“Okay, but—” she tempered her response, realizing Jonas was nervous. For that matter, she was nervous too. This was obviously a big deal for him—his son, mingling with his family. But he had to let go and trust her if it was going to work—both the photography gig and any kind of relationship between them. It didn’t necessarily have to be romantic, but he seemed like he wanted to get to know his son. But she wasn’t backing down.
He had to let her do her job. “I hate being micromanaged. And you’re micromanaging. I’ve got this, Jonas. Everybody in there is having a fun time, but you’re too focused on where Scott is in the room to enjoy yourself. It’s coming across in every picture with you in it.”
Jonas let out a short breath, then ran his hands over his face. For a split second, it looked as though he was going to argue, but then the look vanished “I’m sorry. I know—I was over the top in there.”
She let out a burst of laughter, her own tension untwisting. “Yeah, you totally were. Is it just their reaction you’re afraid of?”
“I’m not afraid of it.” His eyes focused on a point far away, then came back to hers. “Not exactly. I just wasn’t planning to tell them the news while we’re taking photos. If they’re not happy about it, then do you really want to be snapping pictures of that?”
“Yeesh.” She grimaced. Fine. He did have half of a point. Rachel didn’t necessarily want to be the one capturing the moment when he told his family that he’d had a child he didn’t know about, that the child was hers, and that the child was in the room. There had to be a better way.
“I missed you,” Jonas’s admission startled her.
“What?” she asked, sure she’d heard him wrong.
“I missed you after you were gone. It’s just…my job. But then, you were totally unexpected. It was confusing at best, and in the end, I did nothing.”
Heat sprinted up to her cheeks. Red wasn’t her best look. “I was only here for a couple of nights.” One night with you.
It was one of Rachel’s deep, secret fears—that he would never be interested in her, not that way, because they’d only spent a few hours together in the grand scheme of things. She’d been trying not to have feelings for him, trying not to think about him. Surely, a man like Jonas Elkin would never give a one-night stand a second thought. But his words said differently.
“I remembered you for a lot longer than that.” His voice was low, genuine. He leaned toward her a little and put his hands in his pockets. She’d like to think it was to restrain himself from touching her. Not because she didn’t want him to, because she did. More from the standpoint of a man trying to resist the attraction—to do the right thing. “I’ve been fixated on things at the resort. I’m used to being in control, and with you, I seem to be out of control.”
Rachel was used to being in control, too, but hearing it come from Jonas’s mouth made it seem unbearably sexy. Three years later, and she’d make the same choice and give him control behind closed doors. Let him take her to the stars once again. Just not now. Not when there were people watching, and she had a job to do. She shoved down her desire and her irritation, which had become confusingly close to one another, placing her hands on the camera to help ground her.
“Okay. Here’s the plan.” Take me back to your apartment. “If you want to be helpful, and you want to keep Scott a little farther from your family while I do the portraits of your grandmother and some of the others, then you can take him somewhere else and watch him.”
One blink, then two. “Really?”
“Yes. Let him explore while I work, and then I can get your portrait when we’re done or another day. I’m sure we can get a similar light if you want them to match. How does that sound?”
“Candid portraits,” Jonas reminded her, eyes searching hers. It was like he wanted an excuse to keep talking to her. She knew him well enough to know he wouldn’t keep them waiting for long, even if he wanted to.
She laughed. “You know that’s not really a thing, right? Everybody knows I’m taking the photos.”
“I just want to have a photo of her laughing,” he admitted. It squeezed at her heart. Oh, this family. This man. They were trying so hard to hold on to their grandmother.
“Got it. Hey, Scott,” she called out. Her son perked up, eyes delighted. “I’ve got a surprise for you. Jonas is going to take you exploring.”
The smile on her son’s face matched the one on Jonas exactly.
5
Jonas had never been much of a babysitter. His grandparents took care of his brothers, leaving Jonas to focus on learning the ins and outs of the resort, head off to college, and then come right back to the lodge where he’d worked ever since. And now he was hanging out with his son, completely solo.
His son.
This wasn’t babysitting.
Talk about weird.
Scott held his fingertips while they walked down the hall together, stopping to check out the thousands of small details that only a two-year-old would notice. He wanted to see the trim on the doorways. Touch the hinges. Pick at something invisible in the carpet. It took them five minutes to make it to the elevator, and once they were inside, Scott didn’t want to get off. He just wanted to push the buttons. Jonas’s one advantage was that he could scoop him up and make him laugh, and then the buttons were forgotten.
What were they going to do?
“Door,” Scott pointed out as they left the elevator. “Nuffer door.” Doors fascinated him.
“Hi,” Scott said, clear as day, catching Jonas’s attention with a devilish grin. Scott giggled, and the sound made Jonas proud. He was obviously happy and smart, not to mention curious and active.
“Hi,” Jonas repeated, earning him a leg hug.
They made their way to the lobby, the hall opening into the central room with vaulted ceilings, Christmas music drifting down from hidden speakers. Yesterday, Scott had wanted to play with the presents by the tree, but they were real gifts to be given to local people in need. The gift shop would be a much better place to take his son. He scooped Scott up just to be on the safe side.
“Mr. Elkin?” His receptionist’s voice held a note of panic, and he turned to see what was wrong. “What can I do for you, Elsie?” She was one of their newer employees. He was excruciatingly aware of Scott on his hip as he made his way to the desk. “Problem with reservations?” he asked.
“Well, I—yeah. There is.” Elsie clicked around on her computer, going through window after window. “It’s one of the VIP reservations. They just called and wanted to change their booking dates to five days later in February. I said they could, but another VIP party has the Presidential Suite on one of those days,” she said, her voice rising. “I don’t know why it let me do that. Something in the system didn’t work right, and now—” Poor woman was close to tears.
“It’s all right.” He watched over her shoulder. Now the calendar was blinking red, telling her that two reservations conflicted. “Tell you what—get them on the phone for me.”
She let out an audible sigh of relief and picked up her handset, dialing the number from the reservation record.