Page 5 of The Nanny and the Hothead
Charlotte glanced at the time. She had twelve minutes. It was time to combat her love-envy monster with kindness. She had time to do something nice for these two. She snapped another picture on Larissa’s phone, then closed the photo app. “I’m a photographer. Would you like me to take a few shots with my camera? I could email them to you.”
Larissa clapped as her beaming smile widened. “Royce, isn’t that so kind? Yes, we’d love it! Being a photographer must be so exciting. I bet your family is proud of you.”
Charlotte’s lips parted as a knot twisted in her belly. “Yeah, absolutely,” she lied.
Pushing thoughts of her family aside, Charlotte handed Larissa her phone, then removed her Nikon from the camera bag. “Now look at each other and tell me the story of how you met,” she said, framing the shot. Royce still looked a little shaky. But as he stared into Larissa’s eyes, his shoulders relaxed.
“It’s quite a story,” he said as the couple laughed. No, it wasn’t a laugh exactly. It was one of those exchanges she’d seen thousands of times between people in love. That moment when a couple looked as if they were the only two human beings on the planet. That easy intimacy, like they’d wished upon a star and their dream had come true.
“We met at a speed dating night at some bar not far from here,” Larissa answered, and Charlotte almost fell over.
Speed dating?
“I’m signed up to do one tonight, here in Crystal Creek. I wasn’t sure if I should go,” she replied.
Larissa did her happy clap again. “You should totally do it! Royce and I did it as a joke—not expecting to find our soul mate.”
“And there were the free margaritas,” Royce added playfully as he wrapped his arms around Larissa’s waist.
Charlotte captured the moment as the man gazed down at his petite girlfriend with such tenderness.
A blush graced Larissa’s cheeks. “Royce had gone with his friends for the booze. And I went with my friends for—”
“The booze,” Royce finished with the sweetest grin as he brushed a lock of hair from his girlfriend’s forehead. The camera clicked, then clicked again when Larissa teasingly tapped her boyfriend’s chin.
“And life hasn’t been the same since,” Royce answered, now entirely at ease.
Charlotte stared at the viewfinder, taking in two people who were simply enamored with each other.
Would she ever find that?
It was absolutely intoxicating.
She was about to take another shot when a shrill voice cut through the air.
“Oh, look, Esther! Royce hired a photographer.”
Charlotte peered over her shoulder, and her eyes went wide as a horde of people closed in on them.
“What’s going on?” Larissa asked, confusion marring her sunny features. “Why are our entire families here, Royce?”
The man swallowed hard, the muscles in his throat constricting. “I invited them to meet us at the restaurant down the block to celebrate.”
“Celebrate what?” the woman pressed.
“That depends on your answer,” the man replied as he reached into his breast pocket, then dropped to his knee.
His knee!
Charlotte froze. Royce was popping the question! No wonder he looked as if he’d eaten eight-day-old egg salad.
She basked in the swoony display. And then it hit her. This was a scene right out of a romance movie. And who was she?
The bit part.
Woman with a camera.
“Well, keep snapping, honey!” a lady who looked a heck of a lot like a middle-aged Larissa barked.
