Page 29 of Just One Fake Date

“Fan-girl,” she muttered but didn’t stop looking.

It was a great shot, one that didn’t need any cropping, filtering or adjusting. She’d bet on the alumni magazine choosing it. Eventually, she put it in a new folder on her computer desktop for the alumni magazine.

Just as she got off her stool and stretched, her phone chimed. She checked it immediately, her thoughts always leaping to her mom who now lived alone in Harte’s Harbor.

It was a text message from Tyler.

As if he’d known she was thinking of him.

Shannyn’s thoughts followed a predictable and unwelcome path. Giselle must have left by now. Was he bored? How tedious to be king of the world and left at loose ends. Maybe Giselle was asleep in his bed. Shannyn could envision that view more easily than she wanted to.

She knew she should ignore the message until morning, but she had to look. She wasn’t really surprised that the message was short and not very sweet.

Tyler had sent her the date and time of the wedding and the location, with a link to a map.

A Saturday night wedding in Connecticut. Interesting.

Complicated. Shannyn wondered how she’d get there, never mind how she’d get home afterward. She might have to rent a car. Were there hotel arrangements to negotiate? Did Tyler have expectations? Shannyn decided to ignore the implications for the moment and work out her travel details later.

A black tie reception. Hmm. The bar was high, then. She’d ask her mom for suggestions when they had their weekly talk on Sunday night.

She thought about not replying, just because she knew it would annoy him, then figured it wasn’t worth needling him when she couldn’t see the effect of her efforts.

She sent a short message back to confirm receipt, then shut down the big computer, planning to get some sleep. She probably shouldn’t have been surprised that her phone rang immediately, but she nearly jumped out of her skin.

Of course, it was Tyler.

“Why didn’t you call the first time?” she asked when she answered.

“I wasn’t sure you’d still be awake.” That voice. Silky, low, like black velvet against her bare skin. Shannyn closed her eyes and gave her full attention to Tyler’s voice, even as she knew she had to somehow hide her reaction from him.

He couldn’t see her but he could hear her. She could close her eyes, but not sigh. After he was off the phone, she could fantasize about him murmuring in her ear in the middle of the night in real life, running his hands over her, flicking his tongue...

“Why aren’t you asleep?” he asked.

“Because I was working.”

“On?”

“Cropping and filtering pictures from the shoot today.”

“I didn’t think you took that many.”

“Different job.”

“Where?” He sounded genuinely curious and Shannyn didn’t want to lose the sound of his voice just yet.

“They’re for a show catalogue, for the Metropolitan Museum. Illuminated medieval books of days.”

“What does that mean?”

“They’re like medieval daily planners for prayer,” she explained. “There are illustrations of saints and prayers listed for each day. They were made for rich patrons and are quite beautiful. The detail is amazing. I was at the Cloisters today, photographing the books from their collection that will be in the show. It’s kind of slow going because I have to choose one or two images from each book, and the curators always want to show me all the glories.” She realized she was starting to chatter and shut up.

“Do you often work on more than one job at a time?”

“Whenever I can.”

Tyler chuckled and Shannyn’s toes curled in a predictable way, reminding her to stop telling him so much. “I thought I was the one who worked all the time.”

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