Free Penalty Clause by Lori Ryan

face in a soft glow. The outline of her slender arms, the breasts he wanted to feast on, was clear through the sheer fabric of her shirt. The image sent a blow right to Andrew’s gut. It was like he was a teenager again. There wasn’t any way to tear his eyes from Jill. Andrew watched as she made several adjustments to the settings on her camera and then snapped the shutter a half dozen times before looking up at him with a smile.
    “Sorry, I’m just trying to get these shots done so I don’t have to try to set the lights again tomorrow. When the sunlight comes through the windows in the morning, it will change the way these lights hit the wall and I’ll have to start all over again,” Jill explained, gesturing to the wall above the fireplace.
    Andrew finally tore his eyes from Jill and looked at the wall. Above the fireplace hung a gorgeous picture of a dense forest in the fall. The leaves on the trees were an incredible arrangement of golden yellows, burnt oranges, and fiery reds that cast a warm feeling over Andrew as he looked at it. The glow of the sun shone through the leaves of the trees, creating an effect against the leaves that took the picture from one that merely captured nature to one that was pure art.
    “ Another one from your fall collection?” Andrew asked, gesturing to the print. The appreciation was clear in his voice.
    “ Mmm hmm,” Jill said as she flipped through the pictures saved on the disk in the camera to be sure she had the shot she needed.
    “It’s amazing. All of your work I’ve seen is so much more artistic than I thought it would be. I thought it would just be pictures of nature, but it’s not. You’ve turned nature into art.”
    Jill laughed. “Thanks.”
    Then Andrew noticed Jill was taking a picture of one of her pictures. “Uh, why are you taking pictures of your pictures?”
    “Remember I said I was starting a website for my work?  We’re choosing a handful of my pictures to sell as prints and reproductions and this is one of them. I thought I was finished with my side of the website but the site designer decided he wants pictures of the prints as they’ll look hanging in someone’s home.  We’ll also sell things like thank you cards and notepads with the images on them so those all have to be photographed as well. This is the boring commercial side to what I do. Someday, maybe I’ll make enough off my pictures to turn this side of things over to an assistant so I can get back to just taking the pictures that I love,” Jill said with a wry smile.
    Andrew held up a DVD. “The latest Bourne movie. Seen it yet?”
    “Nope. Taking a chance I’d like action, huh? What makes you think I didn’t want a romantic comedy?” Jill teased as she turned off her camera and started shutting off the bright lights that surrounded it. She seemed to be trying to busy herself with her work and Andrew wondered if she w as nervous.
    Andrew returned her laugh. “I was hoping it would be okay but I have a sappy romance in the car if we need it, just in case.”
    “Nice.” Jill smiled and waved him into the kitchen.
    Jill pulled out the leftovers from the previous night and began zapping containers in the microwave. Jill and Andrew opened the containers and piled plates high – with Andrew taking about three times as much food as Jill – before going back to the couch to eat in front of the fireplace. Jill hit a switch that turned on the gas flames and then curled her feet under her on the couch.
    “So,” Andrew said between bites of food, “you must travel around a lot to take pictures of different sites. I mean, being a nature photographer, you must have been to some amazing places.”
    Jill shook her head as she swallowed a bite of food. “You would think, but I’ve mostly stayed around here, so far. Jake saw my photography as a ‘little hobby’ so he never supported trips or anything that would have meant investing time or money in it. Luckily for me, living in