And Dex.
He stood near the far end of the table, hands in his pockets, that same guarded expression I’d come to recognize over the past few days. Our eyes met for half a second before we both looked away.
Three days since the pond. Three days since the truce. Three days of successfully avoiding each other.
So much for making this easier.
“Okay!” Delaney clapped her hands together. “Let’s get started. Leigh, why don’t you sit here?” She gestured to an empty chair. “Right next to Dex. You two will need to coordinate on the photography timeline anyway.”
My stomach dropped.
Blake caught my eye and smiled innocently. Too innocently.
“Yeah,” she said, her voice suspiciously cheerful. “You’ll be working together a lot. Might as well get comfortable.”
I looked at the chair. Then at Dex, who was looking at the chair with the same expression someone might wear facing a firing squad.
But we couldn’t object. Not without making it obvious that sitting next to each other was a problem. Not without explaining why sitting next to each other was a problem. We weren’t four. Logically I knew I could do this and survive without contracting cooties.
So I sat.
And Dex sat.
And our thighs were maybe three inches apart, which felt like three inches too close and three miles too far all at once.
“Perfect!” Delaney settled into her own seat. “Now, let’s go through the checklist.”
I pulled out my notebook, grateful for something to focus on that wasn’t the heat radiating from the man beside me. I could smell his cologne, and I tried not to take a deep breath of the woodsy and clean scent that made me want to lean closer.
I didnotlean closer.
“Venue is set,” Delaney was saying. “The pond for the ceremony, the barn for the reception. Leigh, you’ve seen the pond. Do you need to scout the barn?”
“Yes,” I managed, my voice thankfully steady. “I’ll need to check the lighting, figure out the best angles for the reception shots.”
“Dex can show you around,” Trace said casually. Too casually. “He helped us renovate it last year. Knows every corner.”
Dex shifted beside me. “Sure.”
One word. Clipped. Careful.
I didn’t look at him.
Delaney continued down her list: catering (handled by a company in the next town over), flowers (meeting scheduled), music (final band auditions next week). With each item, Itook notes, sketched ideas, tried to ignore the way Dex’s arm occasionally brushed against mine when he reached for his coffee.
Tried to ignore the electricity that shot through me every time.
Then Delaney said something that made my pencil still on the page.
“Leigh, Trace and I have been talking, and we’d actually like to do a proper engagement shoot. We never did one and I’d love to take the chance to make it a kind of family photo shoot if you’d be okay with that.”
Trace moved to stand behind her chair, his hands on her shoulders. “I missed so much with Cade and I want to preserve as many of these memories together as we can.” He looked down at his wife with such open affection that something in my chest ached. “This is our time and we want to do it right.”
“I’d love to,” I said honestly. “When were you thinking?”
“Next few weeks? Before things get too crazy?” Delaney looked hopeful.
“Absolutely. I’ll need to scout some locations…”
