Tangled Truth(9)

“Yeah, it’s better. Where are you?” He held one finger up at Eva, who was mouthing an inquiry about who was on the phone. “Is everything okay?”

“At the hospital,” Sheila said. She sounded exhausted. “Danny’s hurt. He’s going to be okay,” she reassured Drew, “but his left hand and wrist are broken in about three places.”

“Holy shit! How did that happen?”

“He fell off his bike,” she said, with a faint note of incredulity. “Lost his balance right at the corner while he was waiting for the light to turn. You know how he likes to balance and see how long he can stay up before he has to put a foot down? Well, he didn’t know his shoelace was caught on the pedal. When he realized he was tipping too far, he couldn’t get his foot free. Fell straight over and caught himself on his hand.”

Drew winced, picturing the accident all too clearly. “Jesus. What do you need me to do?”

“Well, we still have a ton of work to do on the new book, and Danny can’t operate the camera properly or do much tying with only one hand. And not even his good hand. You know he’s left-handed, so I’m going to have to be the photographer for the rest of the shooting,” Sheila said. “Which means I won’t also be able to model.”

Drew could hear the hesitation in her voice, the hedging around. “And…” he prompted.

“And I need you to help me talk Eva into modeling in my place.”

Drew looked over at Eva, wondering if she could hear any of Sheila’s part of the conversation. But the coffee shop was crowded despite the lateness of the hour, and the steady clamor was enough to afford him at least that much privacy.

“Uh, hang on, Sheila.” He tipped the phone away from his mouth and addressed Eva, who was still looking at him with growing concern. “Danny fell off his bike and broke his hand. Sheila’s calling from the hospital. I think he’s okay other than that.”

“Is she there?” Sheila asked. Drew returned his attention to the call.

“Yeah. We’re at Benito’s, having coffee,” he said casually, as though such a thing were an everyday occurrence. “We went out to the observatory and it was a little cold, so we’re just warming up.” He realized he was using “we” an awful lot and wondered how Eva felt about that. Her face, still full of concern for Danny, gave nothing else away.

Sheila chuckled. “Listen to you, being all smooth. Well, maybe this will be easier than I thought, if you guys are a thing now. How long has this been going on under my nose without my knowledge?”

With Eva still eyeing him curiously, Drew decided against a direct answer. “If you weren’t aware of it, why did you think I’d have any particular success in doing you this favor?”

“I can’t tell you.” Sheila made a snorting noise that sounded suspiciously like a stifled snicker. “It would violate the sisterhood code. But I thought if anybody could talk her into letting herself get tied up all pretty and photographed, it would be you. And it has to be Evie, is the thing. She’s the only one I know with the exact same coloring, even the same body type as mine. If we don’t show her face, people won’t be able to tell it’s not me in the pictures. We really wanted a consistent look for the book and we don’t have time to reshoot the whole thing with a different model. Not to mention we can’t afford to hire a different model. Oh, hey, I have to go. Danny’s talking to the doctor again. I’ll call you tomorrow. Work on her, okay?”

“Okay. Good luck. Tell Dan he’s a bonehead.”

“Already done.”

Sheila hung up, and Drew put his phone away with a thoughtful gaze in Eva’s direction. She was sipping her cappuccino cautiously and had a very faint mustache from the froth on top. Drew wanted to lick it off but suspected he wasn’t quite on solid enough footing yet to try it.

“You have a little…” He gestured to his own lip, and Eva took the hint and dabbed at her mouth with a napkin.

“So what happened?”

“He fell off his bike. Sheila said his hand is broken in three places, or maybe it was his hand and wrist. Anyway, he can’t work a camera. Which is a problem, obviously.”

Eva knew the couple well enough to know what a problem it was. “Their book! How are they ever going to make their deadline?”

Although the question was rhetorical, Drew saw an opportunity to provide an actual answer. “Sheila is going to take over all the actual camera work, of course.”

“Of course. You can do the rope work alone, I suppose. But then…”