Page 121 of You Found Me
She’s barely stopped to breathe as we sit inside. “This one though, is one of the best. It’s in color, has the option to put the event and date at the bottom, and doesn’t rush the countdown so you have more time to change your pose. What do you want to do? Obviously we smile in one, maybe a silly one?”
I wait to see if she’s done before I respond, “Emmy, what’s going on? You’re doing that nervous rambling thing you do. If it’s about what we talked about earlier, we don’t have to discuss it further anytime soon.”
Rather than answering my question, she pushes the start button, and the screen begins to count down from fifteen.
“Okay, I say the first one we smile. Real smiles. Which means I wanna see that dimple pop out.”
I laugh, despite worrying that something is wrong. She looks so happy to be doing this, so I shake it off. “Works for me. Just tell me what to do and I’ll do it.”
The screen shows three seconds left. I turn away from her smiling profile and smile into the camera as she places her hand up to cup my face. There’s not a flash like from a camera or phone, the screen just brightens, signaling the photo was taken. We look at the screen and it shows five seconds, letting us look over the photo.
Seeing how happy we look makes me smile wider. I expect Emmy to look the same, except she’s nervous. “Spence?” she says, phrasing my name like a question.
I peek at the screen, seeing the countdown has started. “What is it? You seem off.”
“I need to tell you something . . . and I’m nervous because of my own issues, nothing to do with you.”
“Buttercup, whatever it is, you can tell me.”
“I love you, Spencer.”
I wait a beat, making sure I heard her right. “You love me?”
She smiles, nodding. “Yeah, I do. I love you.”
The screen brightens, indicating a picture was taken and my smile grows wider. It caught the moment she said those words to me.
Emmaline, the girl that got away, my Shortstack, my Buttercup,loves me.
I grip her around the waist, bringing her closer in this already tight booth. Her hand that’s cupping my face, moves to the back of my head, as her other takes its place.
“I would have waited forever to hear you say those words, but I can’t lie—not having to wait more than a week to hear them is incredible. Say it again, please.”
She laughs, “I love you, Daredevil. You’re it for me.”
“I love you, too.” I close my eyes, overcome with emotion, still unable to wipe the smile off of my face. When I open them, she’s still smiling, brighter than before.
“That was photo number three. Now what should we do?”
“Well, since we’re in a building full of children, that limits our options.” I shake my head, making her laugh. “How about this?” I lean in, catching her lips with mine.
She drops her hands down, one reaching around to hold my shoulders and the other on my thigh, kissing me back. When she opens her lips the tiniest bit, I move in, teasing her tongue with mine. Treating this moment as a prelude to all the things I’m going to do to her later.
I slow down, not wanting to get too indecent. I place my hand on her face, pulling back a little before giving her soft pecks. There’s another bright light and I know that we’ve finished. She pulls back first, turning to the screen to approve the photos or to change them.
“They’re perfect. Don’t you think?”
I huff out a laugh. “Perfect is selling them short, but seeing as I can’t think of another word for them right now, perfect is what we’ll go with.”
Emmy taps the screen to approve the photos and then hits the amount needed as four. I feel my eyebrow raise up and shenotices and shrugs. “One for you and one for me. And then extra just in case I want to get crafty.”
She’s something else and all I can do is shake my head and laugh.
“Alright,” she claps her hands together. “They’ll print shortly. Go ahead and grab your lunch before the boss lady has us get back to work.”
“I’ll grab you a plate and drink and meet you out there.”
“You’re the best.”
