Off Kilter (10 page)

“Right,” Tessa said. “Man of honor.” For some reason, her gaze sought out Roan’s. Up to that point, he’d have sworn she didn’t even know he was part of the proceedings. But if he wasn’t mistaken, they were sharing a moment, the kind of moment reserved for private jokes and nods of understanding between two people who got each other. There was a dry curve to her lips and a quick flash of acknowledgment at the absurdity of the whole Blaine-Katie confluence—at least that’s how he interpreted it—and because he did get it, he found himself returning the same quick flash of a dry grin.

“I’ll need you to move here,” Tessa went on, barely skipping a beat as she motioned Blaine to move to his right.

Funny, Roan thought, his mind still on that mini-moment. He’d just been marveling over Katie and Graham’s instinctive communication. Who’d have thought he’d achieve even a blip of that with Tessa Vandergriff, of all people. Maybe, in their case, contempt had bred familiarity. Only … he was finding it really hard to recall what it was he’d found so contemptible in her.

“Roan,” Shay muttered, causing him to look up again.

Tessa was the one with the patient expression. “You’d be here, then,” she said to him, apparently repeating herself.

“We’d like to get out of here sometime today, old chap,” Shay said under his breath. “If you could find your way clear to paying attention for more than a full five minutes at a time, we’d all be ever so grateful.”

“Oh, don’t go gettin’ yer wobbly bits in a twist,” Roan muttered in his general direction, before moving to where Tessa was motioning. “Here?” he asked her.

She hopped down from the rocks and went about sorting them each into place with a quick, impersonal clasp of the shoulders. She even commandeered Graham, which, given his height and breadth, most wouldn’t have done with such casual intrusion, but she didn’t even pause.

Roan was coming to see that perhaps her people skills weren’t nearly as lacking as he’d first assumed. She simply employed hers very differently from most people. Her approach wasn’t traditional or particularly warm and homey like Katie’s. He doubted she suffered fools gladly, but her very air of confidence bred a certain sense of loyalty in those around her, making them feel equally confident about following her directives.

That confident leadership faltered, ever so slightly, when she moved in front of him, hands raised to grip his shoulders, too. At the very last second she paused, then dropped her hands to her sides rather than touch him. “Just angle yourself so you are at Graham’s immediate left, your right shoulder a half foot or so behind his left one, facing the exact same way. If you were to look backward over your own left shoulder, you’d see the abbey ruins set out in an almost straight line behind you.”

For preservation of both sanity and the fit of his trousers, Roan forced his gaze away from the vivid awareness he spied in her blue-green eyes. They were almost turquoise. No way was she thinking anything close to what he’d been thinking about, so he chalked the expression up to what was probably her normal tenacity and focus when truly into the job at hand. Whatever the case, he broke eye contact and turned to look behind him, shifting until he was in the exact position between Graham
and the abbey in the distance behind him. “One question,” he asked, still staring at the space behind the assembled group.

“Which is?”

“If we’re standin’
here,
how will we shift the assemblage behind us?” He motioned to the rocky field that was directly behind them. The remainder of the grassy spot where they stood was off to their left. “Won’t it be awkward if the guests are standin’ over there, and we’re facing over here? And Katie’s path to the altar might require a bit of rethinking in terms of footwear.”

Shay chuckled, which turned into a cough when Tessa shot him the kind of glare that Roan was more accustomed to seeing from her.

He found it more amusing than annoying.
Now you see what I meant?
he silently messaged to Shay as he shot him a quick grin. He’d tried to explain to Shay why Tessa had gotten so quickly on his bad side. His friend had only crossed paths with her one time, and they’d been in the company of Blaine and Kira, so the introductions had been easy and friendly.

Tessa turned to the bride and groom. “Which would you rather have,” Tessa asked, not at all unkindly, “the view of the water and abbey behind you? Or the crowd of friends and family?”

“Is there no way to achieve both?” Graham asked. Up until then he had deferred all wedding decisions to Katie. Roan knew the slight tension in his jaw indicated he’d much rather be out in the fields, testing new hybrid samples from the flax crop.

“I’d rather see the people,” Katie said, “if we have to choose. We can take an after ceremony shot with the abbey view.”

