“You’re family,” Maya told her. “There were a lot of times that the only thing that got me through was wondering how you would handle a situation. I wanted to be strong like you.”

Elaine drew her eyebrows together. “Strong? I’m not.”

“You are. You just don’t see it.”

CHAPTER TWELVE

“YOU’RE BEING VERY MYSTERIOUS,” Maya teased as she walked into Del’s temporary office.

He’d texted her earlier and asked her to meet at the studio. All he’d said was that it was important, he hadn’t given any other clues.

He stood by his desk. There was a stack of DVD cases next to him. She was about to joke that if he was volunteering his butt for Eddie and Gladys’s show, she was going to lose all respect for him, when she realized he wasn’t smiling. He didn’t look upset, exactly, but he was obviously not playing.

“What?” she asked, hoping whatever it was, he didn’t have a medical issue. She wasn’t sure she had one more secret in her. Not when she was struggling to keep Elaine’s.

“It’s no big deal.”

“You have big-deal face,” she said.

His tense expression relaxed. “No one has big-deal face.”

“You do, and it’s a little strange with the sexy stubble.”

Crap, she thought. Double crap. Had she said sexy? It wasn’t her fault. The man looked good in jeans and a worn shirt. The three-days’ growth only added to his appeal. Hmm, the last time they’d kissed he’d been clean shaven for the wedding. Would it feel different now?

She decided it would, but wasn’t sure if it would be a good scratchy way or a bad scratchy way.

“Sexy?” he asked, raising one eyebrow.

She pointed to the stack of DVDs. “Explain.”

He looked from her to the discs and back. “We’ve talked about doing that project,” he began. “You know, a day in the life kind of thing.”

“Right.” She studied the DVDs. “Did you start it already?”

“Not exactly. These are videos I’ve done. Interviews with a lot of people—many of them children. I’m on-screen some, talking about where I am and what’s happening there economically or politically.”

She looked at him. “You want me to watch them?”

“No, I want to know if you can fix them.” He shoved his hands in his front pockets. “I know what I see in my head, but I can’t make it happen on the screen. After working with you, I’m sure I totally screwed up the settings. The eye line’s going to be all wrong.”

She’d seen his raw footage from their shoots. “You’re probably missing establishing shots, and there might be issues with the audio.”

“Thanks for that vote of support.”

“You’re not a professional. You do a good job with the training you have.”

“You’re right. Sorry. I don’t mean to be defensive. It’s just this project... It’s important to me.” He pulled his hands free and tapped the stack. “These are what I put together. I have the raw footage on my computer. I know the mistakes I made filming can’t be corrected, but if you could maybe take what I did and work your editing magic.”

“Of course.”

“I’d pay you,” he added.

She waved off the comment. “No way. I’m happy to help. I’ll need to go through what you have. It’s going to take a while, but I’d love to do whatever I can to make the material how you want it to be.”

He was still touching the DVDs. “No one’s seen these,” he told her. “No one. I wanted you to know that.”

Maya appreciated the information, even though she wasn’t sure what to do with it. Del was trusting her with something important to him. That made her feel all quivery inside. Of course, it didn’t take much to get herself worked up when it came to him.

For a second she wished things had been different. Back when they’d both been younger. But she’d been too scared, and there was no way he could have understood what was in her head. Wrong place, wrong time, she thought. But right guy. Funny how it had taken her ten years to figure out he was the one. Funny and maybe a little sad. Because he was leaving and she was staying. Even more significant, he hadn’t hinted he had any strong feelings for her beyond friendship and sexual attraction.

“I will take good care of your footage,” she promised. “Let me copy it onto my computer so I can work on it.” She wrinkled her nose. “And I won’t keep a copy of it lying around. Eddie or Gladys will find it for sure, and God knows what they’ll do with it.”

“You’re still pissed about the kiss?”

“Not pissed, exactly.”

“Then what?”

“It went viral. That’s strange.”

He dropped his arms to his side and winked at her. “I’m a good kisser.”

“Oh, please. You think you’re the reason the video went viral? What about me?”

“Riding my coattails.”

She put her hands on her hips. “In your dreams, mister. You’re lucky I kissed you at all.”

“Am I?”

“You are.”

She waited for the humorous comeback. Instead, Del circled the desk, put his hands on her waist and drew her against him.

“Maybe we should just see about that,” he murmured right before his mouth claimed hers.