“It’s a real thing,” Mom says, completely clueless. “Right, shutterbug?”
Oh my God. Lucky is eating this up. I want to kick him in the shin.
He clears his throat and says in a cheery voice, “So, golden hour? I can meet you in front of the boatyard office. I’ll show you which things to shoot. Shouldn’t take all that long, I wouldn’t think? But if that’s not enough money—?”
Kick him in the shin, strangle him … Maybe he’s the one who needs the ambulance, not me. “Oh, it’ll be enough.”
“Hey,” Mom says. “If you do this, I want to make it clear that I’d be right across the street, and I will not be picking up anyone at the police station again. You have to earn my trust back, Lucky.”
“Understood,” he says. “Zero police stations.”
“You’re not in contact with Adrian Summers, are you?” she asks. “Because I know our neighborhood is filled with buffoons, and I’m not saying I don’t believe that Adrian wasn’t the one who smashed the boatyard window. But whatever’s going on, I have to ask—this hasn’t turned into a turf war or anything, has it?”
“Turf war? Jesus, Mom. There’s no turf in Beauty. This isn’t a football rivalry.”
“I have heard there’s bad blood between the clam shacks,” Lucky says.
Mom has a low tolerance for smartass-ery, so I expect her to give him the ol’ Saint-Martin glare, but she just patiently tells him, “You know what I mean. I don’t want my daughter caught up in the crossfire of anything.”
What about your daughter causing the crossfire? How would you feel about that, huh? My stomach twists around the old lie of the department store window, and I try not to look at Lucky’s face, because it only makes me feel worse.
“No ma’am, there’s no contact between me and Adrian Summers,” he tells her. “However, I did hear through the grapevine today that his father sent him to Providence to stay with his aunt for a while. Mom says his father’s trying to keep him out of town until the dust settles.”
Okay, that’s actual real news. Out of the corner of my eye, I spy Evie’s worried face peering out from behind a rack of local postcards. She’s been listening, and apparently she didn’t know this either, because she speaks up and says, “Adrian went to his aunt Cynthia’s house?”
“Yeah,” he tells her. “My mother found out through someone in our family.”
“Probably for the best,” Mom says. “Well, I guess this photography project at the boatyard is all right, then. If Josie has time …”
I straighten a stack of bookmarks on the counter, keeping my eyes down. “I have time.”
There’s nothing more we can say in front of my mom, so he just thanks us and leaves the store, fetching Bean the Magic Pup on his way.
Mom watches him go, a look of confusion on her face. “I’ll never understand why people choose to own pets. They just die and break your heart.”
“Jesus, Mom. Way to look at the world. Bean is actually kind of cute.”
“You’re scared of dogs.”
“I know,” I grumble.
She sighs. “Wonder if I should walk across the street and talk to Kat about this.”
Um, no. Disaster! Absolutely not. Then she might find out I went to their house for Sunday dinner, or that I hired Lucky to give me seasickness, piloting me around the harbor.
“I don’t think that’s necessary,” I tell her.
Her eyes dart toward mine. “Still not sure about you hanging around that boy.”
Yeah, well.
She’d be even less sure if she knew what we did in the darkroom.
* * *
I braid my hair. Unbraid it. Brush it a thousand times. Dark makeup. Light makeup. Wash it all off. Try again. Okay, this is stupid, because the only thing I need is my best jeans—the one pair of jeans that fits so absolutely perfectly, I can completely relax when I’m wearing them. Those jeans. I’m wearing them and my perfect black flats, and the rest doesn’t matter.
It’s just Lucky.
It was just a kiss.
After the Nook closes, I use my digital camera to get some experimental shots of the Karrases’ new window from the across the street between breaks in the traffic. They’re a bit more Art than the Karrases would probably prefer. They just want pictures for a website; any monkey with a DSLR could take them. But I’m a little wired and anxious right now, and everything in my lens is hyper saturated and full of odd angles.