“Whoa,” Ruby said as Delilah adjusted the exposure. “That’s amazing, how much of a difference it makes.”
“Well, the trick is,” Delilah said, fiddling with the saturation, “make it look like you didn’t edit it at all. Figure out what to do so that the natural light, color, tone is all enhanced, not completely altered. Like, look at this part right here.” Delilah pointed to the flower floating in the middle of the dingy water on the screen. “What would you do to make it look better?”
Ruby screwed up her face in thought. “I’d . . . I’d sharpen it.”
Delilah smiled and nudged her shoulder. “Me too.” She tapped the Detail tab and handed the phone over to Ruby. “Go for it.”
The girl played around with the sharpening tool, watching how it changed the photo, before deciding on a setting that outlined the flower a little more clearly against the water.
“What else?” Delilah asked.
Ruby stared down at the phone. “The color. I want it to look kind of . . . faded?”
“Why?”
“Because . . . because it’s sort of a sad picture? An old birdbath, a single flower, dirty water. It’s not . . . it’s not something birds actually use. It’s forgotten.”
Delilah’s mouth parted as she watched the girl frown at her photo, her chest tightening. But not in a bad way. In a way that brought back that feeling she had with Claire earlier, like years reforming themselves. Ruby saw the world in a way that felt familiar to Delilah, an artist’s point of view, and it could be a lonely way to move through life. Ruby wasn’t alone, of course. She had myriad people who cared about her, so she and Delilah were different in that way. But in other ways, with this little birdbath and what it might symbolize, they were alike.
And it was . . . comforting.
Delilah felt a wild urge to reach out and tuck the girl’s damp hair behind her ear. She didn’t. Instead, she just nodded. “Yeah. Fading the color would be really powerful.”
Ruby looked up at her. “Really?”
“Absolutely.” She tapped on the Color tab. “You can adjust the temperature here—like cooler and warmer tones—and the vibrancy, which will leach out that color without making it full-on black-and-white.”
Ruby nodded and started fiddling with the app. Delilah sat back, and when she looked up, she saw Claire watching them from the picnic table. She’d tried to appease Josh by offering to help with the chili he planned to cook, so now she was popping open cans of beans and dumping them into a pot while he seared some meat over the firepit. Claire had a little smile on her face, her eyes soft as she watched Ruby create.
Delilah got up, leaving Ruby to do her thing, and sat across from Claire at the table.
“Thank you for that,” Claire said, prying open another can of black beans.
“Nothing to thank me for,” Delilah said. “It was fun. She’s an amazing kid, Claire.”
Claire beamed. “She is.”
“She’s talented.”
“You think so?”
“Hell yes. She draws really well, and she’s got a good eye, good instincts.”
Claire took a deep breath, but then her smile faded as she looked off toward the trail. “Should we be worried that they’re still not back?”
Delilah frowned, picking up Claire’s phone to look at the time. The hikers had been gone awhile. “Did you text Iris?”
Claire nodded. “And Astrid. Three times. But the signal’s not great out here.”
“Maybe they—”
But she was cut off by the sound of voices coming from the trail. The three hikers appeared, all of them scowling, and they looked . . . well, they looked horrible. Spencer was fully clothed and soaking wet, including his leather sneakers, which made a distinct squelching sound as he stomped into view. Iris had twigs sticking out of her hair, and Astrid’s expression was a thunderstorm.
No, a hurricane.
“Uh-oh,” Claire said, wincing. She stood up and started toward her friends, but stopped when Spencer flung his pack down with a loudly yelled “thank fuck that’s over” and then disappeared into his tent.
“What happened?” Claire asked as Astrid took a deep breath and rubbed her eyes.
“Nothing,” she said. “We just got a little lost.”
“Shit,” Josh said, standing up from where he was squatting by the fire. “Are you okay?”
“Obviously,” Astrid said, her voice dripping with disdain.