Page 24 of Broken As Puck

“But think of how impressed Sam will be when you tell him about it,” I said.

She harrumphed but didn’t complain again. Sam, her yogi crush, had made it clear he enjoyed hiking and that he found an appreciation of nature attractive in a woman. Layla, bless her heart, hadn’t let that put her off even though she most appreciated nature when it was in a potted form around our apartment.

The trail kinked to the right and up ahead, I spotted the reflection of my headlight on the surface of the water. I stopped at the edge of the pool and shone my light around until I found a reasonably dry patch of ground, then I took off my backpack and set it down, immediately putting my sweater back on so I wouldn’t get cold.

My tripod was strapped to the side of my backpack, so I loosened the strap around it and started extending it out to its full size. I planted it on the ground, using the spikes on the end to dig it into the soft dirt, and made sure it stood reasonably level.

I opened the backpack, pulled out my camera, and fastened it onto the top of the tripod by touch. I’d already attached the appropriate lens last night so I didn’t need to mess around with that in the dark. I turned it on and used my headlight to find the waterfall and aim the camera at it. That done, I made sure the settings were dialed in appropriately and stood back to wait.

Layla was leaning against a tree, and we watched in silence as the darkness gave way to dawn. It was a beautiful spot. The water cascaded over thin layers of rock that were in a kind of natural pancake formation. The pool at the base wasn’t much to look at in the light of day, but now, with the soft light brushing its edges, it was stunning.

Matt would like it.

I felt a pang in my chest at the thought. God knew what had made me think of him. It was true, though. He’d loved getting out into the wilderness with me and he’d never minded sitting around while I fussed with my camera and took hundreds of photographs to pore over later.

“If you and Matt were still together, he could have been the one you dragged here at this abominable hour of the morning,” Layla said, as if she’d read my thoughts.

I pressed my lips together because I didn’t know how to respond. She was right, but also, what had made her think of him when we’d been broken up for so long?

She sighed. “I’m sorry. I shouldn’t have mentioned him.”

“It’s not an issue. I know mornings aren’t your favorites. Thanks for coming along anyway.”

I could have hiked here by myself, but while I didn’t mind doing solo hikes during the day, I was reluctant to be somewhere so isolated outside of daylight hours. Perhaps I was being paranoid, but bad things happened to women. There were real dangers to take into account.

Looking up at the sky between the branches of the trees, I decided it was light enough to get started. I kneeled in front of the tripod and snapped one photo to get a baseline starting point.

“What’s the plan?” Layla asked, pushing off the tree and wandering over.

“I want some longer exposure times so I can get a misty effect with the water,” I told her, increasing the exposure time, adding a two-second timer so I wouldn’t bump it with my hand and ruin the shot, and then pushing the shutter button. “Part of the reason we’re here early is so I can get that without the image overexposing.”

I examined the resulting photograph, changed the angle of the camera slightly, and tried again. The next one was good. I showed it to her so she could see what I meant about the water.

“You’re so talented.” She pulled a protein bar from her pocket and tore the wrapper open. “You should try selling some of your photos. I bet you could get them made into postcards or, like, computer backgrounds.”

“Maybe one day.” I kept my focus on the camera, trying to get all the shots I wanted before the light changed. Honestly, I’d considered listing some of my images on stock photo sites, but I hadn’t done it because I worried that would change how I felt about my landscape photography. I loved doing it as a hobby, but I worried it would no longer be fun if I turned it into work.

“You know what would make this better?” Layla asked, backing away and taking up a stance against the tree once more.

“What’s that?”

“Coffee.”

I laughed. “We can get some on the way home.”

“I’ll hold you to that.”

By the time the sun had risen, I had enough photos in the camera that I knew I’d have a busy day ahead editing them. Layla had found a log nearby and was sitting on it, so I walked over to join her. She held out her phone to show me that she was scrolling through the Chicago Chaos’s social media posts.

“You work with some gorgeous men,” she said, pausing on a photograph of Austin Harris. “But why would you give us a front view? Don’t deny the internet what they want. You know they love that ass.”

I rolled my eyes. “He’s a very private man and I don’t think he’s comfortable with the attention he gets. I don’t want to make him any more uncomfortable than he needs to be.”

Layla grimaced but didn’t remark on that as she continued scrolling. When she stopped again, it was on the more playful image of Brian Taylor. “I might need an introduction to this guy.”

“Huh.” The sound burst from me without any thought. I’d have expected Layla to be more interested in Jesse Young’s clean good looks or Drew McKinley’s bad-boy vibe. Taylor wasn’t unattractive, with the crinkles around his warm brown eyes and his just-rolled-out-of-bed hair, but he was more of an everyman.

Layla shrugged. “He looks like he’d feed a girl s’mores and then snuggle her under the stars.”