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Minutes later, they were all gathered around the television in the living room. While everyone else found a chair, Riley sat down on the floor next to Dylan.
“I’ll bring another chair, sis,” Aiden said.
Riley shook her head. “I’m totally fine here; this way, I’m close to my laptop.”
She didn’t see where Mitch was sitting, but if the heat radiating against her back was any indication, he was directly behind her.
Friends. They were just friends. This was good. This was what she wanted.
“Okay, here we go!” she called out and clicked on the first photo.
Amongstaaahsandooohsand laughter and sniffling, they went through all the photos of the day.
“Oh, Riley,” Annie cried toward the end. “Go back to the previous one.”
“This one?” Riley smiled. It was the one where Craig had touched his bride’s face in an unguarded moment.
“Look at that face!” Aiden chuckled. “Coz, you’re clearly besotted.” Aiden chuckled.
Craig hugged Annie. “What can I say? I married the love of my life.”
“This one—I want this enlarged and framed, Riley, please?” Annie asked.
“On canvas?” Riley nodded as she showed the last two photos. “I can have it done for you when we’re back in Portland. I don’t know when you guys will be visiting again?” Closing the folder with wedding photos, she turned around to look at Annie and Aiden, trying her best not to look in Mitch’s direction.
“I know you have to go back for more photo shoots,” Aiden said with a frown. “But aren’t you coming back for Christmas?”
“I don’t know…” Riley began, but that was as far as she got.
“You can’t not be here,” Vivian called out. “It’s our first Christmas as a family and you should be here—with family.”
“We’ll buy the plane tickets if money is a problem,” Aiden added.
“It’s not the plane tickets…” Riley tried.
“Then it’s settled,” Aiden said. “You’re coming back for Christmas.”
“And maybe, if Dylan likes the school here, he could stay with me for the two weeks you have to go back to Portland,” Aunt Janice said.
Laughing, Riley threw up her hands. “Okay, I’ll think about it.”
Annie jumped up and gave Riley a hug. “We’ll pester you until you say yes. Let’s eat. Aiden—will you open the wine?”
As everyone left, Riley turned back to pick up her laptop. She knelt down to close it and put it in the bag, but before she even touched her laptop, Mitch crouched down beside her.
“I can see why you’re such a successful photographer—the pictures you’ve taken are really something else.” He pulled the laptop closer to him. “I want to have another look… which folder?”
Frozen, Riley saw Mitch’s finger hovering over the folder she’d created for his photos.
“This is an interesting name for a folder.Something Stupid,” he said.
Finally, Riley got her breath back. Just before Mitch could click on the folder, she grabbed her laptop. “It’s a good description for what’s in it.” Jumping up, she closed it and put it in the cover.
“So what have you got hidden in there?” Mitch chuckled.
She tried to shrug nonchalant. “Exactly what it says. Stupid moments. When doing fashion shoots, there are a lot of those.”
“Mitch? Riley?” Annie called from inside.
