1
Riverton CA
“What do you mean you can’t do it?”
Rose North exchanged glances with Lizz Kilkenny when Lizz’s best friend’s voice rose in panic.
“That better not be my brother,” Lizz muttered, “because I swear to God, if it is, I’ll murder him myself and shove his balls down his throat for good measure.”
“I’ll help,” Rose agreed. “Just tell me where and when.”
“It’s three days to my wedding.” Indy was clearly a hairsbreadth from losing her shit. “Where am I going to find another photographer at this short notice?” she demanded. “We paid you already...”
Rose and Lizz crossed the store to surround their friend, offering silent comfort.
“What do you mean you returned the payment?” Indy pressed one hand to her forehead as if she was trying to keep her brain from exploding. “You knew this two days ago and didn’t think to tell me? How could you—” She pulled the phone away from her ear and glanced at it. “He hung up on me.”
“What happened?” Lizz wrapped her arm around her best friend. “Talk to me, Indy.”
“Our freaking photographer just canceled.” Indy dropped her phone on the counter. “He got offered a job for a modeling agency, and his prior commitments don’t matter a damn.”
Tell her you’ll do it.
She’s your friend.
“How am I going to find a photographer with three days’ notice? Three days.” She rested her shoulder on Lizz’s. “This wedding is doomed.”
“No, it’s not.” Lizz cut off Indy’s rant. “You love my brother, and my brother loves you,” she reminded her. “This time next week, you will be sunning yourself on a cruise with a brand new name and a wedding band on your ring finger. Plus, the best part, in my opinion, is that you’ll finally be my sister for real.”
You have the skills and equipment.
Tell her.
God, Rose wanted to so freaking badly. But it was against the rules. Rule number four, to be exact.Avoid everything and anything connected to your old life. She chewed on the corner of her lip as she regarded her friend—you could call someone you’d known for less than six months a friend, right? Especially when they’d already invited you to their wedding.
“We’ll find someone. I’m going to Google some names.” Indy reached for her phone. “Or one of the guys can take them.”
“If the guys take photos, then we’ll end up with stills from drone footage taken with some military-grade equipment. I don’t want grainy wedding photos. I’m only doing this one time,” Indy wailed.
Rose could see her point. Taking wedding photos was a skill that took years to perfect. Was fate or something testing her resolve to follow the rules she’d been given when she’d moved here to Riverton? Or had someone at Witness Protection decided they wanted to see what she would do if an opportunity to return to a job she’d always loved, even if for just one day, landed in her lap?
Rose highly doubted that was happening right now. They wouldn’t screw with someone else’s wedding plans, right? They weren’t that bad. They better not be, or she was going to rant, rave, and bitch like nobody they’d ever seen before. She chewed on the corner of her lip, trying to decide what she should do. She even opened her mouth to offer to do it twice, then changed her mind.
Nobody will ever know.
But what if they find out?
They won’t.
Look at her. She’s devastated.
She watched her friends, one on the phone with the man she was to walk down the aisle to in a couple of days and the other calling every local photographer she could find listed on Google.
Rose cleared her throat. “I don’t know if my skills are wedding album worthy...”
What could it hurt?
There isn’t going to be anything online.
