Love Today (5 page)

“Oh, please? I want you to have some fun. Fifteen minutes isn’t going to matter. And there are other people taking pictures and stuff too. I insist.”

“He put you up to it, huh?” I
asked
, making an adjustment on my camera.

“What? He who? Zack? He didn’t put me up to anything. I know he really wants to dance with you, that’s all.”

“Thanks, but I’m enjoying my time as I work.”

She seemed to think about that, but I was surprised when she said, “I guess I won’t pay you the second half of your fee if you don’t go dance with him.”

“What?” I chuckled
uneasily
.

She looked serious, but she still held a smile. “Yep. I guess you won’t get paid.”

“That’s blackmail.”

“I know, and I could go to jail for that. So you have to believe me when I say I really, really, really want you to dance with Zack. Just one dance?”

I felt like I was up against a wall. I was annoyed, but I was also a little flattered.

“It’s his brother’s wedding
and he’s been miserable,” she frowned. “Please?”

She really seemed sincere about that, and I even looked across the room to where Zack was with a few other people. He did look a little sullen, and maybe I had been a little rude to him.
He was only making it clear that he liked me. It wasn’t his fault that I was defective when it came to the opposite sex.

I was stubborn though, and was hesitant to give him his way.

“Please Taryn?” she begged again.

She pleaded with me silently until I finally said, “Jeez, fine
.
”

She
displayed
an excited little clap while I put my camera away, but I tried not to let her know how nervous it made me feel. It was one thing to feel insecure because of him from a distance, but it was another thing to deal with it up close.

I really was dressed for a wedding, as I always
was
when I was working at one
. I
was
wearing a lavender knee-length dress—one of my favorites—and a pair of
silver heels. I felt like I fit right in, but I also felt weird, wondering if other people would question why the photographer wasn’t doing her job.

I guarantee that Melissa motioned him over while I was putting my camera away. It wasn’t more than a minute before I looked up to see
Zack
standing there.

“Please dance with me, Taryn. Just one dance, that’s all I’m asking.”

I wanted to
panic and
say no at that moment, and I almost did, but even though I didn’t respond, he took my hand anyways. Without a word he
moved
a couple of steps toward the dance floor
to lure me along
, and I found myself following him.

Chapter Five

Zack was in a different type of mood
at
that
point
. He
smiled at
me on the dance floor, but he seemed to have a different air to him
. It was no longer a game
since he finally got his way, but he seemed to
view the moment more like I did:
it was significant.
I could tell he really liked me, and that’
s what intimidated me so much. B
ut I think he could feel that I was attracted to him
,
too. I’m sure that’s why he’d been persistent, but now that we were finally dancing together, we both felt the heat between us.

“I’m really sorry for being such a jerk,” he finally said.

“You could have
at least
waited until after this job was over,” I retorted.
Yes, I was uncomfortable, and my inner bitch was sneaking out again.

“I know, but I wanted to dance with you at my brother’s wedding.”

I didn’t have a response to that, but I noticed Jason and Melissa standing together and they were both watching us. It made me nervous, and being that we were so close to each other, dancing to a romantic song, made it even worse. I wouldn’t even look at Zack because I was afraid he’d t
ry to kiss me
. I would have been humiliated from the public display. Maybe he knew that, and he wasn’t going to risk it, but I decided to stick to my own
familiar
defenses
just in case
.

Finally the song was over, and when I was ready to return to my work, he kept hold of my hand.

“You don’t have to go,” he said quietly. Another slow song came on and he seemed to silently ask me to dance again.

I could still feel the
tangible
heat burning between us, and all I could think about was how close his mouth had been to mine. One slight movement if I’d been facing him…

“I’m sorry, I can’t,” I replied
hastily
, and I left him standing there on the dance floor.

It was bad enough feeling the way I felt, but then another guy saw me breezing by and he said, “Hey, if you’re gonna join the party,
it’s my turn.”

“No thank you,” I mumbled.

“Whatever,” he
scowled
.

I think he even called me a
name
, but I didn’t care. I was angry with myself, mainly because I’d become so vulnerable to another guy again. I wasn’t ready for another relationship.

I was so thankful when my job was over
that night
. But even a
fter the bride and groom left the party
,
I still took a few more pictures. So far I was only familiar with Zack’s family from a professional standpoint. I knew everyone’s names because I’d been talking to them all day for the photos.
But I di
dn’t mingle with any of them, or
spend any time getting to know anyone. It wasn’t part of my job that night.

His little sister was quite funny, and I understood what he meant about her being feisty. Maggie was pretty mild compared to Ashlyn,
and
even though I was used to being around one four-year-old, it didn’t mean I was able to have it easy with another. I had to work pretty hard to get Ashlyn to cooperate for the formal pictures, but it was way easier capturing shots of her that weren’t posed. I got some really good ones
since she was so active, but my favorite was of a quiet time when
Zack
was
kneeling down to talk to her. She had her hands against his cheeks, and it was a really sweet and tender moment.

