Free The Secret Life of Daydreams by Lucinda Whitney Page A

really?” He was under the impression she didn’t date.
    A sassy smile lighted her expression. “Not really, no.” She opened a second door. “But I do have an in with the head custodian.”
    “Whatever the sacrifice was, I’ll make it up to you.” Why had he said that? She was going to think he was flirting with her. Which he was, if he were honest. His good intentions might lead him down a path he wasn’t sure he wanted to go.
    Sofia waited for him. “Definitely not a sacrifice. I’ve been waiting for an excuse to come here alone for years.”
    Josh paused and set down his camera bag. He knelt on the stone floor and took out a shorter lens, then switched it out. He attached the speedlight for the rooms where he needed to compensate for the low natural light. When done, he stood and slung the camera around his neck. “I’m sorry you’re not alone then.” He followed Sofia through an archway.
    She walked beside him, her eyes straight ahead. “Don’t be. I’m glad I get to share this visit with you.”
    And she had no idea how glad he really was too.
     
    After touring the laboratories and theater, Sofia took Josh to the old library. The new library was on the ground floor as part of the new annex built a few years prior, to accommodate more students and staff. The old library was on the second floor of the main building, at the front and overlooking the north side. The fifteen-foot-high ceilings allowed for an added balcony to reach the highest shelves, accessible through a wooden staircase. Sofia walked to the windows and drew the wooden shutters open. With two-foot-thick walls, window seats flanked each of the three large windows in the room.
    “This is quite the space.” Josh scrolled through the camera’s viewfinder, to make sure he’d photographed all the details.
    “The library is my favorite.” Sofia sat at one of the window seats, her face in profile. “And I like the view from here.”
    Josh adjusted the camera and stole another photo of her.
    Back in the hallway, their steps echoed in the empty floors. A collection of vintage photographs from 1928 sat behind a locked glass display in the history room. For a few minutes, Josh went around the room, intent on photographing all the details. Sofia lingered behind him, dividing her attention between looking at the historical collection and following his actions.
    If he didn’t know better, he’d say she played a game of subtle intrigue, one that was becoming harder to resist. The next time she looked his way, he caught her gaze and held it. Sofia blushed, then turned to the door and walked out.
    After she left, Josh blew out a breath. He was a fool, for sure. Sofia was not the kind of girl who played games and he knew better than to think that of her. The empty building created a false sense of intimacy and his senses were in overdrive, that was all. It would do him well to go back to work.
    Josh liked that Sofia didn’t try to fill the space between them with mindless conversation. At each room they stopped in, she told him the history and interesting tidbits, funny stories from her time there as a student, or even older ones carried on as local legends. With a building that large and with that kind of history, the lore was bound to happen.
    The last room of the day was in the attic, with dormers facing the courtyard below.
    “This room was once used as a chapel.” Sofia flipped the switch on, then walked to the windows and opened the shutters, as she had done in the other rooms. “After that, they started using it for storage and it fell into disrepair. In 2009, when the annex was built, they restored the rest of the school as well.”
    Josh framed a shot with a wide lens. “I’m assuming it was a chapel for the Catholic church, right?”
    She nodded. “It’s the official church, but you probably remember that from your mission days.”
    He lowered the camera and scrolled through the shots. What was she doing, bringing up his