When the thirty minutes was up, Elisa shut the water off, grabbed the paper by the corner, and hung it on a drying clip. Then she ran a small sponge over the photo to remove excess water. When the whole process was finished, she had a breathtaking shot of the moon edging just above a ridge of foothills. It had taken her a long damn time to get this. Each evening she’d go out, hoping to catch the moon at just the right time. To her disappointment, the sky would either be too light or she would arrive too late. In her mind, she knew exactly what she wanted and would settle for nothing less.
Brilliant daylight pouring in through the windows practically blinded her when she left the darkroom. Elisa was just about to pick up the phone and make her weekly call to her brother when the doorbell rang. She swung the door open, and on the other side stood one of her neighbors, Kelly. Whenever Elisa thought of Kelly, images of Tinker Bell flashed through her mind. The other woman was five foot four at best and sported a spiky hairdo that made her look like she was about fifteen. Elisa’s trained eye always spotted professionally done hair. Every varied shade of blond woven into the pixielike cut wasn’t cheap.
“Hi,” Elisa greeted her visitor. She stepped back and let the other woman enter.
Painted red toenails encased in silver-jeweled sandals stepped over the threshold. Elisa led Kelly into the kitchen.
“Would you like something to drink?” she asked the other woman.
“No thanks.” Kelly grabbed her sunglasses off the top of her head and dropped them in her snakeskin bag. “I came by to ask you a huge favor. I wasn’t interrupting your work, was I?”
Elisa shook her head and took a seat at her farmhouse-style breakfast table. “I just finished up.”
Kelly’s jade green eyes danced around the room and landed on some pictures. “Are those your latest pictures?”
Elisa followed her attention to the black-and-white photos propped on the mantel. “Yeah, I did those a few weeks ago.”
“This one is stunning.” Kelly picked up a photo of an old windmill.
“That one took me all day to get.”
Kelly glanced at her. “All day? For a windmill?”
“I needed the right light,” Elisa answered with a shrug. “You can have it if you want it.”
“Really? How much to you want?”
Elisa had given Kelly several pictures over the past year, and the woman still tried to give her money. “I do those for fun. Just take it.”
Kelly’s eyes lit up with delight. “Thanks. I think I’ll frame it and put it in Colin’s office. He loves this stuff.”
Elisa waited until the other woman joined her at the table. “So how’s it going?”
“Not so well, actually.” Kelly’s fingers ran over the edges of the photo. “My mother fell this morning and broke her hip. She has to have surgery. And since she lives alone and has no other family except me, and Colin can’t take a lot of time off work, I have to go and stay with her for a while and take care of her, at least until we can find a live-in nurse. Then we’ll probably have to start researching places for her to live.”
“I’m sorry. That’s never an easy thing to do.” Elisa’s parents died before she had to make that kind of decision. Her heart squeezed painfully whenever she thought of the emptiness their deaths had left in her life.
Kelly fingered her pearl earring. “She’s getting up there in years anyway—she had me when she was older; I was a surprise baby. And she hasn’t been moving around that well. I don’t know if she’ll be able to walk after this.” Sorrow darkened her eyes. “Colin left first thing this morning, but can’t stay there for more than a few days. I had some things to do before I head out there this afternoon. My dilemma is Tyler. I can’t take him out of school that long, and his dad can’t get off work that early to pick him up.”
Kelly hardly ever brought up the subject of her ex-husband. All Elisa knew was that Kelly had divorced the man a few years ago and had joint custody of Tyler.
“Do you need me to pick him up and take him somewhere?” Elisa had been around the boy a few times. Hair as blond as his mother’s was always a bit too long so that it curled just over the top of his ears. Mother and son were equally well mannered and soft spoken.
Kelly twisted her wedding ring around her finger. “That’s the other thing. No one he’s comfortable with is home during the day. There would be no place to take him. Since we live so close together and he’s used to walking anyway, I was hoping you’d be okay with him walking here after school and hanging out for a few hours. It would only be for a few hours after school during the week. And it would only be for a few weeks, a month tops,” Kelly rushed on as though she suspected Elisa would object. “And I would be happy to pay you.”
Elisa shook her head. “I don’t want your money, Kelly. You have enough to deal with.”
“Please let me. It would be the least I can do.” The pleading look in Kelly’s green eyes told Elisa she wouldn’t accept anything less.
“We can talk about that later,” she replied.
Though she’d met the boy on a few occasions, she didn’t really know him that well. He always called her Senorita Cardoso because he’d heard her say something in Portuguese once and mistook it for Spanish. The nickname had been given so innocently, Elisa hadn’t had the heart to correct him. A sweet smile always lit up his green eyes when he addressed her that way.
“Would Tyler be okay with that? He doesn’t know me that well,” Elisa added.
“I’ve already talked to him and he seemed to be pretty excited.” Kelly leaned forward over the table. “Just between you and me, I think he’s sporting a little crush on you. Something about the whole foreign-language thing has him intrigued.”
Ah, youth. A giggle bubbled up in Elisa’s throat. “Maybe I’ll teach him some Portuguese while he’s here. We could have our own secret language.”
“Just don’t teach him any curse words. His dad would kill me.”
Elisa couldn’t help but ask. “Speaking of Tyler’s dad, would he be okay with Tyler being here?”
Kelly leaned back in her chair and lifted her eyes to the ceiling. “Trust me, he’ll be okay with it. The hard part will be talking him into leaving work a little early. He has a habit of disappearing sometimes.”
Was that resentment Elisa heard? Without any information on the man Kelly was once married to, it was difficult to make an assessment. Maybe he was a workaholic who ignored them, and that’s why Kelly divorced him? Or maybe he’d cheated? Kelly was around Elisa’s age, so she could only guess that she’d been young when she’d had Tyler. She could imagine a scenario in which she and Tyler’s father had married out of obligation.
“If you’re sure everyone’s okay with it, I’d be happy to help.” Plus Kelly had come through for Elisa big time when she’d been in a major predicament. About six months ago Elisa’s car had been making a funny noise, which had landed it in the shop. Turns out the thing had needed a major repair, and the mechanic had needed to keep it for three days. Unfortunately they hadn’t had a loaner car, and Elisa had needed transportation to get to a photo shoot for a recurring client. Kelly had swooped in and saved Elisa’s backside by lending her her car. She’d told Elisa to use it for whatever she’d needed. And she’d even driven Elisa back to the mechanic to pick her newly fixed car. For a long time after that, Elisa had tried to think of a way to repay the woman for her generosity. This was her chance.