Page 379 of Safe With You

“Normally nobody is taking pictures of me.”

“Pretend I’m not here.”

I looked directly at the camera.

“That’s not working.”

She laughed and lowered it.

“Okay. Forget about the pictures. Show me what you’d be doing right now if I wasn’t here.”

That I could do.

I straightened the stack of new releases beside the register, checked the hold slips tucked beneath the counter, then moved toward one of the displays near the front.

The camera followed me.

At first, I noticed every click.

Behind the counter.

Between the shelves.

At one of the display tables.

But after a while, I stopped thinking about where she was. A customer asked me whether we had the second book in a series, and by the time I found it and handed it over, I’d forgotten about the camera completely.

I was putting another book back in its place when the bell above the door rang.

“Miss Luna!”

I turned.

Mila came toward me with Ellis a few steps behind her.

I smiled before I could help it.

“Hey, Bug.”

She wrapped her arms around my waist.

“Daddy said you were taking pictures.”

“I am.”

“Can I be in one?”

Ellis reached us.

“No.”

Mila looked up at him.

“Why?”

“Because this is Miss Luna’s thing.”

I looked at him.