“I suppose it does.”
“Then let’s get some dinner and take a walk down memory lane.”
Maybe by the end of it, he’d manage to shift her firmly back into the friend column.
Chapter 3
“The first time I had a camera in my hands—a real camera—was out here, on a night much like tonight. Do you remember?”
Lexi didn’t look at Zach in the driver’s seat, her gaze trained instead on the small crowd milling around a bonfire on the banks of Hope Springs. “Of course I remember.”
It had been her camera. A gift from her father that was supposed to be some kind of apology for not keeping it in his pants and destroying their family. Completely new in town, starting over again, with two whole months before she began high school, her mom had dropped her at a similar bonfire, with a promise to come back for her after an hour.
“I need you to try, mija.”
Lexi could still remember the panic clawing up her throat at what felt like being thrown to the wolves, but she’d gotten out of the car, clutching the camera like a lifeline and a shield. And instead of walking up and introducing herself as her mother intended, she’d skirted the group, studying them through the viewfinder. She’d framed and tested shots, adjusted settings, eventually losing herself in the process and forgetting she didn’t really want to be there.
And then Zach had walked over.
“Can I try?”
She’d eyed him with suspicion. The camera had been expensive. Who was this gringo with the open face and easy smile? But he’d won her over with his relentless good humor and general niceness, until she’d let him try the camera out, taking a picture of her.
“I still have that picture of you at home,” he said, proving his thoughts were running along the same lines.
Now she did look over, something warm blooming in her chest at his sentimentality. “You’re a lot better now than you were at fourteen.”
“Yeah. But I think it’s good to remember where we came from. C’mon. Everybody’s waiting.”
There was something odd to his tone and his expression, but she didn’t manage to put her finger on what before he was climbing out of the car. She thought he was going to head on without her, but he stopped a few feet away and turned back, a hand outstretched as it had been that night all those years ago. Riding on nostalgia, Lexi slipped her camera bag over her head and placed her hand in his. Zach’s fingers closed warm and sure around hers, and she tried not to read anything into it. There hadn’t been more to it then and there wasn’t now. He was just a physically affectionate guy. Always had been. But she was aware of every millimeter of his skin where it touched hers.
“Look who I found!” Zach dragged her into the light of the fire.
“Lexi!” A familiar brunette scrambled out of a camp chair and launched herself across the distance.
Laughing, Lexi absorbed the enthusiastic hug. “Hey, Avery! It’s great to see you.”
“Hail, hail, the gang is officially all here. Welcome home, chica.” Leo Hamilton scooped her neatly off her feet.
His twin brother lifted an arm, with a grin she hadn’t forgotten. “Eli, if you even think about putting me in a headlock and giving me a noogie, I swear to God, I will show you every bit of the self-defense I learned in college.”
“Spoil-sport.” But his blue eyes twinkled as he said it. “Welcome back.”
She was passed from hug to hug. Jace Applewhite. His cousin, Jessie. Reed Campbell. And then came the introductions to the significant others. Avery’s fiancé, Dillon was a rangy guy who somehow looked like a cowboy despite the khaki shorts and t-shirt. Lexi wanted to get a shot of that profile from beneath the brim of a Stetson. She recognized Reed’s wife, Cecily, from the photos she’d seen in Zach’s portfolio. She was even more stunning in person.
“It’s so nice to meet you,” Cecily gushed. “Zach’s talked so much about you.”
Lexi arched a brow and glanced at him. “He has?”
Zach only shrugged. “You feature prominently in most of my high school stories.”
“They used to be joined at the hip,” Jace said.
“Oh, did y’all date back then?” This came from a leggy blonde she didn’t recognize.
“No.” The word came out too fast, too sharp, and Lexi hoped they’d attribute the flush in her cheeks to heat from the fire. Fixing a smile on her face she managed a passable laugh. “That would’ve been ridiculous.”
“I thought you were joking.”