“Um. I was just?—”
“That’s my camera.”
“Oh.” My voice sounded small. “Is it?”
“Well, it sure as hell isn’t yours.”
“I’m sorry.” I shook my head. “I used to dabble in photography, but it’s been a long time. Curiosity got the best of me.”
Cooper’s grey eyes roamed my face, making calculations—of what, I couldn’t be sure.
“It’s a really nice camera, Cooper. I had no idea you took pictures.”
His shoulders dropped an inch as his eyes cut away. “Yeah, well, it should’ve stayed that way.”
“You don’t want people to know?”
“No.”
“Why? The one picture I got to see wasgood.”
His eyes jumped to my face again, the scrutiny waning a little. “You said you used to do photography?”
I gave a nervous laugh, waving a hand. “Hardly. I just bought myself a semi-nice-ish camera and took pictures of my newborn for a photo album because I was bored. But I know a little bit about it.”
One side of his lips quirked with a fleeting smile. “That’s cool.”
“Where did you learn?”
“YouTube.”
My voice lifted in surprise. “Really?”
“You can learn anything on YouTube.”
“Interesting.” I hesitated a moment, unsure if I should make my exit or keep pressing. Overall, my initial impression of Cooper had beentroublemaker. But, I couldn’t deny that something drew me to him. He felt like a puzzle—a mystery to solve. His expression always teetered between boyish and hopeful to stormy and hardened. Even now, the way he looked at me, I couldn’t figure out if he viewed me as predator or prey.
I decided to push. “Can I see more?”
His grey eyes widened. “Of my pictures?”
“Yeah.” I lifted a shoulder, trying to appear nonchalant even though my heart thrummed in my chest.
“Uh, sure.” He stepped around me and went to the bed, his scuffed hands scooping up the camera. He powered it on, hit the playback then handed it to me. Something in my spirit told me he’d just handed me a huge piece of his world, and I determined to be careful with it.
I gently held the camera, hitting the back arrow to the second picture. It was a robin with a bug squished in its peak. An audible gasp lifted from my lips at the details—the bug’s wings and legs askew, the bird’s feathers ruffled, like they’d just had a tussle. “Cooper.” His name was breathless on my lips. “This is amazing.”
I flipped to the third—a bird with a long beak and red head. Probably a woodpecker.
The next several pictures were of a nest wedged in a rock crevice. Tiny bird heads had their mouth opens as a mother and father bird fed them. The pictures alternated. Mother feeding. Father feeding. The detail was incredible. I wondered how long Cooper would’ve had to watch to capture all of them.
“What kind of birds are these?”
Cooper leaned closer to look at the screen. “Uh, those are European Starlings.”
I flipped for a few more minutes while Cooper quietly waited. I felt his eyes on me but didn’t meet his gaze. “Do you only take pictures of birds?”
“Yep.”
