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“I love that smile.” The box Ari had sent was on the dresser. He rummaged through it. “There’s more in here we can take advantage of tonight.” He unearthed a flat gold box she must have overlooked. “Chocolate?”
He plopped onto his side on the bed, the open box of chocolates between them. He lifted a piece of dark chocolate from its brown crinkly wrapper. “Chocolate roulette. Sure I know it’s dark, but anything could be inside. Cream. Coconut.” He made a face. “Baked beans.”
“Let’s hope not,” she said through a laugh. Tugging the sheet so that it covered her breasts, she rolled to her side to face him. She closed her eyes and picked a chocolate. They said “cheers” and tapped the candies together before each taking a bite.
“Chocolate cream.” She hummed her approval as she chewed.
“Mine’s filled with toothpaste. How disappointing.”
She almost choked on another laugh , but managed to pull herself together. They polished off one more chocolate apiece, coconut for her and vanilla crème for him.
“Will you change your mind about crashing weddings after this weekend? Or did I ruin your streak since you are technically invited to this one?”
“That award goes to Esther Edmonton.” He picked through the chocolates and came out with a small square-shaped piece.
“Who is Esther Edmonton?”
“She’s a saucy grandmother I met last year at a wedding I crashed. She asked me to dance with her, assuming I was one of the groom’s friends. What could I do?”
“Nothing. Clearly. You were trapped.”
“She knew it, too.” He ate the candy and sucked a bit of melted chocolate off his thumb. She stared for a prolonged beat, parts of her growing warm at the idea of where his mouth had been tonight. “She used to be a nurse. She told me she was married fifty-two years to a ‘wonderful man’ who she couldn’t wait to see again in heaven.”
Rylee put a hand over her heart. “Aww.”
“It gets better. Esther regretted never having her own children, so she said she hoped her grandniece—the bride—chose to ‘make babies’ with her husband. Then she asked me if I’d like to ‘make babies’ and I told her I was flattered, but I was much too young to consider a family with a woman so out of my league.” Rylee giggled on cue. “And then I gave her the real answer. I told her I’d love to have kids, but I’m in no rush.”
Rapt, she leaned in.
“Then I asked Esther if I could interview her on camera and we sat and talked for another forty minutes in a quiet corner of the reception hall. I never put the footage up. It felt private, you know?”
He picked another chocolate out of the box and offered it to her. She took it, but didn’t eat it right away. “I’m afraid you’re about to tell me something sad.”
“I am.” He offered a tight smile. “The bride—Brittany—contacted me after she found footage of me at her wedding. In the email, she said her great-aunt Esther had passed away. Apparently, Esther had mentioned me multiple times since the wedding, and the fact that she’d been interviewed. Brittany sought out my channel hoping that I’d posted the interview. I explained that I’d kept it private, but I was happy to send it to her.” He took a breath before continuing, obviously saddened about Esther’s passing. Rylee could understand why. She felt sad too and had never met the woman. “Anyway. I edited a video together and sent it to Brittany. There were so many great moments, little moments that are normally edited out. Those are the best parts. Esther looking off to the side. Losing her train of thought and laughing. Telling me a dirty joke.”
Tears in her eyes, Rylee smiled.
“I knew the moment I finished that edit and emailed it off that I was in the wrong business. I had taken a left when I should have hung a right. I started out in film school for a reason, and it had nothing to do with followers, sponsorships or blocking comments from trolls. Ironically, had I not crashed that wedding, I never would have met Esther and found my way, you know?”
“So, what now?” The story couldn’t end there.
“I’m in deep, Peaches. Like when someone is in the mob. I have sponsorships I’ve agreed to that I either need to honor or cancel. I have a video schedule to adhere to, although I’m looking into crashing celebrity charity events to spotlight the charity rather than myself. It’s a pivot, for sure. Slower than I’d like, but I’ve never been patient.”
“So, you’re going to be a filmmaker after all? Documenting the small moments in life.”
“The best moments are the moments that are usually edited out of the final.” He picked another chocolate out of the box and tossed it into his mouth. “Like the one we’re having now.”
Twelve
When her alarm jangled from her phone on the nightstand, Rylee launched out an arm to tap the Stop button like she did nearly every morning at 6 a.m. Instead of her phone, she encountered a muscular male arm. A rogue dart of panic stabbed her chest for a fraction of a second before she recalled the night before.
Trick following her to her room. The basket of self-care goodies from Ari reimagined as props for foreplay. The incredible sex. Eating chocolate in bed. Him mentioning how life was made up of little moments that were often edited out to allow the bigger moments to shine.
“Sorry,” she whispered, reaching past him for her phone.
He muttered under his breath. Then his arm lashed around her back and he tugged her roughly against his naked body. His mouth hit her neck and she felt his lips tickle her skin when he rumbled, “Morning.”
But that wasn’t all she felt. Several inches of morning wood pressed against her when he shifted his hips. This was definitely an improvement from how she normally awoke each morning. She dropped her phone back onto the nightstand and reached beneath the blankets. She gripped his erection, massaging it once, twice.