Tessa strolled a few feet away, her attention tightly on the layout of the property in their immediate vicinity, and Roan could see her blocking it all out inside her head as she quietly muttered to herself.

He wondered if all the preparation and involved planning was foreign to her. From the stills he’d seen of her work when he’d looked her up, it didn’t appear she ever had an opportunity to stage things. Even so, she somehow had a unique vision that zeroed in on the event at hand, while also scaling back to take in the whole of the area, coming up with the exact shot to combine or juxtapose the two in a way that was thought-provoking. It made the viewer think about things in a whole new, often profound, and even disturbing way—which was exactly what she intended.

It was difficult to imagine how she ever slept at night after witnessing such things. Maybe her strength came from knowing she was doing something to expose the plight of whomever was the target of her lens. Still, Roan couldn’t imagine that would be enough to stave off the kind of haunting a profession like hers would put on a person. He certainly couldn’t imagine enduring it himself. In that regard, she was one of the toughest people, in spirit and in mind, that he’d ever met.

Watching her tackle something as comparatively lightweight as a wedding, and seeing the kind of attention and focus she was giving it, was more than a little surprising to him. Especially when she had barely seemed to tolerate guiding them all through the calendar shoot.

“Okay,” she announced, turning back to face them. “We can make this work and get the best of both. How about if we shift things like this?” She lithely tiptoed across the tops of the rocks dotting the field between the meadow and where the wedding party was facing, and began reblocking the entire tableau.

Roan and Shay moved as they were told, and he had to admit he was impressed with her solution. Who knew her eye for framing warfare would make her the go-to person on a wedding shoot? He supposed, there might be some parallels, though it was one big, happy family event. As he was watching her place Blaine, he leaned closer to Shay. “So, I hear Blaine contacted you about information on Iain. Anything we should know?”

Shay shook his head. “I think Graham’s right about this. I don’t think there’s anything else to it. I can’t find anything out of line.” He shrugged. “Iain’s doing quite well for himself, is well liked at his company, has a good reputation professionally and personally. No skeletons that I can find. None with his immediate family, either. He’s well on his way to making his own fortune, but his family on his mum’s side has provided him with a trust fund that could have bought Kinloch outright. So, I don’t see any reason he’d come back again.”

“Except all of those things were true when he came out here the first time.”

“Maybe it was just a lark. He gets an out-of-the-blue inheritance from a relative he knew nothing about, and decides to check it out. What the hell. Sow some wild oats.”

“Is he the sowing-wild-oats sort?”

Shay shook his head. “From what I uncovered, he’s worked hard to get himself in the position he’s in, hasn’t traded too much on the family name. The fact that he works at all, given his net worth …” He let that trail off and finished with another shrug. “I think it’s a closed story. He’s not coming back. Nothing will spoil this wedding.”

Roan glanced again at Blaine, who was talking quite animatedly with Tessa about God only knew what, and he wondered what the wunderkind’s take on the Iain story was.

He made a mental note to ask Blaine directly what his thoughts were on the matter. If Blaine concurred with Graham and Shay, he’d let it drop for good.

“Okay, I think we’re done here,” Tessa announced.

Father Maddy looked relieved. Apparently the rehearsal was also over, because he accepted help from Graham in maneuvering around some of the tumbled rocks and such until he had a clear path to the road where his vehicle was parked.

“Will you be joining us for dinner, Father?” Katie asked, following in their wake.

“I’m afraid I won’t be able to make it, but I hope you enjoy
your evening,” he said, nodding and shaking hands with the small wedding party before making his final escape. Roan barely made the edge of the road before the man was in his car and pulling away.

“I dinnae think he’s been outside the church in far too long,” Shay murmured as Roan came to stand beside him and they watched the priest drive off.

“Aye. And I’ve no’ had a problem with that,” Roan said, making Shay smile.

They walked over to Graham. “You’re both joining us,” Graham said, not making it much of a question.

“Aye,” Shay responded, and Roan nodded.

Katie and Tessa joined them as Katie was saying, “If you’d like to round Kira up, she’s welcome, too.”

