Awkward

"We're not in public," Iva contradicted. "Lina and I were alone. You're following us."

Otto shook his head. "I've been checking out the sunlight. At different times of day, that is." He squinted up through the canopy of thick pines and held his camera out with stretched arms, making adjustments to the lens aperture.

"There's hardly good light in the shade," Iva pointed out.

Otto's mouth cracked a half smile and the next thing she knew the man was falling into step with them. Almost immediately he and Alina launched into a discussion about cameras and brands and prices and the results they gave, including different cameras for various seasons of the year, or for shooting different events.

Iva was well acquainted with Alina's camera talk over the years so it was familiar to her, but not particularly fascinating.

What did she find fascinating? She used to find Noah's lips fascinating. A moment later, she found herself staring at Otto's lips and quickly looked away.

She wasn't going to start comparing the two men. There was no point. Mr. Otto had disrupted her desperate need for a quiet, solitary life so she could figure out where she'd gone wrong with Noah. Has she been blind to his true nature, or had there been signs she'd ignored?

Otto had ruined everything. Why couldn't he just go away? Iva blinked when she noticed Otto gazing at her curiously. "What? Do I have ketchup on my face?"

"No, you were just staring daggers at me."

Iva's face flamed. "I was---I was thinking about something else entirely. Sorry."

"You appeared to be having quite an intense conversation in your mind."

"It was nothing. Just daydreaming. Yeah." Iva desperately tried to think of how to change the subject when the road turned and the river came into full view, the surface sparkling under the afternoon sun.

"So there's the bridge," Otto said, rocking back on his heels and then snapping fifteen shots in a row.

"Yep, there's the bridge," Iva repeated, stating the obvious in a joking manner.

"You ever seen it before?" Quickly, she shook her head, waving a hand through the air as if to wash away her stupid words. "Of course, you have. You were here yesterday taking pictures."

"If you recall, I grew up here, too."

"Right, right." Stupid must be her middle name today. She blamed it on the lack of sleep having a total stranger downstairs, despite the chair shoved under the door- knob. "Except I don't know you, and everybody in this town knows everybody else.

"I've never seen you before---until last night."

"I was a few years older than you in school,"

"That makes sense," Lina said. "I would have remembered a De-Peyster the IV---and probably made fun of him."

"Nobody gets to choose their own name, do they?"

"That's true," Lina said quickly.

"And my name must not have left your mouths. I don't remember telling you my name," He continued without letting them answer, seeing the embarrassment on their faces. "My mother used to tell me every day that De-Peyster Cillian 'Otto' the IV was a fine and distinguished name."

"So why are you using an alias now?" Iva asked pointedly. Otto's eyes hovered behind that beautiful light hair. It looked so soft she wanted to touch it. Instead, she clenched her fist to keep from embarrassing herself.

"You're bent on catching me out, aren't you, Miss Remington." It was a statement, not a question.

She widened her eyes innocently. "I wouldn't even be talking to you now if you hadn't barged into my house, Mr. Bergmann."

"Come on, you can drop the Mr. Bergmann business. I'm not an old man."

"But you graduated years after we did," Iva said, openly smiling now. It was easy to tease him. She gazed out at the slow-moving water, knowing she was punishing him over breaking into her house. Iva could still hear her own screams inside her head. Now that she thought about it, Otto was just as freaked out as she had been.