Page 12 of The Wedding Ruse

All his breath came out in a whoosh as relief hit him. “Fair point.” He said as he led her into the bedroom. He turned down the covers and waited for her to climb in before climbing in and curling up behind her.

Her sigh as she wiggled closer to him was all he’d need to content himself into a comfortable sleep. He rarely slept long, or well, hazards of a stressful job, but tonight he knew it was going to be the best night’s sleep he’d had in a while.

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THE NEXT MORNING TRISTANreached out to find an empty bed beside him. No warmth left; she must have been up for a while, he thought. Stretching, he tossed back the covers and stood to go looking for her.

The bunkhouse was completely empty, she was nowhere to be found except for a pot of coffee showing she had been here this morning. Tristan poured himself a cup and went to the porch in search of Grace.

Not hard to find, she had gotten dressed and was outside with her camera, completely oblivious to him. He stood there for a bit and watched her, fully immersed in her work with a smile on her face, snapping a few photos and then checking the screen to see how they looked.

“Good morning!” He yelled, snapping her out of her trance.

“Good morning! I see you found the coffee.” Joining him on the porch, she surprised him by going up on her tiptoes for a kiss.

He raised his empty hand and ran it through her long brown hair. “I did, thank you.” Smiling she stepped back. “What are you taking pictures of?”

“A little of everything. I don’t get a chance to be in different settings often, thought I would take advantage of it.”

“Can I see?”

Blushing again, she nodded. “Let me pull them up on the computer and you can take a look before we get started with today’s shots.”

He sipped his coffee and waited as she opened her laptop and slid in a memory card. Standing over her shoulder at the table, he watched as she clicked through the photos she had taken. He knew she was good, but he was impressed with the photos from today.

“It’s amazing the angles and lighting, the way you know how to get the best photos.” He wasn’t exaggerating. “We should have you come back when guests are here and get some shots of the ranch for the website.”

“Oh, I’d love that!” Turning her full smile on him, he felt a thrill rush through him.

“It’s a date!” he said and walked away before she had a chance to say anything else.

He got dressed and they toured the buildings he did need photos of while Grace did her usual of following behind him and making small noises to assure him, she was listening. She snapped photos as she went, and when the tour was over, he pulled out his laptop to check on a few things at work and lost track of Grace. The conference center was as good a place as any to get some work done while Grace worked her magic.

This was normal for them whenever he hired her for a job. She always went off to do her own thing and then caught up with him when she was done. With anyone before her, he usually just left and then got emails later with the photos, with Grace, he always waited.

Something about the photos she took worked magic for his own creative mind. She seemed to understand exactly what he needed from a location, and the results were amazing. He had told her once before and meant it, she was his muse. Her photos were exactly what he needed to get his creative juices flowing and as part owner of this ranch, he wanted to put his best work into the renovations more than ever before.

He had also been serious earlier this morning, she was hired to help take photos of the ranch in full swing. She could help him revamp the website. Clicking through the current website he realized some of the pictures had to have been more than a decade old.

Tristan pulled out and opened a new file on his tablet and started taking notes on the changes he wanted to see to the website and where Grace could help. He was so lost in what he was doing, he nearly dropped his tablet when she came walking up.

“I think I have what I need.” she said and immediately started laughing, when she saw his startled expression. “I didn’t know I could scare you; I believe that redeems my pride for having been so jumpy yesterday.”

He smiled at her and gave her a kiss on the forehead. “You want to work here or go back to the bunkhouse?”

She looked around and then took in everything he had spread out in front of him. “I think we would outgrow the bunkhouse rather quickly if we both tried to work in it.”

Grace sat down on the other end of the long table he was already at and opened her own laptop. He was happy she was content to work there next to him but also in her own space. He’d had women that wanted to constantly stand over his shoulder and he couldn’t get anything done.

His last relationship had ended over a year ago and at the time he had thrown himself even more into the firm, if that was even possible. He already worked too much but was hoping to make the ranch more profitable for his uncle and be able to work less for the firm in person.

He would love to move up this way and work more remotely and a lot less. He had grown up here on the ranch with his uncle after his parents had passed away. This was home for him, and he was ready to come back.

When he was done with his notes, he looked down to find Grace with her head buried into her laptop. Packing up his stuff took a bit of time but the next time he looked up, Grace was smiling back at him.

“Come see.” She waved him over.

He rarely got to see her work as she did it for him. She normally left and went home to work on them. Anything he saw was on the camera itself as she confirmed that she had gotten what he wanted. Now, he was thrilled to see what she had captured.

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