Opal had been a little surprised when Bernard scooted in beside her in the booth, but it was clear he was excited about his photographs. His arm brushed hers as he gestured across the table.

She looked over at him and frowned. She’d only known him for a minute, it seemed, but he hadn’t impressed her as a conspiracy theorist.

“Bigfoot?” Opal said as her eyebrows rose. She remembered the conversation with Kelsi from earlier that morning, but she’d dismissed it already. Bigfoot was a myth and wasn’t even what she was looking for. She wanted to know what was in that copse but was positive it wasn’t Bigfoot.

He looked over at Kelsi behind the counter and then back at the photographs. “No, not Bigfoot,” he whispered, “but I didn’t want to tell her that. I’m thinking it’s maybe an animal of some kind, but not Bigfoot.”

“Good idea,” she said as he pointed to the spot where he’d seen movement. She squinted at it and couldn’t really see anything either—but suddenly she recognized it as the copse that she’d been studying for the past week. At least she thought it was. These photographs had been taken from a different angle and elevation, and at a different time of day, but she thought it was the same place.

“Oh, my gosh. Let me show you something.”

She grabbed her camera and flicked it on. As the display lit up with the most recent picture, she leaned it against the table, and they both leaned forward as she flipped through the pictures until she got to the one she thought most looked like his photographs.

“Look at this. Do you think it’s the same glen? I’ve been out in the early morning lots in the past couple of weeks, and I’ve seen something moving in there, too. When I take pictures, though, there’s nothing.”

Bernard leaned forward and some of his sandy blond hair fell forward as he concentrated on the pictures. He reached for the camera but stopped himself and looked at her.

“May I?” he asked.

She nodded at his courtesy. For photographers, cameras were very personal, and she admired his respect for that.

He smiled and picked up the camera with an expert hand but a delicate touch, flipping her pictures back and forth a few times and looking up at his photographs.

“I really think it is. It’s the same spot,” he said, the excitement in his voice impossible to miss. “And you’ve seen something there, too?”

She’d leaned over the camera, too, still trying to catch something—anything—she’d missed in the pictures.

“Yes, I’m positive. I’m sure I’ve seen something there, and the same something or somethings every time. I just can’t tell exactly what it is. And I’ve wished every day I could stay and see if they give me a better glimpse. I can only stay for a little bit.”

“Same here,” he said. “But it’s probably better that I can’t. I don’t know what I’d do if I actually saw Bigfoot.”

“Neither do I,” Opal said.

They both laughed as Kelsi came back while they flipped through the photographs on Opal’s camera.

“Well, aren’t you two cozy. See, you may not know what to do if you find a picture of Bigfoot, but I do.”

He leaned back in the booth and turned to look at Opal, and she smiled as he looked startled to realize that he was sitting next to her. Actually, as startled as she’d been when he’d scooted her over.

“Oh, I’m sorry,” he said as he stood and crossed back to his side of the table, pink creeping from under his collar.

Opal was surprised that she was actually sorry he moved.

“So you both think you’ve seen him?” Kelsi asked. She folded her arms after she set down Bernard’s cheese and bread and a jar of spicy French mustard.

“Um, no,” Opal said as Bernard looked at her, his eyes wide, and then looked back at Kelsi.

“No, I don’t think so. We’re not sure what we’ve seen, but I’m pretty sure it isn’t Bigfoot.”

“I know, I know, that’s what Opal said this morning, but I think you’re wrong. Would you go look again? Please? Maybe there’s a picture of him in all those photographs you took.”

“I don’t have any way to take a closer look at the pictures,” Bernard said. “I’d hoped that these blow-ups would show me something, but they don’t.

Opal leaned forward and took another look at the prints. She didn’t have a magnifying glass, and she wished she could take the photographs from the memory stick and put them on her computer with the really big monitor that her uncle Aaron had gotten her for Christmas. It was perfect for looking at and manipulating pictures. She was really curious about what was in that glen, but she didn’t want to be presumptuous.

“Please, you guys. I can’t go myself. I’ve been pretty busy for the past year, and it doesn’t look like that’s going to change,” Kelsi said as her hand rested on her belly. “I dream about him sometimes, but I can’t go looking myself. Not for a while, anyway. I could really use the help. Please?”

Opal and Bernard exchanged glances. She had no intention on going on a Bigfoot expedition and she was pretty sure he didn’t either. But she did want to know what it actually was out there, so what would be the harm in agreeing to take a look. A better look at the pictures, anyway.

“Coming,” Kelsi said as Bob called her name from the kitchen. “I’ll be right back.”

Opal looked down at her hot chocolate that had gone cold, and she imagined Bernard’s soup had, too, in all the excitement.

Bernard rubbed the back of his neck. “I’m really curious about what’s out there, although I’m sure it’s not Bigfoot.”

Opal cleared her throat. They could at least take another look at the pictures...but they’d have to do it at her cabin, the one she shared with her father, and that was a dicey proposition after her previous experience in the gallery.

“So, what do you think?” Kelsi asked as she set down a bag with Opal and Allen’s lunch on the table. Her eyebrows raised with hope and excitement, Opal decided that she could sacrifice another round of torment on Kelsi’s behalf.

“I have a huge monitor back at my cabin that I use for my photographs. If you want to bring over your memory stick, we could really zoom in much better and see what we see,” she said, fiddling with her spoon in her cold hot chocolate as she wondered if this was really a good idea.

Kelsi let out a sigh of relief. “Okay, that would be great. I really appreciate it, you guys. Two cameras are better than one,” she said as she headed back to the kitchen.

“I don’t think that was optional,” Bernard said as he watched her walk into the kitchen.

“No, not really. How can you deny someone as nice as Kelsi?” Opal pushed her hot chocolate into the center of the table and turned off her camera. “She’s just too excited about this, and I don’t know how to let her down easy. The only way, really, is to show her it’s not Bigfoot.”

“Right,” Bernard said as he took a spoonful of his soup and grimaced. “I guess I should have known this would be cold. How was your hot chocolate?” He eyed the mug she’d pushed away.

“Just as cold as your soup,” she said with a smile. “No problem. I didn’t need it anyway.”

“And I don’t need the soup. I always think it’s going to be like my grandmother’s, but it never is.”

“Oh?” Opal asked. “It was a favorite of yours?”

“Yes. A simple peasant soup, she called it, but it reminds me of her. Of home.”

Opal wanted to ask more questions, but Kelsi plopped down their checks.

“Bernard, you want me to wrap that up to go? You guys kind of missed your window.”

Bernard laughed. “Sure. Everything but the soup,” he said. “Thanks.”

“You didn’t like the soup? Bob makes great soup.”

“Oh, no, it was great. I just lost my mood for it, that’s all,” he said kindly as he winked at Opal.

“Whew,” Kelsi said. “I wouldn’t want to be the one to tell him you didn’t like it.”

“No, it was fine,” he said again.

Opal smiled at his courtesy, not the first one he’d shown since they’d met.

“Thanks again, guys. I can’t wait to see the pictures of Bigfoot when you find him.”

Kelsi was out of earshot before Bernard groaned, albeit with a smile.

“What have we gotten ourselves into?” he asked as he rolled up the photographs and tucked them back in the cardboard tube.

Opal shook her head. What had they gotten themselves into?