Page 14 of Riverside Reverie

They’d be the first in our circle to tie the knot, and I couldn’t be more excited for them. Zoey and Kai had overcome a lot in their relationship, with Kai’s seizures and the stroke. Things had been difficult for them, but their love had always come easily.

If two people deserved a happily ever after, if it was them. But watching them together now had me thinking about my own destiny. I wasn’t sure what that was, yet, but…

My eyes were pulled back to the siren across the fire. She was so damn gorgeous, a seductress with those lips and curves—curves I wanted to escape in for hours. But there was something sweet and unassuming about her. Angelic, even. It was difficult not to want to know her, to know exactly what it was about her that called to me. Was it just her looks, or something more?

I wasn’t afraid of my immediate attraction to her, not the way I would have been a few years ago. Now, it felt like I’d been waiting for her—or waiting for the feeling like the one I got when I looked at her. It was a feeling of…more. Of endless possibilities.

And I knew that was a crazy thought to have after just having met someone, but there was something different about her. Something potent and essential, something elemental. She’d bewitched me, and I found I wasn’t even mad about it. Instead, I was fascinated by not only her, but my reaction to her. My thirst to know more about her was similar to my thirst to learn about naturally occurring inorganic elements and compounds. I wanted to learn about her internal structure, about all the chemical compositions that made up her breathtaking form.

Lux leaned forward and whispered something to Jasmine, her eyes aglow with conspiracy. I grinned, wagering they were probably talking about me. At least, by her smile and the glow in her cheeks I’d hoped they were.

“Dinner’s ready! Dig in,” Zoey sang. Lux held back, waiting until everyone else had grabbed something to eat. She filled her plate with mac and cheese and a sausage, sitting down in her seat across the fire.

Everyone dug in, and for several moments nobody talked. The crackling fire, lapping water, and the call of a loon on the river were the soundtrack to our meal. Zoey’s salty, cheesy mac and cheese hit the spot, and the companionable silence made me feel at ease with the world.

Once the food had been consumed and the mess cleaned up, we stayed seated around the fire, drinking and catching up on the things we’d missed in each other’s lives. Although most of us had stayed local, our jobs and daily demands meant we didn’t get together as much as we used to.

Back when everyone had lived at or near the duplex, it was easier to get together. We’d have a bonfire in the backyard every weekend. About a year ago, Baz and Rhiannon had purchased their first house together and moved. They now lived in a bungalow twenty-minutes north of Sudbury.

So, it was good to sit down around a fire, share a few drinks, and catch up. One of the most interesting stories of the night came from Rhiannon.

Earlier this year, she had photographed a celebrity wedding. She and Baz had signed an NDA and couldn’t talk about it until the couple announced the wedding. Rhiannon was officially free to talk about it, and show off her photos. It was huge news.

In an exclusive five page spread with Music Magazine, Travis Channing spoke about falling in love with the girl of his dreams. Rhiannon’s photographs of the couple’s small, intimate wedding in Banff, Alberta made the front page.

“It’s crazy how many followers I’ve gained since they published the magazine. And how many inquires I’ve gotten for weddings! I’m booked up for next year already, and I’ve started taking bookings for two years from now!”

“That’s so cool! How did you get the job?” Lux asked, captivated by Rhiannon’s story.

“Through Baz’s mutual friend.” Rhiannon answered. “The job fell in my lap. Gordon, Baz’s friend, arranged for me to meet with the wedding planner. Her name was Elle Thompson. I only ever communicated with her; I had no idea who the mystery couple was that I’d be photographing until I arrived to shoot their wedding.”

“I had my suspicions,” Baz claimed with a smile. “Gordon doesn’t know many celebrities. Of course, he does work on a lot of rich people’s cottages, so it could have been a rich client.”

Jasmine was on her phone, on Rhiannon’s Gram account, showing Lux the photographs.

“Oh, these are stunning!” Lux gushed.

“I can’t believe we’re going to have the same wedding photographer as Travis Channing,” Zoey said dreamily, looking up at Kai over her shoulder. He was whittling one end of a stick, and he paused what he was doing to press a kiss to her lips.

“I can’t wait for your wedding.” Rhiannon grinned. “I have some ideas in mind!”

“Oooh! Tell me!” Zoey squealed, shuffling closer to Rhiannon so they could talk wedding stuff.

“So, Lux. You just graduated, right?” I asked, trying to make casual conversation—and learn a little more about her. I tried not to appear overly interested, but it was so hard for me to not show my hand when faced with an exciting new discovery.

“Yeah…with my degree in medical radiation sciences.”

“What made you want to get into that?”

“When I was seven, I broke my leg falling off the monkey bars. I had to get x-rays, and I remember being so afraid of the machine. There was a radiology technologist that calmed me right down. She took the time to teach me a little about the machine, so I would know how it worked and wouldn’t fear it.”

“That was really nice of her,” Rhiannon remarked, her face softening. Rhiannon had spent a lot of time in hospitals as a child, she had a bunch of her own stories about medical professionals.

Rhiannon had Ehlers-Danlos syndrome, a rare inherited condition that affects connective tissues such as skin, tendons, ligaments, blood vessels, internal organs and bones. When she was a child, she’d had a major surgery to straighten her spine and put in rods.

“Yeah, it was.” Lux nodded with agreement. “I always knew I wanted to do something in the medical field, like my dad—he’s a cardiologist. But, I don’t know. That one experience stuck out in my head…and when it came time to pick a program, I read up on that one and just knew.”

“That’s cool. Now the fun part of job hunting begins,” Zoey chuckled.

---