Anthony shrugged out of his jacket, concern gripping his face already. “What’s thematter?”
You haven’t asked me out again yet, for one …“Well, I was really happy with the test pictures I took on that first day, right? The ones I took of Harper, Cam and Kate’s family, andyou.”
“Okay …” Anthony helped Kira remove her coat, then motioned for her to take a seat with him on the leather couch in the waitingarea.
She started with the problem she’d discovered with the dimension settings, and continued all the way through the note she’d found on her tenant’s door thatmorning.
“I’m sorry,” Anthony said once she’d unleashed. “That would bediscouraging.”
She nodded. “Very. And—” Kira stopped short as she recalled the text that had come in that morning. She shot a quick glance at the grandfather clock and gasped. It was already twenty after eleven. “Someone’s supposed to be here. I have to pull myself together.” She shot to a stand, patted at her pockets, and then her hair while turning to find where she’d set herbag.
“Kira?” Anthony said, voice low andcalm.
“Yeah?”
He cleared his throat, cupped a knee with his palm. “I’m the one who textedyou.”
She took that in for a minute. “Youare?”
A half-grin pulled at one side of his lips. “I could have told you it was me, but …” He shrugged. “Idohave a business proposal foryou.”
Kira felt herself relax at the knowledge. There was no strange man on his way to her studio. It was just Anthony. “Let’s hear it,” shesaid.
“I’d like you to take some pictures of the diner, inside and out. Get shots of my employees doing what they do around the place, you know? Then I’d like to frame some poster-sized pictures and replace the art hanging on the walls. I think it’d look nice, and it’ll get folks interested in what’s new at thestudio.”
Kira resisted the urge to reach out and hug him again. “Thank you,” she breathed. “I’d love to dothat.”
He grinned. “Good. So how much would you like to chargeme?”
“Whatever you want to pay. I’m just happy to have my firstjob.”
His smile wavered. “That’s fine to do with me, since you know I won’t take advantage of you, but if someone else comes and asks for a similar service, are you prepared to tell them how much you’llcharge?”
Kira shifted her gaze, stared blankly outside her window. “This is probably one of the reasons I should’ve stuck around and let my Papa mentor me.” She sank back into the waiting room couch, feeling like someone had just popped her balloon. “I can’t believe he still left me thestudio.”
“Do you mind if I ask what …” Anthony started to say, but then he left offthere.
Kira gulped, realizing just what he was asking. Or what he’dstartedto ask. “It was a dumb boyfriend. I moved out here. Planned to stay in the duplex with Gramps until I found a place of my own. He was going to mentor me. Show me everything he knew about photography, digital adjustments and enhancements, and running the studio. And it was perfect, because taking pictures was the one thing I never grew bored of. I floated around a lot. Tried ice-skating, volleyball, piano, and flute. And that’s just the hobbies. By the time I was eighteen, I had worked six different jobs. Cashier, nursery attendant, waitress, hostess,cook…”
She paused there, waited for his expression to morph into the one her parents always pulled. Or Marissa and her great-aunts. Brows stern, lips puckered in disapproval. That errant headshake teeming with disgust. But it wasn’t there. Not even a hint of it. Of course, Monty never judged her either, but that’s because he was the same way. Anthony, on the other hand, seemed closer to theopposite.
“But even through all of that, photography was my favorite hobby. My passion versus my job, I guess you’d say. Anyway,” she said, “I dated this guy Monty who changed his name to Python …” She caught a wry grin at the corner of Anthony’s lip, but she couldn’t mind since she was fighting back the same grin. It washumorous.
“He wanted to take pictures too, right? And before we broke up, I bought him a really nice camera and spent months showing him how to use it. He had connections to a famous designer named Finny Shea. Not sure if you’ve heard of her, but she ownsPunklineFashion and, of course,Finny SheaMagazine.”
Anthony gave her a nod that said he hadn’t heard of her but he was still following along. Still, no puckeredyou’re such a messface.
She pulled in another breath. “He introduced me to Finny once. And she said she was interested in seeing some of my work. If she liked it, she’d fly us to Milan and see what we could do at her next runwayshow.
“Python and I ended up breaking things off soon after that, which freed me up in time to accept Gramps’s offer to come out here … But then four months later, I got a call from Python asking me to come with him to Milan. We had scored thejob.”
Anthony lifted a brow. “So you shot a runway show in Milan? Soundsprestigious.”
“That’s just it,” Kira said. “I was happy here with Gramps. And I didn’t evenlikemy ex-boyfriend anymore. But I leftanyway.”
Anthony gave her a nod. He held his expression together, but the lighthearted air was gone. Kira was scaring him, she couldtell.
“I pickedproving myselfover happiness. I couldn’t resist the chance to say that I’d shot on a runway in Milan. Like you said—it’simpressive.”
