Noah reached up, placed his hand behind my neck, and pulled me to him in a kiss.
A sigh escaped me as we parted.
“I love how much you love Bailey and how good you are with Harper. It’s one of the many reasons I love you.”
I felt my eyes pop open, and I flinched back. He’d just said “I love you.” I stared at him for a moment, waiting for him to panic. Giving him the chance to cover his misstep somehow.
Noah laughed again. “Man, I wish you could see your face right now. Priceless.” He grinned up at me. “Sorry if I said that too soon. Well, no, I’m not. I’ve loved you my whole life. Saying it now is saying it late, if anything.”
I stared at him for several more seconds. Too many, probably. Completely in awe. Finally I sat up and twisted toward the end of the bed. I scooped Harper into my arms and leaned over the bed, lowering her to the floor. Rising back up, I shooed Ron and Andy off the bed as well.
“What are you doing?”
I looked back at him and pulled the sheets down, uncovering his body. “Just getting ready to demonstrate how much I love you too.”
Chapter Twelve
HARPER STAREDup at me, pleading and judgment in her bulbous eyes. I bent down and scratched behind her nose. “Sorry, girl.”
“Sorry?” Bailey looked between Harper and me. “Why are you sorry? She looks adorable!” She turned back to the rack of costumes and reached for one on the top row. “Maybe this one too. She’d be a cute hot dog.”
“Bailey, I thought you wanted to get her a sweater or a little tutu or something. I didn’t know we were dressing her up.” I picked up another outfit that had a pair of fairy wings sewn onto the back. “It’s the middle of August. Why do they already have Halloween costumes out?”
Bailey ignored the question, having retrieved the hot-dog ensemble. “It says it’s the same size, should we try it on to make sure?”
“I don’t know if Harper can handle another outfit change. Let’s get it and have faith it will work.” I peered back down at Harper, who looked like one truly ugly, pissed-off dragon. “You know, her teeth really help pull off that look.”
“I know! She’s so cute!” Bailey bent down and wrapped her arms around Harper’s neck in a tight squeeze, which didn’t seem to improve my little monster’s mood, though she licked Bailey’s cheek nonetheless.
“All right. Let’s go pay and get out of here before Harper decides she wants to live with a different family.”
“Randall!” Bailey popped her fist against her hip and glared at me.
She looked so much like Kayla I had to laugh. “Come on. And don’t worry, I’m sure Harper’s not going anywhere.”
WE WEREabout ten minutes away from PetSmart, stopped at a red light, when I glanced into the rear seat. Bailey’s head was lowered, her nose touching Harper’s, her long white-blonde hair falling down around them. She was so beautiful it didn’t seem possible. And with Harper playing the part of a dragon, it almost wasn’t. A thought hit me and my skin tingled in excitement. “Bailey?”
She glanced up at me, having to tuck a thick strand of hair behind her ear to be able to see me.
“You wanna do a photo shoot? With Harper?”
Her blue eyes lit up. “Yes!”
A car horn blared behind us. The red light had turned green at some point. With a lurch, I hit the gas, but did a U-turn at the first possible moment. “Then let’s go back to the pet store. We need more costumes.”
IN LESSthan two hours, we’d gotten two more costumes, swung by Noah’s apartment and picked up Ron and Andy, and were setting up in a copse of trees near the city. One of my favorite places for an enchanted forest feel, it was large enough that there were endless places to try without it looking like I was using the same location for shoots. The ocean was barely visible in the background. Bailey chose a silver-and-blue princess gown I had in my closet of props; I’d digitally add her fairy wings in the editing process.
Having not worked with dogs before, I wasn’t sure how this was going to turn out, especially given their costumes. I might be able to edit them so they looked less like cute cotton outfits and more like actual creatures, but it could be fun to try a whole new approach. Truly blend the innocence and imagination of childhood and puppies with the darkness of fairy tales. The playfulness of the three dogs might make an even bigger contrast.
I quickly discovered that dogs are much harder to work with than children. Actually, Harper the Dragon and Ron the Fairy were both subdued. Andy made up for his two friends. The pup was crazy. Granted, I chose to put him in a costume that had a large bat attached to a wire coming out of his back. He looked like he was getting attacked by the black piece of felt, and Andy acted accordingly.
Bailey struggled not to giggle at Andy’s antics for the first several minutes, but quickly slipped into professional mode. For a moment, I wondered if I was one more person adding to her needing to be the perfect little girl, doing exactly what was expected instead of what came naturally. The twinkle in her eye gave me relief. She was having as much fun as I was.
We tried several different approaches, from me attempting to arrange them how I wanted to simply letting them have free range and documenting what happened. I paused to retrieve my cell, took a couple of photos, and sent them to Noah so he could see what we were up to.
The photos were cute. No doubt about it. But, really, there was no way they wouldn’t be cute. Not with my gorgeous niece and three ridiculously dressed dogs. Still, it wasn’t right. Despite the beauty of the trees, something felt off. Forced. Cliché.
After another ten minutes, I gave up. Whatever it was, it wasn’t working. Strange, because when the idea had hit, it felt important somehow. Not just fun with Bailey and Harper, but that I was on the verge of something new. Something I’d not tapped into before. And despite their cuteness, these photos weren’t it.
