Page 71 of You Met Me There
Checking that Sandra isn’t listening—she’s not; she’s talking animatedly with Juliet at the other end of the table—Tyler turns back to me. “It’s really not that bad?”
I shake my head. “It’s really not.”
“I haven’t been in any weddings except Juliet’s. I was the best man,” he states. “And Juliet’s wedding was so small, Cam didn’t have to do anything except show up. Jules knew exactly what she wanted, and Ali helped her with everything.”
“See?” I say. “Sandra will have a friend help with a lot of the planning, and her parents will do a lot of it too if the wedding is in Vermont.” I shrug. “And just be honest with her. Tell her you don’t want something big if it’s going to stress you out. Let her know how you feel about it.”
He nods, his blond hair falling around his ears. “You know those bridal shows on TV?” I nod. “Sandra watches those a lot. The brides are always crazy. Their dresses alone cost a fortune, and half of them treat their fiancés like trash. I didn’t want to sign up for that. Not the reality show—you know what I mean. The wedding. The crazy. The cost. I just want to start the marriage part without all that. Does that make sense?”
“Yeah, it does. I get that. But if she wants a wedding, I think you should let her have it. If you guys are serious—and it sounds like you definitely are—then she’ll only have one chance at celebrating something like this.” I give him a tight-lipped smile. “You should let it be special.”
“You have a point.”
“Just be honest with her about how you feel. She seems really sweet. I can’t imagine she’d be a bridezilla.”
“Ew. A what?”
“A monster-bride hybrid,” I say flatly.
He laughs. His shoulders relax, and I’m glad I could take away some of his stress. There are hundreds of times I wished I had a sibling to talk to about the hard things over the years, and if I can give him that, even just this one time, then I feel like I’ve done something right.
Sandra turns away from Jules, and Tyler gives me a look that says don’t say anything about this.
“You’re a social media photographer?” Sandra asks. “Luke just told me. That’s awesome.”
My smile stretches. “I have my own photography business called NataLily Studios.”
From the corner of my eye, Jules seems to twitch.
“Who have you taken photos of? Anyone famous we’d recognize?” Sandra’s light brown eyes glow against the setting sun in the distance.
“Maybe.” I frown. “Let me think … I took model photos for Clare Vong, and this past winter I did a snowboarding shoot for Ronny Baldoa.”
Sandra’s mouth drops open, and Tyler frowns.
“Whoa, wait,” he says. “Ronny Baldoa. As in the famous snowboarder who won gold at the X Games?”
“Yup.” I beam.
“Show us,” Tyler says. “Show us the pictures you took of him.”
“What, you don’t believe me?” I smirk but pull out my phone and thumb through my social media app to find Ronny’s account.
“I totally believe you,” Ty says. “But I’ve seen practically everything he’s posted, and I’m curious which photo you took.”
“He’s a big fan,” Sandra says, wrapping her hands around his arm.
I click on a photo of Ronny jumping off a car that’s buried halfway under the snow. I lay on the snow to get that shot. The red Chinese dragon painted under Ronny’s yellow snowboard as he jumped over me contrasts starkly against the blue sky and white snow all around him. It’s a great shot.
I turn my phone toward Tyler.
He widens his eyes in surprise, then looks up at me. “You took this photo?”
“Yeah,” I reply, smiling. “And a bunch of other ones he posted from the same shoot.”
“That’s amazing, Nat. You’re really good.” The pride in his eyes fills me up. “And I can’t believe you met Ronny Baldoa, let alone got to hang out with him.” Tyler can’t move his eyes from the photo.
“Can I see it?” Jules reaches across the table, and I hand her the phone. “That’s really cool.” She looks at it a few seconds, and then her face drops. “The caption says it was in Pennsylvania.”
