Page 186 of Forever

“Pinch me back.”

He lightly pinched my elbow.

I smiled. “Guess we’re not dreaming.”

“Mommy, Mommy!” Jacob ran up to us through the snow. “Snowball fight!” He threw a very tiny snowball right at Nigel.

“Oh, it’s on, Mr. Jacob.” Nigel leaned down and started to make a much bigger snowball.

“Nope,” Matt said sternly to Nigel. And then Matt turned back to Jacob. “We’ll do that later, kiddo. But right now I need you to smile for the cameras.”

Jacob reached up to him, the way he did when he wanted to be lifted up.

Matt immediately picked him up.

They already understood each other. We were already a family. And I couldn’t wait for it to grow even bigger.

The photographer kept snapping pictures.

Tanner and Nigel started moving farther and farther away from everyone. I tried to wave them back over. But it was pretty clear that they both hated being photographed. And I couldn’t force them.

Soon Nigel was just standing by the photographer, helping organize everyone for photos.

And Tanner kept telling me how to pose.

“Tanner, this doesn’t feel right,” I said as I awkwardly arched my back. No one stood this way.

He grabbed the camera from the photographer, turned it around, and let me see the photo.

Oh my God.I’d never looked so good in a picture before. All the awkward angles actually looked so normal in the photographs. I looked up at him. “How do you know all this stuff?”

“I’m the founder of Odegaard, remember? I know my way around a fashion show. And certainly around the perfect photo.”

I shook my head. Hehadsaid that to me before. But it made no sense then and it made no sense now. Because Odegaard was older than he was. And he was a venture capitalist, not a photographer on a runway. “You mean youownOdegaard?”

“Isn’t that what I said?” He shrugged.

No, it wasn’t. “Tanner, please get in some of the pictures.”

He cleared his throat. “Um…I can’t.”

I just stared at him.

“It’s a billionaire thing. Matt wouldn’t understand.”

Matt laughed. “Dude. James and Penny are in the pictures.”

“Old wealth versus new wealth me thinks.”

Me thinks?

“They do have old wealth,” Matt said. “Ish.”

The Hunter family was very wealthy. But I knew James had made his own personal fortune as well.

“Ish,” Tanner said. “The ish is the difference.”

“Between paupers and princes,” Nigel said.

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