On Second Thought(56)

“That’s Sarah, dumb-ass. I’m still in high school. If I was twenty-four, I’d be totally too old to start modeling.”

He groaned. Max murmured something to Lizzie, and she opened her makeup case and handed him a tube of gloss and let him touch up her lips.

“We good to go?” I asked, and she nodded. “Okay, Elizabeth, show me what you’ve got.”

She struck a pose, and all of a sudden, she went from cheeky girl arguing with her brother to a gorgeous woman, looking disdainfully at the camera while she raised one arm over her head. I crouched and snapped, circling around her, and she worked with me, following the camera with her eyes, angling her body. Then she shifted, hand on hip, one leg behind the other. Now an over-the-shoulder look. She arched her back and put her hand on her collarbone. Profile. Three-quarters. Her long neck arched gracefully, and she knew how to make her lines long and interesting.

“She’s good,” murmured Max, which was high praise, coming from him.

Some people gathered around to watch as Lizzie fluffed her gown, lifted its hem, leaned forward and smiled, then pouted, then glared. I gave her some instructions—relax your hand, lower your chin, look down, close your mouth, use your neck. Max moved the reflector and fixed her hair from time to time, and Daniel just watched.

“Come and take a look,” I said after about half an hour, and she hiked up her dress and ran over. I clicked through the pictures, pointing out the ones I thought were best.

“When you’re putting together the portfolio, use two or three for each outfit,” I suggested. “Less is more, you know? And go with the wow shot. This one,” I said, stopping at a shot of her standing in some impossible way where her long, slim body curved for miles from head to toe. “And this one.” The shot of her glaring at me, eyes murderous.

She grinned, looking like what she was all of a sudden—a girl playing dress-up.

“Let me see.” Daniel came over and stood behind me. “Shit,” he murmured, his chin somewhere around my ear, his body pressed against my back. “She’s beautiful.” His breath tickled my hair, and my sad empty uterus tugged with attraction. Of course it did. He was Daniel the Hot Firefighter. Every uterus in the entire borough felt the same way.

I clicked to the next photo. “This one’s nice,” he said, and my entire left side shivered. Click. “But this one’s slutty.” Click. “Slutty. Slutty. Slutty. Beautiful.” There went my left side again, buzzing with lust.

“Daniel, you don’t get a say,” Lizzie said. “Ignore him, Kate.”

Yes, yes, good advice. After all, I was a widow who shouldn’t be lusting after Brooklyn’s Bravest, which was like saying “See that Border collie puppy? Do not think it’s adorable.”

Lizzie went to change again, and Max went with her, taking her makeup case for her girl-next-door look. When she came out, her hair smooth and parted on the side, a cropped top under a cute tweed jacket, skinny jeans and adorable high-heeled ankle boots, she looked like someone else entirely.

We walked to a different area to change up the setting.

“Let’s have her lie down on that bench and let her hair stream down,” Max suggested.

“Nope. Slutty,” Daniel said.

Max sighed.

“Let’s just go with sweet and happy,” I said. “Think Maybelline or Dove soap, that kind of thing. Imagine you’re waiting for a guy you like, and this is your first date.”

Daniel scowled. “How about if she imagines she’s about to go into the convent and can’t wait to turn her life over to God?”

“You’re such a loser,” Lizzie said. “Okay. Waiting for boyfriend, check.”

But when I held the camera up to my eye, I paused.

There it was, the little hint of what I couldn’t see without the camera. While Lizzie was smiling, her eyes were different. She glanced to her left and fixed her smile more firmly. A corner of her mouth twitched almost imperceptibly.

She was worried. Nervous.

I clicked the shutter button. Looked up at her and smiled. “Sweetness and light,” I said, hoping to put her at ease. “You two will get ice-cream cones. He has a surprise for you, and it’s a kitten! Aw! A kitten, how cute!”

She tried to look excited, but whereas she’d totally brought it earlier, her face was weird, shoulders tense.

“Does she have a boyfriend?” I murmured to Daniel, who was standing at my side.

“She better not.”

“Does she, though?”

“Lizzie!” he barked. “You got a boyfriend?”

I sighed. There was a reason I’d asked him, not her.

“No,” she said. “Not that it’s any of your business.” But she started to pick at her fingernail, then stopped. Tried to readjust, but her neck muscles were stiff. She glanced to the left again.

I put the camera down and went to sit next to her. “Does he come to the park a lot?”

She looked at me for a second, then her eyes filled with tears. “I broke up with him, and he’s...he’s not taking it well. I think he’s...stalking me.”

Daniel was at her side in a flash, kneeling at her feet. “Who? Who’s the guy? Where does he live? What do you mean, not taking it well? Did he threaten you? Want me to talk to him? Let’s go right now.”