Because I still love you.Because I ended things with you, and I don’t know who I am without you.
The camera beeped, cutting through my thoughts.
He tightened his hold as the shutter clicked.His thumb brushed the fabric of my shirt, just around the place that would swell in a few months’ time.My pulse raced, breath shortened, but I forced myself to focus on the next pose and not the tender touch of his hand.
The camera beeped again.He locked his hands together, resting them on top of my stomach, and I placed my hands on his.Images of family photos holding a baby and not a bottle of wine popped into my head, but I quickly forced them out of my mind.
I couldn’t think about that.
“Okay, and done.Now let’s try the one behind the barrel.”I stepped from him too fast, catching my foot on a divot in the grass.My body swayed forward, and Wyatt’s hand snaked around my waist, pulling me close and holding me steady.
“Whoa,” he said.“Almost biffed it there.”
His warmth clung to me like the security blanket it had always been.
“Almost.”I laughed and moved away from him again before I sank into his arms.I didn’t even need to look at him to know the smile on his face had fallen.
“So if you can just take your place.”I motioned to the barrel, keeping my eyes glued to the camera screen.
“Yeah, sure.”
Wyatt obeyed, running a hand through his dark hair before stepping into place, that familiar crooked half-smile tugging at his mouth.He always obeyed when I used my professional tone.He respected my space, even when all I wanted was for him to ignore my words and close the distance, wrap me back in his arms and tell me he would marry me.He adjusted the bottle, wiped a nonexistent smudge from the label, and said softly, “You always get this look when you’re in the zone.It’s kinda hot.”His dark eyes crinkled at the edges, the boyish charm he wore like armor slipping into place.
The corners of my mouth twitched despite myself.“Don’t.”
“Don’t what?”
“Make me laugh right now.”
“Why not?”he asked, his tone way too gentle, making it worse.
Because if I laugh, I’ll cry.
Instead, I lifted the camera and framed the shot, hiding behind the lens because it was the only place I could control the blur.
“Okay,” I whispered, snapping photo after photo.His profile was sharp in the golden light, dark hair slightly unruly, the sunlight catching on the bottle, on his eyes, on every part of him that used to belong to me.
When I was done, I lifted my head from the camera, my chest tight.“That’s it.We’re good.”
He looked at me for a long beat, his expression completely unreadable, then nodded.“Right.Good.”
But as he turned away, I caught the flicker in his expression.It was the same devastation I’d been trying so hard to hide.
Perfection really was an illusion.
And these photos I would use to promote love and happiness at the vineyard would be proof of that.
It had been almost a week since the photoshoot, and I was still trying to figure out what the hell I had been doing.I brushed my lips against Rose’s ear, made flirty comments, acted like I would if we were still together.But we weren’t.She made that abundantly clear in the way she kept pulling away from me.
I parked in front of Espresso Yourself on Main Street and thrust my hands through my hair.Six days.It had been six days since Rose took her duffel bag and left me.Six days that we have continuously lied to the people we loved most.The men were oblivious, but Chardonnay was getting suspicious.If she confronted me, I would squeal like a damn pig.I loved the woman like a sister, but she scared the hell out of me.
I made my way toward the coffee shop, and just as I was about to pull the door and step in, Odette appeared in front of me.“Wyatt,” she said, her blue eyeshadow reaching new heights.Her hot pink matching set with an embroidered cat on the sleeves and ankles was bright enough to stop traffic.“You are just the person I wanted to see.”
“Now Odette, what could you possibly need me for?”That was a loaded question, and God only knew what was going to come out of her mouth.
She slipped a notepad from her bag and tapped a matching hot pink nail against the paper.“The Summer Splash for Seniors is this Saturday, and I need you and Rose to man the dunk tank.”
I blinked.“The dunk tank?Didn’t you have Dale Rogers do it last year?”
