Page 7 of Building Courage
The company wanted to promote the idea that its children’s clothing would keep kids looking stylish and endure their activities.
As Brynn snapped pictures of the last younger child as she rode the teeter-totter her mother pushed down, she captured all of that, as well as the beauty of the children wearing their clothes.
Attractive people wearing their clothes would sell them as well. She’d made a point of hiring beautiful kids.
Brynn fell into a rhythm as she worked, circling, looking for interesting angles, and always the contrast of light and shadow. As she finished with each group, she passed out contact info and moved on to the next.
Tommy hung from the monkey bars upside down, and Tony stood balanced atop the jungle gym. With her wide grin, Clara took a break from climbing and did cartwheels across the grass.
The younger kids were easier to photograph, while the older ones were more active. She had to be on her toes to capture the shots. She squatted, twisted, knelt, and, at one point, lay on the ground to capture the right angle and the right expression.
Ray scaled a climbing wall like an expert, stretching his T-shirt and shorts to the brink. Sander climbed a rope to the top of a wall, threw his leg over it, and perched there with arms upraised in victory. Sarah maneuvered over the rope mesh like a spider, her expression intense with concentration. Brynn captured that by taking a photo through the net beneath her and then later captured Sarah’s quick grin of triumph as she made it all the way across the rope expanse.
By the time Brynn dismissed the last of the kids, her skin was misted in sweat. She spent a few minutes looking back through the photos and smiled. There were good shots for the ad and others for the parents. She’d make good money off of both.
She walked to the restrooms and, holding her camera to the side, bent over the water fountain and took a long drink. Then, she untied the kerchief that wrapped around her ponytail, wet it in the water, and bathed her face and neck. After squeezing out the water, she tied the cloth back in place.
Her cell phone rang, and she reached for it from her back pocket. She didn’t recognize the number, but it could be a prospective client. She pushed the button to answer it.
“Brynn Barrington, speaking.”
“Hello. My name is Tucker Giles. Natalie gave me your number and told me you were in the park working. She said you’re under a time crunch to learn how to scuba and use underwater photography equipment. I thought I’d call before approaching you. I’m sitting on a park bench about a hundred feet from the restrooms.”
She turned to find a man watching her from the park bench. Her heart leaped and then drummed as though it might break through her chest. She automatically reached behind her back into her camera bag for the extending selfie stick and wrapped her fingers around the barrel.
The man raised a hand in a brief wave.
She studied him. In a quick sweep, she saw a muscular man, fit, his hair bleached by the sun to a two-toned dark and light brown with blond scattered through it. A scruffy beard darkened his jaw, highlighting his high cheekbones. From this distance, she couldn’t see his eyes or the details of his features.
He was dressed in cargo shorts and a white T-shirt that hugged his broad shoulders and chest.
“Natalie asked me to swing by the park and talk to you about the scuba lessons.”
She took several deep breaths to push back the edgy panic. It wasn’t his fault that Natalie had overstepped. More than overstepped. She’d been thoughtless. Her mouth was dry even though she’d just taken a drink. “Okay, I have to make a call first.”
She closed out the call and punched Natalie’s number. She picked up almost instantly.
“You didn’t call to tell me you’d sent scuba guy to the park. You, of all people, should know better than to ambush me like this. A strange guy watching me….calling me on the phone…”
“I’m…. I’m sorry, Brynn. I meant to call and got distracted. Brynn…he’s a good guy. He’s a petty officer in the SEALs. He’s been deployed numerous times. I did a background on him. No record—other than his service record, of course. He’s just there to talk about the lessons.”
“Don’t ever, ever do this to me again, Natalie. I’ll walk away from you and the magazine. You know my story and why I feel this way.” She didn’t wait for a reply, but hung up and stuffed the phone into her back pocket.
A tremor went through her as she breathed through her anger and her sense of betrayal, while the fear still pumped adrenaline through her system.
To his credit, Tucker Giles hadn’t approached her. He’d called to give her a heads-up he was here. There was no creep factor in that.
She tried to push all her emotions down, removed the camera from around her neck, and casually looped the strap around her trembling hand.
She took several deep breaths as she walked toward him. A Navy SEAL. They were supposed to be badasses. Trained to fight. Trained to use all sorts of weapons. Trained to kill.
Great.
She looked beyond the bench where he sat. Foot traffic had picked up, and kids and parents were scattered throughout the park. Close to the bench where he sat, kids played on the jungle gym she’d photographed only an hour or so before. She was fine. She had no reason to be afraid. He was here for a legitimate purpose.
She just needed to calm down.
Chapter 3