Rock and A Hard Place (Cascade Brides Series) (11 page)

But when he returned, she felt herself tense up. Just being in the
same room with him made her antsy. Shane dragged a chair over to the
low coffee table and sat across from her.

“As soon as I heard about the project, I got an idea,” he said,
his eyes glimmering with excitement.

Of course you did
, she thought glumly.

“I thought it would be cool to have a composite result from
several shots.” He began sketching the idea onto a piece of
notebook paper. “Starting with mountains for the base image with
the summit as the top of the image, then layer on a forest below
that. The next layer down is a city skyline to represent the valley,
and ending with a beach in the foreground.” He made a quick sketch
on the paper. “You've seen photos of say, the Blue Ridge
Mountains, where you get the hazy layers that go from light to dark.
We can do that, but each layer in a different representation of the
state.”

Faith could see it in her mind's eye. She was superfluous. “It's
brilliant, Shane. Really.”

He smiled. “Thanks. The only hitch is that it's really not what
Merle is looking for. He wants Bascombe's to be represented based on
the type of photography they're known for.”

“Unretouched shots.”

“Exactly.”

“So, what, do we submit our photos to him and he picks what gets
submitted?”

“I think he considered that, but in the end he decided he wants us
to make the choice.”

“So what's the problem? Do the photo how you want and submit it.”

He lifted one side of his mouth. “But I'll know he would've
preferred something else.”

Faith sank back against the cushions. “Shane, this is silly. Why
don't you submit your idea, I'll do one of mine. I don't understand
why he's wanting us to team up on this. He prefers the straight
photos I take, and yet, we won't have a chance at winning unless you
submit one of your ideas.”

Shane sent her a chastising look. “I don't know why you talk like
that. I don't want this to be a competition between us.”

She chewed her lip for a moment. “Shane, are you serious? How are
we going to agree on
anything?
”

He leaned forward, the pen balanced between his fingers. “Instead
of being a naysayer, why don't you give us a chance?”

Did he mean on the project or as a couple? “Hey, the deal was no
personal comments.”

“I know we can come up with something amazing, Faith. You just
have to have—”

“
Don't
say it,” she warned, sending him a stern look.

A mischievous glint lit up his eyes. “Just speaking the truth.”

Faith looked up at the ceiling.

The doorbell rang.

Dinner went better than the pre-dinner conversation, Chinese food
being a great equalizer. When Faith couldn't take another bite, she
sagged against the cushions, hoping Shane didn't think she was a
pig. Of course, he'd consumed twice what she did, even finishing off
her lemon chicken after a cursory 'are you done with that?'

Once they'd dispensed with the fortune cookies—hers had been about
finding the right path, his had been blank aside from some lottery
numbers—they tossed the cartons and returned to the task at hand.

Faith leaned forward, examining his sketch. “Do you have
unpublished photos on hand that you could make the composite with?”

“Most of my stuff is unpublished, but I still want to use
something fresh.”

“So, are you thinking of traveling across the state to get each of
the images?”

“We could, if you wanted.”

“What's the deadline for the contest?”

“A month out. Merle found out about it late in the game.”

“If we just work on it on weekends, that's going to be tight.”

He sighed, tapping his lip with the pen. “You're right.”

Faith rested her chin in her hands. “I have a feeling the vast
majority of images entered will be nature shots. What could we come
up with that includes people somehow? I mean, Oregon is beautiful,
but without people, that beauty wouldn't be appreciated.”

He smiled as if she'd hinted at some grand truth. “Hmm, I see what
you mean. But if we include people, at the same time, it narrows our
options because of the parameters of our project, someone would be
left out.”

“Yeah, I guess.” She pushed her hand through her hair. “I
guess this is what happens when you work with an amateur.”

“Hey, if I have to avoid making personal comments about you, so do
you
.”

“Just stating the obvious.”

“How can you say that? Your Sisters photo—you came up with that
when you were what? A teenager?”

“I was fifteen,” she said, her cheeks heating.

