Page 98 of Safe With You
I looked toward the front windows like a customer might materialize and save me.
Nobody did.
Ellis walked closer.
“You said you’d trust me.”
“I said I’d try.”
“Same thing.”
“Those are absolutely not the same thing.”
“They are today.”
He stopped a few feet away and lifted the camera, and almost immediately, I became aware of every part of my body. I didn’t know what to do with my shoulders or whether I was holding my chin too high. My mouth suddenly felt awkward, my arms felt stiff, and somehow I had completely forgotten what people normally did with their hands.
Especially my hands.
I looked down at them.
Ellis lowered the camera.
I looked up.
He was smiling.
“Don’t.”
“I didn’t say anything.”
“You don’t have to.”
His smile widened.
“Everybody forgets they’ve had hands their entire life.”
“I hate you.”
“No, you don’t.”
The answer came so easily that I didn’t have one ready for it.
He nodded toward the shelves.
“Come here.”
“Why?”
“Because standing there thinking about being photographed isn’t working.”
“That’s because you’re pointing a camera at me.”
“Exactly.”
He walked toward the romance section.
I followed, mostly because apparently I’d lost control of my own bookstore.
