Broken Strings

Twelve

Ginger

Photography is more than a medium for factual communication of ideas. It is a creative art – Ansel Adams

The stars glittered in the dark sky above as Ginger stepped out onto the front porch deck. It was a lovely night. A slight bit cool with a gentle breezing whispering across the bare skin of her exposed arms and brushing through her hair. Behind her, the light from the open door streamed out onto the wood planks that she stood on – a beam of brightness cutting through the dark.

Just beyond the door, saying goodbye to the group inside, was Travis. He was smiling and as she turned her face up towards the moon, she heard the echo of his laugh at something that Stephen had said. A moment later, the screen door opened and footsteps sounded before he was beside her, an arm slipping around her shoulders.

"I'm glad that you stopped by," Travis said as he steered them off the porch and towards where she'd parked her car next to his truck in front of the house. "Though, I should have invited you. I knew you were working the dinner rush and it was a last-minute thing—"

Ginger waved his apologies off. "It's okay. I did have fun though." They paused next to her car, an old beater of a thing. At one point, it had been pure red in colour. Now, it was mostly rust. "Your sister really does have the weirdest friends though."

Travis chuckled as Ginger leaned back against the driver's side door, the metal cool against her body. "You're telling me. Usually, it's just musicians. I can't believe that she's entertaining Hollywood A-Listers now too. Clearly, they don't know that she's a complete dork and will only bring their cool kid popularity down."

"You're so mean to her. It's a miracle that you even got invited to this thing." Ginger rolled her eyes but amusement danced across her face.

"Someone has to keep Bailey's head on straight and prevent her from turning into a total jerk. Noah thinks she walks on water, Caroline is her mentee, my parents are still deliriously happy to have her home, and Jake is glad that Bailey is helping with wedding preparations...So obviously the task has fallen to me."

"Oh, obviously."

Travis's smile turned into a childlike grin. It was an expression of his that Ginger was fond of because it made his eyes spark in a way that she rarely saw from anyone else over the age of twelve. Often, though, trouble accompanied that look. Usually in the form of pranks that he inflicted on his sister or Stephen.

"You and Jay seemed to hit it off," Travis remarked plainly.

Ginger realized as he spoke that one of her favourite things about Travis was that there was no jealousy in his voice. He never seemed to get bothered when other men approached her, trusting in whatever it was that she was going to do, and she was glad to see that his trust extended into her spending time with mega movie stars as well. Especially considering that she would be spending a fair amount of time with Jay Dawson if she were to teach him how to ride a horse in just a few days.

"He seems like a nice guy," she told him. "I'm not sure if I should be disappointed or not. I half expected someone like him to be a total ass. I mean, aren't most celebrities supposed to be horrible people? Jay and Brock were just like two any other twenty-something-year-old guys."

Amusement glinted in Travis' eyes as if he hadn't been entirely surprised by this and found her shock humorous. Perhaps he had been expecting it. After all, Travis had spent much more time around celebrities than Ginger had. Over the years he'd been to Bailey's concerts and interacted with some of her musician friends. He'd even been to an award show once, she recalled.