Page 23 of Finding Chloe

He was smart enough to try and hide the smirk that pulled at his lips. “I won’t do it again.”

I nodded, appeased for now. I stretched, working out the kinks in my muscles.

“Can I see what you have so far?”

“I’d love a second set of eyes.”

Hunter sat beside me and leaned in. I pushed my sketchpad at him, and he studied the drawing. “What are these?” he asked, pointing to the Xs in a row.

“The row of trees on the north side. I want to use those as a backdrop if possible. Maybe cover them in fairy lights for after sunset.”

“This looks good, but you seem unsure.”

“There’s so much riding on this. I don’t want to make a mistake.”

“But isn’t this just a preliminary sketch? Everything can be adjusted, right?”

“Yes, but the goal would be to have very little to adjust. The bride and grooms should focus on things for the wedding, not be worrying about their location,” I huffed, dropping my head intomy hands. “By giving them the most accurate representation of what that will be like, it helps them see the vision and makes it easier to tweak the details. Ugh, I feel like I’m missing something.”

“Knock, knock.” Kyle stood in the doorway, lifting a large canvas bag. “I heard you were too busy to come to dinner.”

My brow furrowed. How did he know to…? I glanced over at Hunter. His smug expression let me know he’d reached out to Kyle.

“Thanks, Kyle.” He was so sweet to even think of doing that.

He walked to the opposite side of the dining room table and unloaded the bag. I couldn’t help but watch him. He was handsome and thoughtful.

Hunter and Kyle were a set. I knew Hunter liked me, but I couldn’t get a read if Kyle thought about me the same way Hunter did.

“Jessie made chicken parmesan. I brought bread and salad to go with. I hope you’re hungry.” Kyle finished laying out the food.

My stomach took the opportunity to voice its opinion on the matter. Glancing at my watch, I guessed I had a little time to indulge in the company and food. I closed my computer and set my sketchpad on top, shifting it to the side to make room.

“What exactly are you working on?” Kyle indicated to my sketchpad with his chin.

“It’s a sketch of Blake’s property. I’m showing where things could go and how everything would be set up for the wedding.” I took a bite of the salad Hunter placed in front of me.

Kyle divvied up the rest of the food and relaxed in his seat. “May I see it?”

“Sure.” I surprised myself with how easily and comfortably I handed him the book. I didn’t usually show anyone my work until further along in the process.

“What is this long shape here?” He pointed on the pad.

“It’s a side tent. Maybe a bar could go there, so it’s out of the way of the main tent but still close. Over here is where the ceremony would be. The altar could be placed here. And then over here is where another grouping of tents can go for the wedding party to get ready.” I pointed out each thing on the map.

“I know it might sound dumb, but what if you moved this tent over here and had the ceremony angled this way?” Kyle ran his fingers along the page, and I imagined the changes in my mind to picture what he was suggesting.

“I wanted the ceremony to have a backdrop of the sunset. It was beautiful there.”

“True, but there is a line of trees you don’t have on the map that would block the sunset if you had the altar here.”

I blanched, trying to remember seeing the trees he was talking about. When I went over it in my head, I vaguely recalled it. Groaning, I set my fork down and picked up my pencil and eraser. I’d had a gut feeling I was missing something, and this could have been it. After removing the ceremony location from the page, I turned it around to face Kyle.

“So this where the other tree line is?” I made light Xs on the page. When he nodded, I made them darker. “And you think I can push the ceremony location here so we can get a better angle?” I drew a shape on the map.

“It’ll free up this area for photos or something. There’s a fallen tree that will need to removed, but the tree stump is kind of cool. Also, there’s this huge cottonwood tree off to the side you can use for something.” Kyle’s voice faltered at the end when he caught Hunter and me staring at him.

“How do you know the land that well?” Hunter lifted his eyebrow.

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