We went to walk past him toward the break room, but Rowell grabbed Z’s arm. After what we’d just done, I didn’t like that. Maybe he noticed me glaring because he cut me a wary glance and dropped his hold on Z.
“I was wondering, Zayden, would you please help Songini and Kendall with researching patents? They don’t know what they’re doing, and I don’t have time to show them.”
“Sorry, no. We’re booked solid,” I said. “If you don’t like it, you can take it up with Mansfield because he gave us enough work to keep us busy through hell freezing over. Plus, we’re contracted to him personally now.”
Rowell sighed, shoulders slumping in defeat, and marched off.
“Well, he didn’t look so good,” Z said, staring after him with a pinched face. “Want to eat our lunch now?”
“No, he did not, and sure, why not? You know me, I can always eat.”
We powered through our lunch because we only had about five minutes before our standard half hour was over, and then we went back to the grindstone.
That afternoon Z insisted on leaving at 5:00 p.m. on the dot, which was unusual for him, but I was so damned ready for a break, I didn’t care. I went along with it. We got in the MINI Cooper and he put his phone in the holder in the center of the dash with the Google Maps app turned on at top volume. The woman was already instructing me on where to drive, even though the key had only hit the ignition.
“What’s this?” I asked.
“Just go there,” he said, a smile nearly cracking his face.
“Why?”
“You were serious about wanting shots of me, weren’t you, Daddy? I mean—” He tipped his head back against the seat and smiled at me as he lifted his sunglasses from the console. “—you were jerking off to me.” He smiled happily and slid the glasses onto his nose. My heart almost exploded. He was so fucking sexy in those glasses. Had that always been the case?
“Yes.”
“I booked us a baby-bump shoot with a man named Cedar Lavigne. He has a studio out past one of the Northwest burbs—on the lakefront. We’ll go west all the way out to the countryside. His nearest neighbor is two miles away, and a farmer, so there are beautiful fields and stuff he takes people to for pictures sometimes. Clover. Naturey things. He has a studio downtown somewhere, too, but he suggested we drive out there for this.” Z bounced in his seat. “You want to go, right?”
“Okay, but I didn’t bring clothes. Buckle your seat belt.” Z grinned and did as I asked while I pulled out of the parking spot, already intent on following the directions. I glanced at his phone. Could we get there any faster? Excitement had me clenching my fingers tight against the wheel.
“It’ll be fine. I love you in your work suits, especially when you loosen your tie.” His cheeks bloomed a pretty pink that made my resolve waver. I wanted to take him home and get him naked sooner rather than later.
“Okay, but what about you?” I eyed him up. “Figured you’d want something more… revealing for the pictures.”
“Part of the cost is what Cedar’s assistant called ‘costuming.’ I’m covered.”
“I wanted to do this for you. How much did you pay?”
Z shrugged. “He said we could settle up afterward. He’s never done anything like this, so he wanted to see how it would go first before he charged us anything, in case he doesn’t think he’ll be able to deliver photographs we like.” Z leaned over to kiss me on the cheek, and I angled my chin to help him, all while trying not to murder us as I took the car from the parking lot into New Gothenburg’s afterwork rush-hour traffic.
“I’m glad. I didn’t realize you would be able to put it together so fast, and I wanted this to be my present to my boy.” I slowed at a stoplight and reached over to touch his belly.
“Thank you, Daddy.” He rested his hand on mine until the light changed.
I drove and held Z’s hand in between shifting gears. It took us almost fifty minutes to get out of the city, and I made one wrong turn despite the computer lady telling me where to go, which added some time. When we arrived at our destination, Z let out a happy little sound. The studio resembled a small stone cottage with red shutters, but everything was too new and perfect to quite pull off the lost-in-time aura it attempted to project. In the distance the lake glittered. Fields really did surround the property, mostly clover and tall alfalfa that I assumed would be cut down at some point to make hay.
The parking lot was grass, which was something I’d read about but never seen, and the roof was sod, sewn with lavender. After I parked, Z hopped out and pointed at the flowers growing straight up where normally there would be shingles, and I could see immediately why someone would want to travel out here and have photos taken for events. We held hands as we walked toward the front of the cottage. The heavy wooden door at the entrance matched the rest of the rustic theme. A small sign instructed us to come inside, so we did. The door swung inward on silent hinges with barely a push.
At odds with the exterior, the front waiting room was painted a fresh white, and off to the left was a cluster of boxy cream couches that almost didn’t look comfortable to sit on. There was no reception desk. All the walls had groupings of photographs displayed on them, and in front of the couches was what appeared to be a rotating column shelf lined with photo albums, which I figured were probably examples of this Cedar guy’s work.
“It’s so nice,” Z whispered to me, and I could only nod and swallow hard. How much was this about to cost? As long as it was less than a car I’d agree, because I wanted professional photographs of Zayden that bad.
We had barely been in the spotless front waiting room for ten seconds when a tall blond man dressed in really nice clothes came out to greet us. I didn’t know much about outfits that weren’t suits or jeans, but the black shirt he had on was cut to make his chest look nice and seemed like it would be soft to touch. His pants reminded me of some material from the seventies. He had a green hat perched on his head that my grandfather had always called a painter’s cap. The man’s smile made him seem bashful, but it was bright, and his teeth were sharp. I wasn’t sure I’d ever seen anyone with eyes as strange as his. The last time I’d been down the paint aisle at Lowe’s with Z, that color was called Green Smoke. There was a small jade gem on the right side of his nose, and while I’d never been a fan of those types of things, on him it managed to look refined.
“Oh, I can tell you used to model,” Z said, then a nervous laugh escaped him. I wasn’t used to hearing him sound flirty like that, and a spark of jealousy burned away in my gut. He held out his hand and the other man took it, not shaking, just holding on to him.
“Pleasure to meet you in person. Oh my. Yes!” Cedar eyed him up. The green-eyed monster sank its fangs into me until Cedar turned that patient, penetrating stare of his in my direction. In no time flat my face was on fire for another reason as he stared up and down my body. “And you must be Zayden’s Daddy, Dare.”
“Hetoldyou that?”
