“I can’t believe Addison expected June to teach her flower design after doing that to her.”
“Yeah, me neither.” Rowan balled up the paper bag the pizza came in. “Ready to add some purple to the painting?”
“Yeah, let’s do this.” I smiled. “By the way, I misjudged you, Rowan Johnston. Maybe it’s because there are no smiling plants on your shirt, but you’re an okay guy.”
He shook his head, chuckling. “Thanks, I think. I hope you’ll still like me when I’m back in regular clothes.”
I laughed as I picked up my paintbrush.
15
BACK TO THE SCENE OF THE POO
The photo shoot at the nursery was a few days later—Thursday evening. The painting at the store turned out fabulous, and I was excited to photograph people wearing the Lily pieces in front of the full-size mural. Leanne and Rowan were working at the nursery until seven, so we had Shar drive Gia, Juniper, and me there after the store closed. The sun was setting so late lately that I wasn’t worried about having enough light for the pictures, but we still needed to hustle a bit to get them done in daylight.
Juniper had been pretty quiet on the way out—I still had a sinking feeling that she didn’t want to be doing this. Even though she had let me pick her outfit for the shoot, she didn’t squeal nearly as much as I expected at how amazing she looked. And she barely talked about whatever book she was reading on the way.
But Gia squealed as she got out of the car in the gravel lot at Wynter’s. “Ah! This place is adorbs! It’s exactly as I imagined. Too bad Cam’s not working today; he could have totally taken our pictures—he’s really good. Eee!” She rushed toward a display of garden gnomes painted in unusual colors. “These are the cutest. We need some shots with them. Garden gnomes are my favorite!”
I was able to corral Gia away from the garden-center stuff, with some effort, and toward the barn, where Rowan and Leanne were meeting us.
I stopped short when I saw the mural again. Yeah, I’d been looking at a photo of it while Rowan and I were painting, but seeing it again in person sent the same chill up my spine as the first time. It was even more striking because there were no bags of manure anywhere in the vicinity. And because I knew the artist behind it. See? Here was proof that appreciating the artist increased my appreciation of the art.
“Hey!” Leanne waved as we got close to the building. She and Rowan were still in their work clothes. Which of course meant jeans and ironic shirts. Leanne’s was pink with a picture of a realistic-looking rabbit wearing thick red eyeglasses, and Rowan’s was a black T-shirt with a vintage-looking drawing of succulents. It saidWHAT THE FUCKULENT?on it.
I shook my head, laughing. “Okay, that’s my favorite,” I said, indicating the shirt.
“I’ll put it into heavier rotation,” Rowan said.
“Wow, Junebug.” Leanne came close to June. “You look amazing. Ilovethat color on you. And your hair!” I’d put June in a long orange modern floral-print spaghetti strap dress with a purple shirt under it. I’d asked her to wear her hair out, so she had a lot of tight, defined curls skimming her shoulders. Gia had helped her with her makeup, and let me say, no one rocked winged liner better than Juniper. She was breathtaking.
Juniper took a step back from Leanne and looked down. “Um, thanks?”
There it was. There was definitely something going on that Juniper wasn’t telling me. Maybe Rowan was too blind to see this vibe, but it was clear as glass to me.
I needed to defuse this. Maybe I could keep them apart until they actually had to be in pictures together? “Why aren’t you dressed yet, Leanne?”
Leanne flipped her hair over her shoulder and shrugged. “I didn’t want to get the fancy new clothes dirty. I don’t think I’d look as good covered in shit as you did, Tahira.” She grinned. “I’ll go change. Be back in ten.”
While Leanne was gone, I gave Rowan a literal three-minute lesson on my SLR camera. I had no doubt he could manage it—I already knew he had an artist’s eye. And Gia and I were here to help.
“You got this?” I asked after showing him the focus and zoom.
“Yeah, no problem. Here, let’s test it.” He lifted the camera and told me to smile.
I laughed as he took the shot. It turned out pretty good. There was a big sunspot on my face, but the picture was well framed, and my expression was so happy. He definitely had an eye. I looked up at him. He was watching me intently as I checked out the photo, a tiny smile on his face. He had the warmest eyes when he wasn’t scowling. So deep. I mirrored his small smile before looking away awkwardly. We needed to get to work.
The photo shoot turned out to be a bit of a challenge. Juniper seemed incapable of looking natural when the camera was pointed at her, and she was especially stiff when Leanne was anywhere nearby. Leanne, for all her easy good looks and lightheartedness, was pretty wooden, too.
“All right,” I said, “let’s get a shot of us tight together.” I positioned us with Leanne on the end, and me, Gia, and then June next to her, all with our arms around each other. Rowan managed to get a few decent pictures. Even better were the candid ones he snapped of everyone laughing while I tried to smooth Gia’s hair and keep June’s dress from blowing out. I took the camera to get some shots of Leanne, andthen Gia alone. The light was perfect by now, the hazy evening glow matching the urban-yet-country vibe of the Lily collection.
Leanne squeezed in next to Juniper. “Can we do one of me and June together? What do you say, Junebug? Since we’re the only actual Bakewell residents in this modeling thing.”
Juniper nodded before I could object on her behalf, and she was quickly enveloped in Leanne’s arms from behind. Leanne rested her chin on Juniper’s shoulder, and June tilted her head toward Leanne and looked straight at the camera, unsmiling. I took the pictures quickly. This picture, with Leanne’s bright-auburn hair whipping around June’s face, was spectacular. As good as any top fashion spread.
“I think we’re done,” I said after putting the camera down. After a slow start, I had no doubt we had more than enough shots to fill the Lilybuds social for a while. And I was conscious of going easy on June and Leanne—they weren’t used to these shoots. I didn’t want to overwork them, especially given the tension between them.
As we walked back toward the garden center, Leanne said, “Hey, wanna all go to Hyacinth’s to hang out or something? Or for a walk at Bell’s Pond? It’s early.”
