Billy gave a little shrug, like maybe he was embarrassed. “Plus I wanted to be able to send the links to Ryan. Figured he’d want to see them.”
For a second, the reality check of him doing this for Ryan’s benefit threatened to crash her back down to earth. But somehow she stopped that kneejerk reaction, because her gut was insisting that the look in those dark eyes wasn’t about Ryan.
Not about Ryan, at all.
Then what was it about? Shayna didn’t know, and Mo’s voice interrupted her ability to think on it just then.
“This is a powerful shot, Shayna. This little boy looking up to Frederick Douglass like that. It’s really good,” Mo said.
She beamed. “Wow, thanks Mo. That means a lot to me. Oh, and guess what else?”
“What?” Billy and Mo both asked.
“This picture landed me an assignment working on a feature on Big Brothers Big Sisters of DC. The reporter is going to be interviewing bigs and littles, the littles’ parents, and alumni of the program to show how powerful its impact is. I’ll need to take shots of everyone involved and at a couple of different events. It’s my biggest assignment so far.”
Big enough that her photo editor had decided that they’d run a photo slideshow with the story online to make use of more of the pictures than could be published in the print edition. A whole slideshow of her photographs!
“I think that deserves a toast,” Mo said. “Because that sounds awesome.” Everyone raised their glasses and toasted her with a round of sodas and beers.
Shayna laughed. “You guys sure know how to make a girl feel good.”
Their food arrived, and everyone dug in. Her stomach gave a flutter because anticipating the apartment-hunting question was making her a little crazy.
And then it came.
“So, Shayna,” Noah said from the other side of her roommate, “Billy says you’ve been looking for an apartment. Find a place yet?”
The chicken and potatoes went on a loop-the-loop in her stomach. She set down her fork and took a deep breath. “Yeah. Um. It’s been kind of a nightmare, actually, but I think I’ve found a place.”
Billy’s gaze whipped to her and his expression was like she’d just kicked his puppy. Hollow and gutted.
Why was he looking at her like that?
She swallowed hard and let the rest of her news fly. “I have a colleague with a really nice three-bedroom row house in Glover Park. He went with me to see a few of the apartments and after walking a few miles in my apartment-hunting nightmare with me, he proposed that I could rent a room from him. His house is really nice. Much better than anything I’ve looked at so far.”
Now Billy’s jaw was ticking and his shoulders had gone tense. When he looked at her, his eyes were black fire. “So you’ve decided this?”
“Uh, pretty much,” she said, surprised at how upset he seemed. Which confused and annoyed her, because it wasn’t like her apartment hunting should be a surprise to him. And he hadn’t offered, had he? “I have one more showing scheduled, but I might cancel it.”
“Glover Park is a great neighborhood,” Tara said, seemingly unaware of the weirdness between Shay and Billy. “A ton of great restaurants and, depending on where you are, you might be able to hear the Naval Observatory playing the sound of colors synchronized to the nation’s master clock.”
Shayna tore her gaze away from Billy’s over-the-top intensity. “Colors?”
“Sorry,” Tara said. “The music that accompanies the raising and lowering of the flag.”
“Oh! That would be fun to get to hear,” she said with a laugh.
“When are you moving?” Tara asked.
“Um, I’m not sure yet. I have to shoot an event tomorrow at the Northeast Rec Center and I don’t know how long that’ll be. So, probably next weekend.” It wasn’t like she had a lot of stuff, but the event started at noon, which was smack in the middle of the day.
“If you nee
d any help, Shayna, just say the word,” Mo offered.
Was she imagining a strange tone to his voice? “Thanks. I will.”
It got oddly quiet around the table.