Page 38 of First Bride to Fall
What if she looked really quickly?
Just to see if…he’d taken any pics this morning when she hadn’t been paying attention?
Yeah, that’s it. On their group hike!
There might even be one of her, all decked out in her new hiking outfit. On the summit before that sudden cloudburst had changed the course of the hike—and left her looking like a drowned rat, she was sure.
That would be fun to see.
It would also make her looking through his recent photos perfectly legit, because she’d only be searching for herself. Yeah. That wasn’t stalkerish in the least. It was more like a sign of healthy curiosity. Everyone liked seeing photos of themselves. When they were flattering ones, anyway. The unflattering ones were what all your supposed friends tended to post on social media. Sigh.
Nell tapped the album icon and frowned.
Well, that’s about as disappointing as his text list.
She scanned through the photos, scrolling with her index finger.
It was pretty much what she should have guessed.
Lots of nature stuff. Summits. Rivers. Rapids. Mountains. Camping. Cliffsides.
There were tons of vistas and scenic views.
Others, though, included athletic-looking people doing adventuresome-seeming things—
Wait. Was that Grant hanging off a cliff?
She enlarged the photo and saw that it was him rappelling in what looked like a desert environment. Maybe somewhere in the southwest. Hang on.
Another photo in the same group showed Grant standing on top of a giant rock pedestal formation shaped like an arch. He posed proudly with a bunch of others all in rappelling gear. The woman right beside him stood awfully close.
Nell enlarged the pic, and her eyes nearly fell out of her head.
She wasgorgeous. Tall. Slim but muscular, and with a long dark braid brought forward over one shoulder and beneath her climbing helmet. She wore fingerless rope gloves, a tank top, and biker shorts, exposing tanned and toned arms and legs.
Grant’s arm wrapped around her waist, and he was beaming.
Like, totally lit up on love.
Oh nooo. That’s what I have to live up to?
She flipped through more photos, and there were others of Grant and the brunette together looking extra couple-y. Yuck.
She checked the time stamp.
The photos were from a year ago.
She scrolled forward.
Nell’s stomach roiled, and bile rose in her throat.
There were two more pictures from just last summer, and they were taken at this cabin. One showed his ex looking super pretty at the kitchen table, dressed in a really large T-shirt that covered the tops of her thighs and that probably belonged to Grant. Her dark hair was long and loose, and she wore a dazzling smile and not much else. Her bare legs crossed in front of her as she hovered over her breakfast plate, holding a half-eaten bagel slathered with cream cheese.
Nell frowned. But the second photo made her want to weep.
It was a shot of this woman at the waterfall. She stood in the stream knee-deep and near the cascades in a really tiny bikini. She looked like a celebrity, honestly. She was laughing and flinging water toward the camera with her perfect hands. A few droplets had landed on the lens and were right there in the picture, making the virtual moment seem so present and real.
Nell’s chin jerked up. It had gotten quiet.
