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She handed him the paper cup. Sniffing it first, he shrugged and took a sip. “God, that’s awful. How in the hell do you drink this shit?”
“How in the hell can you not like it?” Arien countered. Taking her coffee back, she drank some. “Mmm, so good. I don’t suppose you’ve got a Starbucks in Brookside.”
“Nope.” Kellan snickered. “But Jackson’s only an hour, hour and a half away.”
“There’s a coffee house in Dubois,” Tanner offered. “That’s the closest town.”
“Just a forty-five-minute drive.”
“We’ll be passing through it.” He gave her knee a squeeze again. “We can stop and get you another one, if you’d like.”
“Yeah.” And she smiled, her pretty eyes gazing up at him from a thicket of black lashes. “I would.”
“You’re gonna like Dubois. Lots of artsy people—writers, artists, photographers, musicians—live there.”
“Really?”
Kellan rolled his eyes. “Only one way to drink coffee, and that’s strong and black.” He leaned over, and lifting the pillow off the top of Arien’s laundry basket, began rummaging through it. “What’s this?”
“My portfolio for school.” She looked over at the album in Kellan’s hands, her smile somewhat wistful, and sighed. “Photography club.”
“Mind if I have a look?”
“Not at all.”
Traveling the scenic byway he’d driven countless times before, Tanner couldn’t see the photos his brother was looking at. The pages slowly flipped, Kellan studying each one. Seeing the world Arien had left behind, through her lens, likely told him more about her than she could possibly imagine.
“You took all these?”
“Yeah.”
“You have an eye.” He paused for a long moment. “They’re good.”
“Thanks.”
Tanner could hear the smile in Arien’s voice. Was she blushing? Her lashes fluttering? Did she look up at Kellan the way she’d looked at him?
“Who’s this guy?” A brisk, sardonic laugh followed. “Your boyfriend?”
“I wish. I’ve had this sorta crush on him since middle school, ya know? And when does he finally get the cojones to ask me out?”
Brow raised, he glanced over her head to his brother. Their eyes locking, Kellan winked.
“My last day of school, that’s when.”
“Ya snooze, ya lose,” Tanner told her, grinning to himself. They had her and no one else could get to her now. “His loss.”
“I’m sure I’ll be seeing him this fall at UC. Maybe I’ll let him have another shot.”
“UC, huh?” Kellan’s thumb rubbed over the image on his lap, as if he was attempting to erase it. “Making plans to leave us already?”
“That was always the plan. I have my acceptance letter, so I’ll be going back to Denver in August.”
Not if we can help it, little sister.
“What for?” he asked. Arien looked at him like he’d uttered a foreign language. “What I mean is, what’s your major gonna be?”
“Fine arts.” Her lips turned up then. “I’ll be studying photography mostly.”
