“Seems like he’s trying to figure out how to do it all with you.”

   I had no words to say to that, so I turned and walked back toward the kitchen. “When do you think you’ll be able to start the work?”

   “Not until next week. We have to finish up a project first. But I can order the supplies we need now, that way it’ll all be ready to go.” He paused and I looked back at him, waiting for him to finish, but he looked indecisive. “Never mind,” he said, running his hand through his hair again. I watched as the brown locks slid through his fingers effortlessly. His hair looked soft and I found myself wanting to touch it. “I’ll tell all this to Devon. I probably shouldn’t even be here right now. I thought you lived here.”

   “Nope,” I said on a sigh. “But I’m here most mornings, during the week anyway.”

   “But you do work, right?”

   I laughed a little at his question. “Yeah, but I’m my own boss, so I can work whenever I want to. I’m a photographer.”

   His eyes lit up a little with recognition. “I did see a fancy camera on the counter when I was here last time.”

   “Yeah. I was taking pictures of the damage for Devon’s insurance.”

   “But that’s not what you do for a living, right? Take pictures of water damage?”

   “Not usually,” I said, laughing again. “I take all kinds of photos, but right now I make a living doing weddings and events. You know, portraits, family sessions, and stuff like that.” As I spoke, he picked up his coffee cup and leaned back against the counter, as if he were settling in to listen. “But I really enjoy landscape and nature photography, mixing in a little bit of beauty,” I said, putting my coffee down so I could use my hands, finding myself excited to talk about my job and my love of photography. “Like, finding a really beautiful landscape to take pictures and adding a really beautiful model. When I can capture a moment when the model looks like she’s a part of the landscape, man…” I sigh, smiling widely. “There’s nothing better than that.”

   “Why don’t you do that instead of weddings?” he asked, sounding genuinely curious.

   “Well, the work I do now, people pay me to take the pictures they want. If I were doing the type photography I wanted to for a living, I’d have to take the pictures and then hope people wanted to pay for them.” I shrugged. “Call me crazy, but I’d rather go for the guaranteed paycheck.”

   He laughed, and the deep rumble sent every nerve ending in my body singing. I had never considered anyone’s laugh to be sexy before, but I had images of him laughing, his mouth against my neck, the stubble growing on his jaw scraping along my sensitive skin, and I nearly grabbed the edge of the counter to hold myself upright. “Well, that’s a good point,” he said through the tail end of his laughter. “I’d love to see some of your photos.” He lifted his coffee cup and took a sip, staring at me over the edge, and I felt the heat of a blush creep over my neck again, making its way to my cheeks.

   “I don’t have any with me, but some are on display at my studio.”

   “You have a studio?” He sounded impressed, which caused me to laugh.

   “I imagine you have some sort of office or place you do business,” I said, smiling.

   “Touché,” he said, laughing again.

   “I thought I was the only person in the world who said touché.”

   “It’s one of my favorite words,” he replied, taking another sip from his cup. “But I was being serious. I’d really like to see your work.”

   His eyes held my gaze for a moment and I could see he was being sincere. It had been a while since someone outside of my paying customers was interested in looking at my photos. “Okay,” I said as I walked to where my purse was sitting. I reached in and took a business card from my wallet. I placed it on the island and slid it across the granite toward him. “The address to my studio is on there. Feel free to stop by any time.”

   He reached forward and I didn’t even bother trying to hide the fact that I watched his muscled forearm as his fingers found the card. His eyes were on it, so I took a few more moments to let my eyes wander up and down the contours of his impressive arm. Suddenly, I had wildly vivid images in my head of Nate with no shirt, pounding a hammer, sweat glistening on his skin in the sunlight. And for once, having those images in my mind, feeling a hint of arousal at the sight of him, didn’t cause heavy layers of guilt to rest on my shoulders.

   “I’ll be sure to contact Devon about the work that needs to be done.”

   His voice snapped me from my daydream and when my gaze flickered back to him, I saw the smug grin on his face. He’d caught me staring and, surprisingly, I wasn’t embarrassed. I felt a wave of entitlement. I was a single woman admiring a man. It hadn’t occurred to me he might be involved. My eyes immediately darted to his ring finger and I let out a small, relieved sigh as I saw it was naked. There also didn’t appear to be a tan line where a wedding ring might have been.

   “Okay, sounds good,” I said lamely, still trying to recover from letting myself be unabashedly attracted to someone without wanting to cry afterward.

   He smiled that sexy smile that started at one side and swept across his lips entirely as he pulled away from the counter and started walking toward the front door. He walked past me, not stopping, but flipping my business card at me, and said, “I’ll be seeing you soon.”

   I swallowed hard, tried to smile, but then succumbed to the roll of shivers sent through me at the sound of his deep and throaty promise to see me again. I didn’t even follow him to the door, which was rude, but I couldn’t bring myself to move. I just wanted the entire encounter to wash over me, make me believe that there was something more than the prison I’d been living in for the last ten years.

   “I think it would look incredible in an antique frame. You know, something shabby chic.”

   Shelby and I were standing in my studio, both looking at an immensely large print of a photograph I’d taken of her in front of a small waterfall a few weeks before. The canvas had come in and I wanted to display it, but I was torn about what kind of frame to use.

   “So, white?” I asked, crinkling my nose up, not liking the visual I conjured up in my mind.

   “It doesn’t have to be white. But something light. Maybe a very pale mint green.”

   I imagined the photo hanging on the wall with a nearly white, mint green frame and I smiled. The hint of green would complement the foliage surrounding Shelby, and the airiness of the hue would lend itself to the almost mystical feeling of the photo.

   “You’re a genius,” I said, turning to her and smiling.

   She shrugged. “Colors are kind of my thing.”

   I laughed and moved to my desk. I pulled open the bottom drawer and then pulled out a giant catalogue from my favorite framer. I could order a frame in the correct size and have it shipped, then mount the photo myself. I sat in the desk chair I’d splurged on. It had been an expensive purchase, but I knew the horror of sitting in an uncomfortable chair while editing photos, and when I opened my own studio, I knew I needed a great chair. It was like sitting on a cloud, only a cloud that had great back support. I loved it. Shelby came to stand behind me, peering over my shoulder at the pages and pages of available frames.

   Like two kids in a candy store, we flipped pages, pointing to frames we loved and frames we hated, debating with each other when we didn’t agree. We were so engrossed in our task, neither of us noticed when the door opened, and we both startled at the sound of a deep voice.

   “You’re a difficult woman to get ahold of.” The voice was playful and gravelly. Entirely sexy. My eyes snapped toward the door where I saw Nate standing right inside. His frame filled the doorway and my eyes struggled to stay locked on one part of him, roaming over his body, too greedy to focus on one single aspect.