The Baby Album

THE JOY CASEY FELT at making her first potential friend carried over, allowing her to sweep into the studio with a new bounce to her step. She set one of four boxes of announcement postcards on the counter. “I finished these last night, but I didn’t want to mail them until you had a look,” she told Wyatt as he emerged from the back room.

“You got them all done? Weren’t there about a thousand clients on that list?”

“Twelve hundred or so.”

Wyatt pulled one card from the box. “These look fantastic,” he said. “You must have worked all night on them.”

“That’s the way I am. Once I start a project, I like to see it finished. I probably only worked until midnight. And very likely I would’ve been up anyway.”

“A night owl, huh? Boy, I can relate.”

Casey felt her throat go dry. She swallowed hard and glanced away. He had no idea she knew why he spent sleepless nights. It made her feel ten times guiltier for knowing.

Wyatt seemed to have reached his limit for idle chatter. He cleared his throat and returned the card to the box. “Get them in the mail. I have an appointment in half an hour with a professor from the agriculture program at the University of Texas. They’ve sold the beef the students raised, but apparently have two promising young bulls they’d like to advertise in a stock magazine. It’ll take a little while, so I won’t be back here today. Please lock up when you leave. Forward any calls to my home. I wrote down how to do that, and left the note on my desk.”

“If you’re not coming back to the studio, should I print the photos I took for Brenda Moore?”

“I’ll do them tomorrow. You probably haven’t used my type of digital darkroom software.”

“I’ll bet I can figure it out. I used quite a few different programs in Dallas. I started working for the Howells when I was in eighth grade. And Len liked the latest, greatest innovations, too. Dolly teased him that they were going broke buying new stuff.” Thinking about the Howells sent a ripple of nostalgia through Casey.

Wyatt eyed her speculatively. “You certainly stuck with one job a long time. What made you leave it and move to Round Rock?”

Casey was sorely tempted to spill her guts. But remembering Brenda’s advice, she said simply, “I got married.” As she expected, Wyatt backed off from remarking on anything personal.