”