“Trust me,” he said, his gaze tender, “you've got what it
takes.”

She licked her lips, hating the tide of embarrassment washing over
her.

He leaned back in his chair. “On that note, what about submitting
that image? Has it ever been published?”

“Never published, but at any rate, it's not a combined effort so
it doesn't count.”

“And yet you were willing to just enter one of my pre-fab images.”

She tilted her head, meeting his challenging stare. “Whatever.”

He laughed softly. “Seriously, I think you should enter it.”

Faith lowered her eyes. What if she
did
win with that image?
What if her sisters saw it plastered everywhere? Wasn't that some
kind of hypocrisy? The Three Sisters Mountains were rock-solid, ever
present,
together
through thick and thin. She and her sisters
had been scattered like so much chaff in the wind.

Faith looked up at Shane, knowing he wouldn't understand. “No.”

Somehow Shane knew she'd say that.

He decided not to push it, since she was already giving him dubious
looks. “Okay, so we start from scratch. Where do you want to head
tomorrow?”

Faith sent him a rueful smile. “You're the pro, Shane.”

“
Faith
.”

“Seriously. You're the one who took my best image ever—the
cougar—and made it better. So while I pretty much hate you, I also
think you should call the shots.”

He laughed. “Maybe this proves we could be a good team.”

She acquiesced. “Okay, I have an idea, but it still involves
people. Instead of trying to cram too much into a shot, maybe we
should 'do what we know'. Here in John Day there are the painted
hills. We could superimpose only the most basic silhouetted images
of Oregon and her history in the striations, just enough to give the
impression of people and objects. Show that the state has a rich
past as well as a promising future.”

“I love it.”

She nibbled her lip. “Really?”

“And it will be easy, initially anyway. We don't have to leave
town for the main image.”

“Okay, we'll play around with it and see how it comes out.” She
regarded him with a strange light in her eyes. “But we should have
a Plan B. Just in case.”

“Let's see what happens tomorrow and go from there.”

Chapter Ten

Faith tried to stifle the sense of anticipation Saturday morning,
but failed. Maybe she was encouraged because she and Shane had spent
an evening together without it being a complete disaster. Maybe they
could work together as partners and accomplish something they were
unable to do apart from each other.

Oh, just admit it to yourself, you think he's a honey and just
want to hang out with him
.

Faith regarded her reflection in the mirror.
No, it's all about
the art and integrity of the photographic image. Honest
.

Liar
.

She blew out a breath. She couldn't even be single-minded in her own
inner monologue.

A knock came at her door, sending Faith hurrying through the house,
her respiration high. She offered Shane a restrained smile when she
answered the door and hoped he didn't notice she was practically
panting.

He had his hands in his pockets. “Are you ready?”

“Yep.”

He took her backpack for her and she followed him out to his Jeep,
noticing the thin blue sky above. Hopefully the weather would hold.
She remembered hearing something about a front coming in later in
the day.

“Seems like the best place to head is the fossil beds.”

She nodded. “It's what John Day is known for.”

As he drove, she darted looks in his direction, wondering how he'd
become something of a fixture in her life in so short of a time.
What had she done before he was around? The recent past suddenly
went all hazy.

Faith noticed Shane wasn't wearing his uniform. He wore a dark blue
hoodie, baseball cap, and ratty blue jeans with hiking boots. Not so
different from her attire, except her hoodie was sage green. She'd
wanted the pink one when she saw it in the store, but pink was too
impracticable when it came to scrabbling up mountainsides. She'd put
her hair in a twist to keep the bulk of it out of her eyes. That
also was practical. And a practical girl like herself shouldn't sit
there staring at the cute ranger like she had a crush or something.
Besides that cute ranger could be terribly aggravating.

Faith turned her attention to the passing scenery outside her
window. John Day had a stark look that appealed to her over the lush
Pacific Rainforest area she'd grown up in. Dusty, painted hills,
striped with red and yellow, scrubby pines and junipers, and pocket
glades had captured her imagination the moment she'd arrived in town
as a nervous young woman with a job offer from Merle Bascombe. That
memory reminded her she and Shane needed to come up with something
spectacular for the contest. Thousands of photographs would be
submitted, with only one chosen. The odds were nearly
insurmountable, but she specialized in scaling such heights. She
just hoped she could go high enough.