I had my equipment all packed away in my trunk when I heard my phone ringing from inside the car. I unlocked the door
to find it, but I didn’t recog
nize the number on the screen.

“Hello?
” I said anyway.

“Taryn, I really hop
e you haven’t left yet,” Zack
said.

My heart rate doubled, just from hearing
his voice
again.

“Um, no, I’m i
n my car though, and I’m about to—
”

“Melissa left something for me to give you. Can you wait and I’ll bring it out to you?”

Oh gosh, what was going to happen if we were alone in a dark parking lot
? I was just about to offer to come back inside, where it was busier with cleanup and more people, but I saw him step out of the hotel. I guess
I
got out of the car, and that’s when he paused because he saw me. He did have something in his hand when he approached—it was a gift of some sort—and he
held
it
out for
me when he was close enough.

“Sorry.
I had it and then you were just…gone.”

“Thank you,” I replied.

I looked it over for a few seconds so I didn’t have to look directly at
him
, but he stepped closer to me anyways and gen
tly took my face in his hands. It caught me off guard, and m
y heart was going to thump right out of my chest when he leaned down to kiss me, but I knew that I wanted him to and I received it willingly.

I liked how he kissed me—it was soft and gentle, and it seemed very sincere. I found myself wanting more, so that was a good sign. Or maybe it was a bad sign, depending on how you look at it. I enjoyed the attraction we had to each other, but was I really going to let it be anything more than friends?

When the kiss naturally came to an end, we both just looked at each other. Zack kind of smiled and said, “Wow, no wonder I couldn’t stop thinking about it. Somehow I knew it was going to be
that good
.”

It made me smile, and for some reason—after the kiss and his light humor—I felt a lot more at ease with him. “Yeah,
I guess some things really are as good as you dream them to be.”

“Well I’d like to repeat that dream if you don’t mind,” he said, and he kissed me again.

I pulled him closer that time, mainly because I wanted to but also because I was cold. He had on a suit jacket that felt warm against my bare arms as I wrapped them around his waist.

“You’re probably cold,” he realized. He was going to take his jacket off for me, but I stopped him.

“I’m pretty sure I’ll be warmer if you just
keep me
like this,” I told him.

He laughed
as he closed as much of his jacket around me as he could
. I wished I could lay my face against him, but I
was wearing a little more
makeup
than I normally would and didn’t want to get it
on his white shirt. We ended up kissing again anyways.

“Well, I should probably get going,” I said after a while.

I knew most of the wedding party was staying in the hotel that night, and I really wanted to enjoy the conclusion of the night withou
t it being ruined with an invitation
upstairs. Sometimes announcing a departure worked and sometimes it didn’t, but the way he’d been so persistent all night made me worry that—

“Okay,” he agreed.

He kissed me one last time and then separated from me. I did not like how cold it was without him, but it made me get into my car without a second thought.

“Goodnight, Taryn. Can I call you tomorrow?”

With a smile I said, “Yes, you can call me.”

“Well can I take you out to dinner, too?”

I chuckled as I replied, “Yes, you can take me out to dinner. I’d like that.”

“You sure Magg
ie’s okay with that?” he asked
with a
smirk
.

Oh shoot! Maggie…

“Um, about that,” I said, getting out of the car again. “Uh, Maggie isn’t, uh… Well, Maggie’s my niece.”

“Yeah, I know,” he nodded.

“She’s my sister’s little girl and— What? What do you mean you know?”

He smiled a
nd said, “I know she’s not yours
. How many four-year-olds call their mom by
her
first name?”

I thought about that, but couldn’t remember a time that she actually had called me Taryn in front of him.

“And your car is clean beyond belief,” he added, nodding to it. “Too clean to have a child.”

“What?”

“And
even though you’re great with Maggie, I can tell that she’s not your daughter. That’s not a bad thing,” he
added
quickly, probably because he could tell I was a little hurt by
it
. “It’s just that there are little things that give it away. If you’d actually seen me with my sister you would have concluded the same.”

I guess I could see that, knowing that different relationships naturally created different actions between people.

“And…
then
I kind of asked about you,” he said with a sheepish smile.

I gave him a wary look. “Asked who? And
when
?”

“Uh,
just
last week. Before I talked to you about the wedding. I just asked someone if Maggie’s mom was
the
photographer and she said, ‘Oh, that’s her aunt, but yes, she’s a photographer.’ ”

“You asked to make sure I really didn’t have a kid?” I accused him.

He looked a bit surprised. “What? I didn’t care if you had a kid. Honestly, Taryn, it didn’t even matter. I just wanted to open up a conversation about you; you know, to learn something maybe. But then I decided I just wanted to talk to
you
instead, so I made my way over.”

I don’t know why I felt irritated all of a sudden, but I could tell he sensed it. He kind of sighed, like he thought he’d just made the biggest mistake ever. “I’m sorry if I hurt you
r feelings in any way, Taryn.
What did I do wrong?”