I pulled away from Matteo. Gia was wearing her cowboy boots again, pairing them with cutoff light-blue jean shorts and a pale-pink frilly blouse.
“Hey, cuz, what’s with the boots?” Matteo asked, eyeing Gia’s outfit.
I laughed, fixing my arms tight around Matteo’s waist. “It’s only been a week, but your cousin has already gone full-on pastoral-chic.”
He smirked, then tightened his arms around me. “Gladyou’restill you.”
I rested my head on his chest for a second. I wished we could stay like this for a while, but we had a long day planned.
“We good to go?” I asked. “Google says it’s twenty-five minutes to the falls. But that’s assuming no traffic. Might be busy today.”
Gia checked her phone. “Cam’s on his way. He’ll be here in three.”
My eyes narrowed. “Why is Cameron on his way?”
Gia had talked about nothing except her new “boo” since their date Friday night. She was quite sure he was “the one.” But since this was her fourth “the one” this year alone, I wasn’t expecting him to last longer than a week.
“He’s coming to Niagara Falls with us,” she said.
“He is? Since when?”
“Since I asked him. I told him we were going to get new pictures for our Instas, and he wants to join us. Don’t worry, he knows how important your fashion shots are; he’ll stay out of our way while we’re doing those.”
She glanced at Matteo, who just shrugged. “Fine with me,” he said. “The more the merrier.”
A large white Jeep pulled up in front of the house. Gia squealed with joy.
A guy who I assumed was Cameron Simons got out of the driver’s side. Then Addison McLaughlin got out of the passenger side.Okay.What exactly wasshedoing here?
“Gigi!” Cameron said, grinning. Dude looked exactly as I expected. Blond and blandly good looking. Totally not my type, but I could see the appeal.
Gia threw her arms around him. “Cameron! Yay! You’re here!”
“Hi, Tahira!” Addison smiled.
After Gia excitedly introduced everyone, Cameron smiled at Gia. “Hope you don’t mind Addie tagging along; she was dying to see the falls.”
I spoke before Gia had a chance to respond. “You live twenty minutes from the falls, Addison. I assume you’ve seen them before.”
Addison shrugged. “It’s been a while. Besides, I heard you were doing a fashion shoot—I thought you might need help. I took pictures for our school yearbook.”
Matteo shook his head. “The Mustang can’t fit five people.”
Cameron waved his hand. “No issue. I can drive. I can fit five big hockey players in the Jeep; y’all will be no problem.”
Gia looked at me sheepishly. She knew how I felt about Addison.
I sighed. Maybe I was being a little judgy. I needed to let this go so it wouldn’t spoil my date with Matteo.
“Great.” I smiled. “Let me get my things.”
Once we were settled in Cameron’s car (me between Matteo and Addison, in the back seat), I noticed Rowan Johnston standing in front of his garage, watching us. I shrank back in the seat, hoping he wouldn’t see me. I wasn’t exactly sure why I cared, but I didn’t like him seeing me with Addison and Cameron after the stuff I’d said about them Friday night.
After a mostly quiet (well, not really quiet—Cameron’s loud alt-rock meant none of us could really carry a conversation) drive, we were in Niagara Falls. Cameron parked in a pay lot, and we braved swarms of tourists and mist to find a spot with a good view of the falls for the first photo shoot. I’d only been in Bakewell about a week, but it already seemed weird to be surrounded by so many strangers. Weird, but good. I’d missed the hustle of crowds.
“This is awesome,” Matteo said, squeezing my hand. We were a few paces in front of the others. “The last time I was here, with cousin Daniela from Cleveland, it was raining so hard we couldn’t see a thing. These pictures will be epic.”
“I want to get some of all of us,” Addison said, jogging to catch up with us. “I’ll make sure to tag you!”
