Money. Shot.
The resulting image was perfection. That one would hang over the mantle. He’d bet his left nut on it.
“Thanks.” Roman lifted the camera and gave a wave.
Jase smiled knowingly, slipping easily into the conversation with his wife and friends.
Roman refused to allow his gaze to move to Sadie when he was on the job.
Over ten years and she still slipped into his subconscious while he slept. And his consciousness when he was awake. He couldn’t allow her to take over when he was documenting his brother’s wedding.
He’d been on missions taking photographs of heroes and battlefields and combat, you name it, but what Sadie had offered was never far from his thoughts. That little offer that she would wait for him snuck into his mind at the oddest times.
Babushka came into focus with one of her boyfriends—Harry—and Roman pressed the button on the shutter, saving the moment for all eternity.
Harry was a decent guy. Of the two boyfriends Babushka brought around—yes, his grandmother was apparently in two wide-open relationships—Harry was his favorite.
Roman leaned forward, Louise’s viewfinder centered against his eye. He clicked a few more photos of his babushka, carefully cropping Harry out of the image. His father would appreciate this batch.
Absently, his thumb brushed the scuffs along the side of Louise. One would’ve thought after so many years, the scuffs would’ve polished out. Lord knew he’d tried to buff them away, but like the marks on his soul from all the times he’d fucked up, those tarnishes on Louise remained.
She may have been a camera, but she’d been right at his side through every bit of war he’d seen. They almost hadn’t made it out of the desert a few months after he’d left Sadie and Denver behind. He’d nearly eaten a bullet. When shit like that happens, it makes a guy take stock in what he’d leave behind. As his leg had dangled out the side of the Chinook that was in the process of getting the crew out, he gripped Louise’s freshly marred housing. The only thing on his mind was wondering what Sadie was doing. Wondering if she was happily on track to save the world in her own way. Had she found theallshe wanted?
He quickly rearranged Louise’s lens to focus on his brother’s left hand, taking the photo before Jase moved out of the shot.
That one was for their mother’s coffee table.
Roman had completed what felt like a million missions after that almost-didn’t-make-it flight. Nothing felt the same.
Was it the flight? Was it missing Sadie? Was it almost not getting out of there alive? He wasn’t sure.
When it came down to it…when time stood still…when he’d almost died, something in him changed. His priorities had been a total clusterfuck.
Sadie’s offer tightly wrapped itself around his heart, his mind, and his reality. He simply hadn’t known what to do with it. Now? He was ready to stop screwing around and put his focus where it belonged.
“A little closer?” he asked two of Heather’s family members, gesturing so they’d scoot their chairs together.
Seeing wide smiles all around, he snapped the photo and felt the happiness of the moment straight in his gut. Even just three months ago, if you had asked him if this is what he would be doing now, the answer would have been a resounding hell-to-the-no.
Yet, when he’d been just about ready to re-up and continue his service, he’d realized he wanted something different. Something that wasn’t clicking the shutter on all things Uncle Sam.
Thiswas what he wanted. To land somewhere he could take pictures of happy shit—weddings where people loved each other, families who loved life. And he wanted the Heather to his Jase.
The Sadie to his Roman.
The happiness he’d just felt in his gut took a swan dive to his toes, landing hard.
There was only one Sadie.
When he’d stood at the front of the chapel, prepared to stand with his brother and his new wife, the woman straight out of Roman’s dreams walked right through the front door and down the aisle.
Ten years and time did nothing but act as a strange, bland filter over all the experiences he’d had since they last parted.
He’d made it through the “I Do’s,” keeping his attention mostly on the wedding and not on her.
After the ceremony, he’d jumped back in with a job to do as the photographer for the reception.
He glanced across the room to where Sadie stood with Marlee. He knew Marlee. His babushka adored Marlee, so that meant Marlee had been included in all their family gigs since he’d been back. Marlee was married to Eli, so it was a convoluted, complicated, mess of family and friends.
