“You… should still do it,” Thora said faintly. “If I can’t. Jack will watch out for you. He’s a good guy.”
“Yeah, but you don’t know this ‘friend’ he’s bringing along. Maybe he’s an ax murderer.”
“He’s military. And Jack said he’s solid. That’s good enough of an endorsement for me.” Thora crawled a little ways toward a pillow and managed to flop onto it. “This is going to break you out of your rut, Lilah. I can feel it.”
That had been the whole idea. Fields of Indian paintbrush and old weathered barns she could photograph all day long. But the real money was in people. Sports shots, live action, people doing things, any things, as long as they were animated, interesting, in motion. And she sucked at that kind of photography. Like a lot.
How could it be that different to pick up a camera and shoot? But it was. With a still life, she could take her time. Take a million frames if she wanted to. Think about the composition and wait for the right light.
People moved. Changed angles. Shots were lost in an instant, never to be regained, and she just didn’t have that kind of reaction time. Or rather, she never could commit that fast. Split-second decisions didn’t exist in her world.
Yet. Thora had somehow convinced her that the problem lay in Lilah’s boring life. Which Lilah happened to like. Boring meant safe. But boring was a word that could be applied to her photographs too. And that she didn’t like.
Lilah groaned and crossed the room to open the drapes. Their room overlooked the pool where a knot of kids splashed each other with squeals that were audible even from this distance. Beyond the second tower lay the beach and the turquoise water that instantly brought to mind the sound of steel drums and the gentle rush of the water against sand.
“What if I just practice taking shots of kids swimming?” she suggested with false cheer. “Instead of doing this scavenger hunt with two guys I’ve never met?”
“Please, sweetie. You know that’s not going to be enough. You need to…” Thora lifted a hand weakly and rolled it through the air. “Live. Take some risks. Have sex with interesting men. Figure out that life is not a series of photographs of old buildings.”
“It can be,” she retorted hotly, protesting because it came automatically to defend the nice pictures that she’d always specialized in. And because sex was not a subject she could let Thora latch onto, or she’d start on yet another lecture about how men were not scary. “There’s so much history in buildings and beauty in nature.”
Those were her favorite shots: a tree in a dense forest with interesting moss patterns or a snowy field so covered in white that you couldn’t tell what lay under the blanket of flakes.
“Fine.” Her friend’s scowl said it was anything but fine. “Be a nature photographer the rest of your life. Never find your true potential. See if I care.”
Guilt settled down low in Lilah’s stomach. That was it in a nutshell. Thora had come up with this idea for Lilah’s benefit, and she had thus far been her usual prickly self about doing anything that was the slightest bit out of her comfort zone.
She hated being outside her comfort zone. Problem was everything was outside her comfort zone. Hanging out with new people ranked as one of the worst. Especially men. To say she was awkward with the opposite sex would be kind. Calling her a disaster might be more accurate.
Lilah made a noise in her throat. “I’ll think about it.”
She would. Maybe.
A knock at the door interrupted her partial capitulation.
“It’s me. Open the door,” a male voice ordered.
As if. They were in a strange hotel in a strange country. Depraved perverts could wander the streets looking for women to—
“It’s Jack.” Thora’s eyes widened as he pounded again. “I don’t want him to see me like this!”
“Um, like what?” See her in the Caribbean, where she’d agreed to hang out with her childhood friend for a week, whom she would never shut up about? See her in a hotel room?
“I don’t have any makeup on, and I look like death warmed over,” Thora hissed. “Shhhhh. Maybe he’ll go away and come back.”
More pounding. “Thora! Open the door.”
“Doesn’t sound like he’s much for waiting.” Served Thora right for roping her into this thing to be embarrassed by letting a guy see her when she wasn’t at her best. “Besides, we’re supposed to be going on a scavenger hunt over the course of two days. Did you think you were going to wear makeup the whole time? And this is a guy you’ve been friends with literally your whole life. Hasn’t he seen you without makeup?”