Mommy’s Photographer

Margot has a perfect eye for light. Mrs. Watson has a perfect eye for girls like Margot.

Margot Avery photographs houses for a living. She knows light, she knows composition, and she knows how to stay on the safe side of the lens. Then a magazine assignment sends her to the most beautiful home she’s ever shot — and to the woman who owns it.

Mrs. Victoria Watson doesn’t pose. She doesn’t need to. She simply stands in her own golden rooms, barefoot and unhurried, and lets Margot look. And the longer Margot looks, the harder it becomes to pretend she’s only here for the architecture.

Victoria has seen this before: a capable young woman with steady hands and a question she’s never let herself ask. Victoria is very good at asking it for her. One session at a time, one room at a time, she draws Margot away from the camera and toward her first time with an older woman — until the only word left in Margot’s mouth is the one she never planned to say.