Lando nodded. “It’s my first season. I’m not sure they’re too impressed with me yet.”
“Why’s that?”
Sighing, Lando straightened up and pulled up her sleeve to show off her injury. “First storm, forty-six stitches. Barbed wire is not my friend.”
“Dang!” Eli set her mug on the railing and took a closer look. “That looks like it hurt.”
Lando shrugged, not giving an answer. She didn’t want to or feel the need to. “Do people come here to take photos much? There’s a perfect view of the landscape from here.”
Eli grinned. “Actually, they do. I get a lot of weddings booked in the summer for that very reason. My girlfriend had her last photos taken out here for her next album or something with PR. I don’t really understand all that stuff as much as I try to, but the photographers that came out seemed more than pleased with the natural landscape.”
“Girlfriend?” Lando’s stomach clenched.
Eli nodded and picked up her mug again. “Yeah. We’ve been together about two years now, and every day is a new lesson with her. We have very different lives.”
“Does she not live here, then?”
“She does when she’s not on tour, but that’s at least half the year, easily. And she does press stuff outside of that.”
“Forgive me for asking, but what does she do?” Lando’s brow furrowed.
“Sadie Bade.”
“You’re shitting me.” Lando’s eyes widened. “She’s like the gold star lesbian of music.”
Eli chuckled. “I think she’d like that you said that.”
“Are you serious right now?”
“I am.” Eli drew in a sharp breath. “But she’s on tour right now, so I’m not sure you’ll see her for the week that you’ll be here.”
“Week?”
Eli’s brow furrowed as she glanced at Lando. “Diane booked you two rooms for the week, yes.”
“That’s good to know, I guess.” Lando rolled her shoulders and tried to brush off that bit of news. Diane, it seemed, did not share her plans with the world often. Communication was clearly not in her wheelhouse. “Do you have a camera at all? I just have my phone to take photos on for now, but I’d love to get a real camera one of these days.”
“My sister used to play with photography. I think her old camera might be around here somewhere, but it wasn’t something I ever got into.”
“I took this awesome one of the tornado the other day.” Lando whipped out her ancient phone and pulled up the photo. She leaned over to show Eli, so proud that she’d managed to capture it. It would have been better with a camera that had higher resolution, but for what she had, it was good.
“That is amazing.” Eli stared at the photo and then handed it back. “You know, hold on. I’ll be right back.”
Eli left her coffee mug on the railing and walked inside. Lando relaxed and breathed in the clean air. It felt so good to be outside in nature, as much as she could be. She could see other houses here and there if she squinted to look in the distance, but no one was near them. It felt isolated but in a good way.
When the door snicked open again, Max rustled his head. Eli came back to where she’d stood before and handed the camera over to Lando. “Take it.”
“What do you mean?”
“I mean it’s been sitting in a box in my office for the last seven years, and I have not touched it once except to move it. Get some use out of it.”
“This is an expensive camera.” Lando stared at the sleek black Nikon in her hands. It was an older model, but a DSLR all the same. She’d played with them when she had time and energy to borrow one from the college, but always had to return them before she was ready.
“It’s not as expensive as you think, but seriously, it should be used.”
“You’re giving me a camera that is easily a thousand dollars.”
“Was maybe six or seven hundred,” Eli countered. “Now it’s probably only worth a couple hundred bucks. I’m dating Sadie Bade, trust me, if I want a new camera, I can get one.”