Perfect Couple by Jennifer Echols Read Free Book Online Page B

the runners who’d finished—but not to locate Brody. Only to find Kaye.
    The runner I saw instead was Sawyer, standing stock still and staring into space, his face so white he looked green.
    Picking up the camera bag at my feet, I strode over and handed it to him. “Get my phone out of the front pocket, would you?” I couldn’t watch him because I had to keep clicking away at the runners, but in a minute he was holding the phone in front of me. At least he could still follow instructions. I swept my thumb across the screen, punched in my security code, and handed the phone back to him. “Dial Tia.”
    When my phone appeared in front of me again, and there was another break in the runners, I spared Sawyer a glance. He was blinking awfully fast. I sandwiched the phone between my chin and my shoulder as I awkwardly peered through the camera and kept clicking.
    “Hey there, Annie Leibovitz!” Tia chirped.
    “Sawyer might pass out.”
    “I’ll be right there.” The line went dead.
    I slipped the phone into my pocket. I didn’t want to have to explain to the race sponsor, my boss for my first-ever gig as a professional photographer, that I’d missed capturing the last half of the race because my friend was going to faint. But I would have abandoned my job if Sawyer looked like he was about to hit the ground.
    Before that could happen, Tia rushed over to him. I turned back to the runners. Tia and Sawyer were close enough to me that I could hear their voices above the noise of the crowd and the rock band starting up somewhere behind the finish line.
    Tia: “Sawyer, dammit! Are you okay?”
    Sawyer: “I will be. In a couple of years.”
    Tia: “What the fuck did you run this race for? You just got out of the hospital. Are you trying to kill yourself?”
    Sawyer: “Not . . . actively.”
    Tia: “Jesus. Sit down. Sit down right here on the curb. Will!”
    She sounded alarmed enough that I glanced over at them again. Will elbowed his way through, holding two bottles of water high above the crowd. Brody followed right behind him.
    Tia: “Did you know he was running this?”
    Will: “I tried to stop him. Sawyer, dammit, put your head between your knees.”
    Tia: “Help me take him to the medical tent.”
    Will: “There’s no medical tent. It’s a 5K.”
    Sawyer, muffled: “Fuck everybody.”
    Brody: “Shut up. Just enjoy the view.”
    Though I was in the middle of picking out faces from a huge group of slow runners, Brody’s voice made me look over my shoulder again. He had his hand on the back of Sawyer’s neck, pressing his head toward the pavement. Will was pouring water over Sawyer’s hair. Now Kaye and her cheerleader friends circled him. Sawyer was in good hands. I tried to concentrate on the last fifty people crossing the finish line, some of them grimacing with the exertion, others giving me elated smiles and peace signs as they passed.
    Finally the race seemed to be over. I watched downstream for a few moments, but the street in front of me was filling with pedestrians as if the police had signaled that no more runners were coming. I heaved a deep sigh, rolled myshoulders, and started scrolling back through the photos to one group in particular. I was curious whether my obsession with the beauty of Brody’s body had been a product of my vivid imagination.
    It was not. The image was tiny, but I ran my eyes over his shining muscles and his smeared race number, and looked forward to viewing the enlarged version on my computer.
    “Whatcha looking at?” Tia asked, peering over my shoulder. “Got a Pulitzer winner? You seem very intent, even for you.”
    “How’s Sawyer?” I asked.
    “Oh, fine. Just stupid. Will’s walking him home. Don’t change the subject. Let me see what’s so intriguing in there.”
    I handed the camera over to her and watched her look at the view screen herself. “I feel like a pervert,” I said.
    “You should. That is disgusting. Be sure to e-mail me a copy.” She