Page 214 of Safe With You

He smiled and reached for the stack of programs in my hands, taking half before I could stop him.

“Where do these go?”

“On the chairs.”

He started toward the first row.

I followed him. “You know you’re here to take pictures, right?”

“I can do two things.”

“That sounds familiar.”

“I learn from the people around me.”

We worked our way down opposite sides of the row, placing a program on each chair. Ellis didn’t need me to tell him what to do, but then again, he hadn’t the first time either. Once that camera was in his hands, he found his own rhythm and stayed in it.

Tonight, though, there was something different about the way I noticed him moving through Chapter & Charm.

Maybe because I knew him now.

Now, I noticed him even when I had no reason to.

I noticed when he moved a chair out of Naomi’s way without interrupting his conversation. When he reached behind the counter for the tape after she asked for it. When a customer recognized him from the first Open Mic and stopped him to ask about one of the pictures.

Mostly, I noticed how little any of it felt unusual anymore.

I was still thinking about that when the bell above the front door chimed.

“Daddy!”

Mila’s voice reached us first.

Ellis looked toward the entrance, and I followed his gaze.

Mila came through the door holding the hand of a woman I recognized almost immediately even though we’d never met. A little boy followed beside them, looking around the bookstore while Mila pointed toward something near the front.

There was enough of Ellis in the woman’s face to make the connection before either of them said a word.

Ellis let out a quiet breath beside me.

“What?” I asked.

“My sister.”

I looked at him, then back toward the woman I’d heard enough about by then to feel like we should’ve met already.

A smile pulled at my mouth.

“Finally.”

Ellis looked down at me. “What does that mean?”

“It means I’ve heard enough about her that I was starting to think you made her up.”

“I wish.”

“I heard that,” she called.