Page 104 of The Edge of Summer
With a roll of my eyes, I turn back toward the mirror to finish my makeup. I’m rewarded with a swift smack on my ass. I’m tempted to take my time just for that, but we have an appointment to make.
A little while later, as we head across town to get in line for the ferry, a flurry of activity in Dockside’s parking lot grabs my attention. “What’s all that about?” I wonder.
Luke glances out my window. “The town council approved some movie to shoot on the island,” he says. “The crew is renting Dockside’s parking lot for a couple weeks. Clara isn’t happy about it, but our parents didn’t want to turn down the amount of money they offered.”
I grin. “So what you're saying is a bunch of good-looking actors will be hanging around my workplace for the next couple weeks?” I laugh when Luke’s gaze cuts to mine. The look swirling in his irises tells me that I’m going to be paying for that comment later. “Who is it?”
“I heard it was Hudson LeFort,” Parker interjects, leaning forward between the seats.
“What?” I shriek.
“Who the hell is Hudson LeFort?” Luke asks.
“Some guy that Delilah has been obsessed with for years.”
Luke shoots me another look. I roll my eyes. “I’m notobsessedwith him. He played my favourite character on thisvampire show I used to watch in high school. Looking back, the show was pretty terrible, but I wasn’t necessarily watching it for the plot…”
Luke’s hand on my thigh tightens in response. Now I’mreallygoing to pay later. I can’t wait.
While Sophia’s reward for her therapy session was playing mindless games on my phone and Parker’s was picking what we have for dinner, my reward was time at the beach to take pictures. We made it there just before sunset, and I got to watch the late autumn sun descend from its spot in the sky.
It was way too cold for swimming—not that Sophia didn’t try, puppy dog eyes and all—so Luke taught her how to skip rocks. My photos started as landscape portraits of the setting sun, but they quickly morphed into snapshots of my boyfriend and my little sister together. Parker begrudgingly joined them.
“Get any good ones?”
My feet are propped on my coffee table and my laptop rests on my thighs, camera card inserted in the slot. A gallery of the photos I shot today is splayed across the screen—varying shades of oranges and reds, and then the three loves of my life.
Luke settles on the couch beside me, draping an arm across the back behind my shoulders. I angle myself against his side, adjusting my laptop, so he can see the screen.
“These ones need some editing,” I say, pointing to the sunsets. Then I click on my favourite shot of Luke, Sophiaand Parker. “But I think I’m a little biased because I find I’m partial to these three.”
In the photo, Luke is holding Sophia upside down as she shrieks in delight. She had just finished splashing him with the freezing lake water and as retribution, he picked her up and flipped her over. Parker stands by, a smile on his face. I managed to catch him mid-laugh.
“You’re amazing,” Luke says. I squirm at the compliment. “I mean it, Shutterbug.”
I shake my head. “You love me. You have to say that.”
He grins. “Idolove you, but that’s not why I’m saying it.”
I click out of the photo and close my laptop, setting it aside. “It’s just a hobby.” Besides the contract with the BIA, I have no plans to pursue photography.
His arm drops to my shoulders, tugging me further into his side. “But what if it wasn’t?”
A long-forgotten dream latches on to Luke’s words. But the fear of the unknown and the worry that no one will truly care still hold me back.
“I don’t know,” I say. “What about Dockside? Clara would be devastated if I quit. Besides, I need to make money. I can’t just gamble it all on something that?—”
“Delilah.”
“Yeah?”
“I understand some of your reservations,” he says, “but don’t hold yourself back because of them. You know Clara would understand. She’d be pissed if she was the reason you didn’t follow your passion.”
That much is true. If Clara so much as caughta whiff of these ideas, she would do everything in her power to make it possible for me to succeed.
“It’s scary,” I admit. I can’t look at him, so I stare at the fire crackling in the hearth. “Thinking of doing something for myself.”
“I know, but you’re not alone. I’ve got you.” Luke presses a kiss to the crown of my head. “It’s high time you go after whatyouwant.”
