Page 383 of Safe With You

“You weren’t looking at the camera.”

“I was looking at something better.”

I pressed my lips together.

“That was smooth.”

“Wasn’t trying to be.”

Somehow, that made it worse.

The photographer smiled and turned the screen back toward herself. “I’ll send that one too.”

“Please do,” Naomi said.

They started packing up a few minutes later, and the store settled back into its usual rhythm. Maya disappeared behind the café counter, Naomi returned to the register, and Mila found a book she apparently needed to show Ellis immediately.

I stayed near the display table, straightening a stack that didn’t need straightening.

“Hey.”

I looked up.

Ellis was coming toward me.

“Hey.”

“You did good.”

I smiled. “How do you know?”

“I know you.”

“That confident?”

“About you? Yeah.”

He said it so easily, like being sure of me was the most natural thing in the world. I dropped my eyes to the stack beneath my hands, smoothing my palm over the top book even though I’d already straightened it twice.

My smile grew before I could stop it.

“You’re getting real sure of yourself.”

“I’ve been sure.”

He stopped in front of me.

“You happy?”

I looked around Chapter & Charm. Naomi was behind the register, and Mila was sitting on the floor a few feet away with a book open across her lap.

Then I looked at Ellis.

“Yeah.”

The answer didn’t take any thought.

“I am.”