Roan turned to find Tessa shaking her head. “It’s very nice of you to invite us, but I won’t intrude on your special—”

“No, really, come with us,” Katie implored. “I promise I won’t talk photography.” She smiled with obvious guilt but little actual regret. “Much.”

Roan watched as Tessa clearly struggled with her response. He wasn’t sure if her unwillingness to join them was because she wasn’t much for socializing, or she truly didn’t want to intrude as the outsider of the bunch … or because he was going to be there.

“I’ll contact Kira,” she said, relenting in the face of Katie’s imploring expression, “but I know she was deep in studio mode today, so—”

“Roan could swing by to pick her up,” Katie offered brightly. Possibly a bit too brightly. “He’ll talk her into coming out, won’t you, Roan?” She turned to him with a perfect smile on her sweet, calculating face.

He realized he’d been set up. Tessa’s gaze turned to his, the questioning look in her eyes making it clear she’d picked up on Katie’s not-so-subtle matchmaking attempt, too. It made no
sense whatsoever, but he almost felt compelled to explain—although he had no actual idea what to say. His thoughts hadn’t been on Kira all day. Or for the past several, for that matter. They’d been on the woman currently staring at him, expressionless. When Katie had been talking of them both joining the party at the intimate rehearsal dinner, it hadn’t been the mention of Kira’s possible attendance that had snagged his attention.

Roan wanted to tell Tessa she had it all wrong, that Katie was wrong, and that … that what? He brought himself up short before he uttered a single word. He hadn’t done or said anything, so why in bloody hell was he feeling guilty?

He turned to Katie, fully prepared to make it clear that while Kira was welcome at dinner, he wasn’t going to be the persuader she’d hoped for, but Tessa spoke first.

“We can both ride over. I’d like to put my equipment back in the croft, and we’ll see if we can talk her into coming back into town with us.” Her gaze shifted to Roan’s, and there was amusement in her eyes.

Oh, so she thought it was funny, did she? He wondered how fast her expression would change if she knew who’d been the real source of the wayward thoughts he’d indulged in that afternoon.

He turned to Katie. “Well, if she’ll be going by, then you’ll hardly need my assista—”

“Go with her,” Katie said, her gaze darting between Roan and Tessa, finally settling on him.

He gave her a steely gaze back, but rather than look chastened in any way, she merely grinned at him.

“Hurry back!” she added, with a little wave.

“Aye,” Shay said, looking between the three of them, then only at Roan, the droll note clear in his steady tone. “Please. Hurry back.”

Roan glanced from Shay to Graham, and realized in that
moment that he hadn’t been fooling anybody about his interest in Kira. Any other time, he’d have been embarrassed or even a bit annoyed—at himself for thinking he could hide anything from those closest to him—but, at the moment, he was actually relieved. As long as they were thinking to shove him in Kira’s path, no one would be paying the slightest bit of attention to the fact that he couldn’t seem to string two intelligent sentences together around her redheaded best friend.

Except Katie—whose expression had taken on a far too considering look.

“I’ll follow you over,” he told Tessa, thinking it better to end the little cluster before things went any further. “We can all go to dinner in my lorry, then.” And Graham and Katie could be responsible for getting the two women back home again. It was the least they could do as far as he was concerned. That would teach the bride-to-be to play at matchmaking.

Tessa glanced around the group one last time, and he thought she might add something—heaven only knew what that might be—or reject his offer outright, but in the end, she merely nodded and shoved a long, black canvas tote at him. “Good. Then you can help carry the gear.”

Everyone alternately chuckled, grinned, or gave them a little send off wave. He shot Shay and Graham a meaningful look that promised later retribution, then leaned in and bussed Katie’s cheek. “Dinnae get yer hopes up, lass,” he murmured in her ear. “Things aren’t always what ye think they are.”

She merely smiled at him as he straightened. “We’ll see,” she said, then, for the rest of the group, added, “you both at dinner! Don’t take too long!”

Deciding retreat was definitely the better part of valor, he hiked the tripod bag over his shoulder, and turned toward Kira’s car, which was stationed a few meters up from where Father Maddy’s car had been. Tessa caught up with him and he could swear he heard an amused little chuckle behind him.