About half an hour later, Shane slowed the Jeep. “Any of these
hills look promising?”

Faith looked out at the panorama before her. They weren't the only
ones out to take photos today. Tourists dotted the trails along the
hills, especially since it was a weekend. “Looks like we'll have
to fight some crowds.”

Shane sent her a grin. “This is where having connections kicks
in.” They parked at the tourist center, then walked inside and
found another ranger. After a quick conversation with him, they were
ushered along a restricted path that lead to the far side of the
hills away from where the bulk of the tourists had congregated.

Faith looked up at the hill, shading her eyes from the sun. “Now
this is what I'm talking about.” She slid her backpack from her
shoulder and began setting up her gear. Peering through her
viewfinder, she could easily imagine superimposing faint images of
life and history in Oregon within the multi-colored striations of
the hills.

Faith took several shots, then moved her camera for another focal
point. By the time they made their way around the main hill, she'd
taken nearly fifty shots and was very pleased. The deep blue sky
above only added to the sharp color contrasts. She felt confident
they could bring this plan to fruition.

“I have an idea,” Shane said, interrupting her reverie.

She looked over at him. “Yes?”

“What about if you reorient the camera to catch the sun peeking
around the left side of the hill? It could represent the dawn and a
beginning. If we did the other side it might look like the sun is
setting on Oregon.”

Faith sent him a polite smile, knowing he was right. “Sure.”

Shane helped her move all her equipment, which was a something of a
chore as the sun had moved quite a bit already. As she looked
through the lens, he cleared his throat.

“One other thing,” he said with a chagrined smile. “What about
you take it lying on the ground, pointing the camera up the hill?
It's an unusual vantage and will widen the striations, making it
easier to add images later.”

Another brilliant idea. Faith wished she didn't freeze up at each
suggestion. His ideas were always improvements. She soon had several
more shots. As Shane suggested more vantage changes, she felt her
smile begin to crack. By the time he was satisfied, she longed for a
quiet soak in the bathtub.

Two hours later, Faith packed up her equipment while Shane expounded
on fresh plans for the image. She listened without speaking, wishing
she could be more relaxed and friendly. Obviously Merle thought they
could work together better than they could apart, if quality was
indeed his motive. Maybe he didn't want to appear to pick
sides—employee or nephew. Either way, this was the last project
she planned to work on with Mr. Zadopec. How anyone could be so
relentlessly positive and brilliant had to be...unnatural.

“Do you want to go through the images tonight?” he asked,
helping her hoist the backpack over her shoulder.

“Uh, I'd rather do it tomorrow if you don't mind.”

He smiled. “In that case, there's a spot nearby I'd like you to
see.”

“I'm pretty familiar with all the areas around town.”

He raised his brows. “Please?”

Faith nodded. If she said she was too tired, she'd look like a wimp.
And while she may not agree with his go-getter attitude in
everything, Faith certainly wasn't going to allow him to go-get more
than she.

She silently followed him back to the Jeep, her ankle beginning to
throb from ranging over uneven ground in order to get the 'perfect'
shot. Faith leaned her head back against the seat and closed her
eyes, hoping the next place wasn't far. After about a forty minute
drive, and a long uphill climb, she opened her eyes to see Shane
pulling into a parking area of a lookout that faced the Cascades.

She sat forward, seeing the peaks of the Three Sisters Mountains in
the distance. “Shane, I've been here several times.”

“Just walk with me a little.”

She stared at him then slid from the seat. The air was cooler at
this elevation and she shivered a little inside her hoodie. A wide
path led from the parking area to the lookout spot. Despite being
well-traveled, rocks and roots punctuated the trail. Faith followed
Shane, glad he couldn't see the exhaustion on her face.