From This Day Forward (The Wedding Belles 0.5)(13)

Heather rolled her eyes. “Please. Alexis asked me to keep an eye on you two. Make sure you didn’t end up taking naked pictures of each other instead of focusing on the bride and groom.”

“Leah and I are professionals,” he ground out, irritated at the implication that he’d ever shirk his photography duties.

“Dang, she’s got you tangled up in all kinds of knots,” Heather said in awed delight.

Jason didn’t even bother to deny this. Out of the corner of his eye, he saw Leah get down on one knee to get a shot of the president’s niece linking hands with the groom’s cousin as the two little girls spun in giddy circles, their laughter lighting up the room, even over the music of the Sinatra sound track.

He watched as Leah laughed with the little girls. He raised his eyebrows in surprise as Leah handed over her very heavy, very expensive camera and let the kids take a goofy selfie.

His stomach twisted. Leah was good with kids. Of course she would be. She had all sorts of goodness and patience and understanding.

Just not when it came to him.

He lifted his camera once more, trying to get in the zone. His lens landed on a cute blonde who was staring right into the camera. Her smile was slow, seductive, and painfully obvious. Jason subtly shifted, pretending he hadn’t seen her.

It wasn’t the first time women flirted with him at a wedding, and it wouldn’t be the last, but he’d never found it quite so annoying until now, when there was only one woman he wanted.

Maybe Leah was right to put up walls between them. If this was how it felt to be completely consumed with another person, he’d never survive it.

Jason slowly let himself get lost in the party, moving around the crowd, seeing what they saw, capturing what they felt. He knew Leah did the same, because the few times his camera lens caught her in the periphery, the camera was always to her face.

Only once did he find her watching him, her expression unreadable, and it did something dangerous to his chest.

She’d tasted like cinnamon.

Heather found him once more as the night was drawing to a close, a full dinner plate in hand. “Eat.”

He glanced down at the fancy plate. There was some sort of fussy piece of steak, covered in a sauce, asparagus with yellow creamy gunk on top.

He was sure it was as delicious as it was expensive, and although he appreciated when clients took care to feed their vendors, Jason wasn’t in the mood.

His eyes scanned the room for Leah, seeing her talking to Alexis on the far side, looking as tired as he felt. It was always like this after an event, but damn. They hadn’t even gotten to the wedding yet.

Heather sighed and set the plate of overpriced food on a nearby table. “She’s the reason you didn’t go out with Liz, huh?”

Jason tore his eyes away from Leah and looked at Heather in confusion. “Who’s Liz?”

Heather shook her head. “Exactly. Liz is my friend. The one who you’d be perfect for. I tried to set you guys up on a date a few months back, but you canceled last minute. Never called her back. Did I forget to tell you what an asshat move that was, by the way?”

“Shit, sorry, Heather.” Jason felt a little stab of guilt. He hadn’t been completely celibate in the year since he and Leah had gone up in flames, but he’d mostly limited his interaction with women to the one-night-stand variety, steering clear of the relationship-seeking kind.

There was only one woman with whom he wanted the title of boyfriend, and she didn’t seem to think he was worthy of the role.

It wasn’t the anger so much as the hurt that had Jason’s eyes scanning the room until his gaze landed on the slim blonde who’d been giving him the look all night.

Sure enough, she was hanging out in the corner under the pretense of rummaging through her purse, glancing over at him to see if he was going to make a move.

Early on in his career, Jason had made it a point to never sleep with any of the wedding guests. It was just bad form.

But Leah didn’t know that.

His hurt caused a flash of pettiness, and Jason was moving across the room toward the blonde until he could think better of it.

He stopped in front of her, extending his hand. “Hi. Jason.”

The girl was prettier than he realized, and younger. Younger than he’d like. But hey, he wasn’t actually planning to sleep with her. What was the harm in a casual dinner with a pretty woman?

She gave a slow, pleased smile, placing her hand in his. “Autumn.”

“Care to join me for something to eat? I didn’t have a chance to grab dinner, and I’ve heard there’s a place nearby with late-night burgers.”

Autumn blinked, clearly a little surprised that his offer had involved food instead of sex, but she recovered quickly. “Sure. I’d like that.”

He jerked his chin in the direction of the door, placing a hand on Autumn’s back as he followed her out into the warm summer night.

Jason didn’t let himself look back to see if Leah was watching.

He told himself he didn’t care.

He was a liar.





It was a good wedding.

The best kind, really.

The kind where there was so much love coming from every direction that Leah teared up right alongside the bride and groom and their parents.

In fact, when the former president had walked Kylie down the aisle, looking for all the world that it was the proudest moment in his life, her eyes had gotten so watery she’d panicked, terrified that she was about to miss some of the best shots.