The Absence of Olivia(43)

He smiled a friendly smile as he reached out and shook her hand. “Nice to meet you, I’m Nate.”

“Are you a friend of Evelyn’s?” Shelby asked, not releasing his hand.

His eyes shot to me and his smile changed to something a little sexier. “Something like that,” he replied.

“He is the one doing the work on Devon’s house. He’s fixing all the water damage.”

“Ah ha,” she said slowly, as if an elusive puzzle piece had just fallen into place. But she still didn’t let go of his hand, she just kept slowly shaking it, her eyes narrowed at him. “Are you single?”

“Shelby!”

“What?” she asked innocently, finally letting go of his hand. He didn’t look rattled by her question, but he did look slightly uncomfortable.

“You don’t have to answer her,” I said to him, quickly shaking my head.

“It’s okay,” he said with a nervous laugh. “I don’t mind. I’m not dating anyone right now.”

I tried to hide the wave of excitement that swept through me at his words, but the wave crashed when I heard Shelby’s next question.

“Ever been married?”

“Oh, my God, really?” I cried, now exasperated by her behavior.

“Never been married,” Nate said, now full on laughing, which also sent excitement shooting through me.

“See?” Shelby said, looking at me. “You’ve got something in common. Discuss amongst yourselves.” She snatched her purse from a chair by the door and made her grand exit, leaving Nate and me in an uncomfortable silence. I gave him an apologetic smile, and he turned back to look at the print.

“That was the model in the photo?”

“Yeah, we took that a couple weeks ago.”

“Is that somewhere up the Gorge?”

“Bridal Veil Falls,” I said. “Have you been there?”

“I used to go hiking quite a bit up there.”

“Ah.”

“Do you hike?”

It shouldn’t have, but his question caught me off guard.

“You mean, like, for fun?”

He laughed loudly and for a long time at my completely serious question, but then answered, “Yes, I mean for fun.”

I shrugged. “Not really,” I started, but when I saw his happy expression fade away, looking a little disappointed, I recovered with, “but, I mean, I’ve always wanted to.” A big fat lie.

“Yeah? I haven’t gone in a while, but your pictures make me want to get out there again. Maybe you’d like to go with me?”

“Hiking?” I swallowed down a lump of nervousness. I wasn’t really an outdoorsy type. I liked taking photos outdoors, loved nature, but hadn’t ever purposefully climbed mountains to get the pictures.

“Yeah,” he said through another laugh. “It’s the perfect time of year. Not super cold, but not too hot, either. Come on, it’ll be fun.”

My pulse sped at the thought of spending time alone with him. It exhilarated me even more to think it would be on purpose, instead of both the times I’d seen him at Devon’s house. This would be the two of us, alone, intentionally. I was scared to say yes, but knew it would be a mistake to turn him down. Some part of me, on a very base level, wanted to go with him, to talk to him, to get to know more about him. So I agreed before I could mentally talk myself out of it.

“Sure. Why not?”

“Well, there’s the answer every guy wants to hear when he asks a woman out on a date.” He laughed again then ran a hand through his soft-looking brown hair, not sounding offended, but more like he was teasing me.

“Sorry.” I smiled, and then tried again. “I’d really like to go hiking with you.”

“How about tomorrow? Do you have any plans?”

“I was going to work…”

“So bring your camera, call it work. I’m sure I’d make a great model.” He said it as a joke, but he wasn’t wrong. He would make a fantastic model. For someone else in another life. I don’t think I could look at him objectively if I tried. No, I would lose focus if I tried to work him into a shot. But, he didn’t have a bad idea. I could bring my camera and that might alleviate some of the guilt I would feel taking a day off completely when I really should be working.

“You won’t mind stopping when I find something I want to photograph?”

“Not at all. I think it will be interesting to watch you work.”

“Okay then.” I had a ridiculous smile on my face and he had his sexy gorgeous smile on his, and we just stood there for a moment, staring at each other, smiling. Finally, he broke the trance when his hand came up to rub the stubble growing on his chin.

“Can I pick you up? Around nine?”

“Sure. I’ll probably be working, so if you don’t mind, you can pick me up here.”

“You’ll be working at nine a.m. on a Sunday?”

“Unfortunately.”

“Well, I’ll be here to get you, but you have to promise you’ll take some time tomorrow to relax while we’re out. You can work, but not the whole time.”

“You’ve got a deal.” We both continued to stare at each other, our lips turned up in matching grins, but after a few moments, he broke the silence.