Finding Sunshine (14 page)

“Those were just a delicious little snack,” he argues with a smile.

Pulling out a bag of pretzels from the groceries I brought, I smile and say, “Here, you can snack on these.”

“Thanks, Sunshine.” Pulling me into his arms, he kisses me quickly before taking the bag and tearing into it.

Hello, PDA!

“I brought some peanut butter cookies that I made Aaron as well,” I say, continuing to unload the bag onto the counter.

“Your favorite kind,” Sarah says. She pauses for a moment, then declares, “She's a keeper."

I can’t help but blush at her words.

“I told you so,” Aaron says, swallowing a mouthful of pretzels and adding to my embarrassment. It all makes me wonder what he’s been telling his family about me. “They even have chocolate kisses on them!”

“Ham or turkey?” Sarah asks, turning towards me and smiling.

“Turkey, please. But let me help you,” I say, folding up the paper bag and placing it on the counter next to my assortment of goodies.

“Aaron, move so Nina can set the table,” she orders him.

“Fine. Sunshine, I’ll take your shit downstairs to my room," Aaron says, popping a few more pretzels into his mouth and grabbing my overstuffed duffle bag.

“Thanks. What do you want to drink with your lunch?” I ask him.

“Water would be great,” he says, kissing me quickly and lightly smacking my bottom before turning to his sister, warning her, “Sarah. Be nice.”

“I’m always nice,” she replies innocently, laughing as he walks out of the room.

“Aaron mentioned that you’re an event planner. Do you have any this weekend?” I ask, attempting to make conversation while placing several placements on the table.

“Unfortunately, I have a wedding.” Sarah says, and then adds dramatically, “My client right now is a complete bridezilla. She’s freaking out on me about the snow this weekend, as if I control the weather. It's February in Boston, how could she not think that this could possibly happen?”

“She sounds delightful,” I laugh, as I set glasses, and napkins on the table. “Do you get a lot of bridezillas?”

“Honestly, not as many as you would think. The mother’s are actually the worst,” she says, continuing to make the sandwiches. “Aaron mentioned you’re a photographer.”

“That’s what I want to be doing,” I reply, pouring Aaron and myself some water from the fridge. “Do you want water?”

“Please,” she replies, and then asks, “do you do weddings?”

“No. I prefer portraits and nature photography,” I reply, setting the waters on the table.

“Do you have your pictures in any galleries?”

“I wish. Right now, I’m selling prints online while I look for a job at a gallery or studio. I studied gallery management while I was in school, and my dream is to open a gallery some day, sell mine and others’ photographs,” I muse, smiling at her.

“You’ll have to let me see some of your pictures some time,” Sarah says, and her interest seems completely genuine.

“Sure, I’d love to show you some,” I say happily. “Aaron said I could take photographs of Russell, so I brought my camera with me. He’s so adorable, I’ve been dying to shoot him since Aaron first showed me his photo.” As I ramble on, Sarah just stares at me with the biggest grin on her face.

~:~:~:~:~

Walking back into the kitchen from the bathroom, the first thing I see is Aaron holding an adorable, dark-haired little boy, whom I assume is his nephew, Harry. I find myself stopping in the doorway and staring, completely absorbed in the scene.

An odd, warm feeling comes over me while I watch Aaron interact with his nephew. The way he’s protectively holding him in his strong, muscular arms is doing strange things to my insides. He’s smiling and laughing as the boy chants loudly, “Dawg. Dawg. Dawg,” pointing at Russell. The happy dog is lying at their feet, looking up at them and wagging his tail. Aaron’s such a natural with Harry. I can't stop the flooding of images of him as a father from entering my head.

No matter how hard I try.

As if sensing my presence, Aaron turns and looks over in my direction. I’m struck by how his face and eyes have gentled from their usual gruffness. Not that he doesn’t laugh or can’t be playful, but this is different. Tender. It takes my breath away. I find myself walking over towards the pair.

“Harry buddy, this is my Nina. Can you say hello?” he asks, bouncing the boy gently up and down.

My Nina.
Every time I hear those words, it sends my pulse into overdrive, and my body heats with pleasure. I find that I want them to be true—for me to be
his
.

“Hello there, handsome.” I greet, refocusing on the boy in front of me and taking hold of his chubby little hand. He breaks free of my grasp and, like his uncle, instantly gravitates towards my curls. Then he begins tugging none too gently on them. Grimacing slightly, I attempt to disentangle his tiny fingers from my hair.

Harry soon forgets all about my hair and continues with his chanting, jumping up and down in Aaron’s arms excitedly. His enthusiasm is so palpable, it has us all laughing.

“When Aaron moves out, I have a feeling we’ll need to get a dog.” Sarah observes from where she’s putting the finishing touches on our sandwiches.

“Shall I set these on the table?” I ask, picking up a couple of finished plates from the counter.

“Thank you,” Sarah says, turning to take Harry from Aaron’s arms. He protests and begins crying out, “An! An! An!” which I assume is his version of Aaron.

“Don’t worry, I’m sitting right next to you, buddy,” he replies, moving to sit in the chair beside where Harry is sitting in the highchair attached to the table.

On the large, brightly-colored placemat in front of him, he has a plastic plate filled with rolled up meat and cheese, which he is already digging into with one hand. He’s clasping his sippy cup tightly in his other hand.

“Are you going to share with me?” Aaron asks him playfully, before biting into his own sandwich.

“
No
!” Harry replies loudly between bites, shaking his head vigorously and pouting. I can’t help but laugh at how adorable he is. For some strange reason, it makes me wonder what Aaron was like as baby.

“Do you want kids?” Sarah asks me bluntly from across the table, looking at me intently.

“Um. Yeah,” I say, swallowing thickly. Suddenly, I feel like I’m being interviewed. “I’d like to be married first, though,” I add with a laugh.

“So you want to get married?” she inquires.

“Sarah,” Aaron says sharply, placing his glass on the table with a thud.

“What?” Sarah asks him innocently. “I’m just seeing if I have a potential client here.”

“Sorry to disappoint you, but my ideal location would be City Hall. Although, I think my mother would probably kill me,” I say, avoiding answering her question. Of course I want to get married, but admitting that in front of Aaron at this juncture in our relationship seems too soon.
Are we even in a relationship yet?
I don’t want to scare him off!

The truth is, my ideal wedding would be completely simple: just my perfect groom, two witnesses, a judge, and I. My mom, however, would not be pleased if she wasn’t able to plan a fairytale wedding for her only child. Growing up, she talked and fantasized more about my wedding day than I did. Mom would say that I’d find a prince just like my stepfather, and that my first trip down the aisle would be my only one. I was to learn from her mistakes and not kiss any frogs like my father.

That's what Mom has always called my father, Luc King, ‘the frog’. When I was younger she used to say, ‘Sometimes sweetie you kiss a frog and he becomes a prince. But most of the time you quickly realize he's nothing but a frog.’

I know next to nothing about the man, and haven’t seen or heard from him since he left—when I was four. Honestly, I forget he even exists most of the time.

“I’m telling you, it’s the mothers who are a pain in my ass!” Sarah says dramatically, rolling her eyes. I can’t hold back my smile. She reminds me so much of Becca, and I can’t help but instantly like her. There is nothing fake or insincere about her, and it’s clear that she very much wants her brother to be happy.

“How long have you had your own company?” I ask intrigued. Aaron had been correct—Sarah
is
the perfect person to ask about owning my own business and getting started.

“About three years now. We don’t just plan weddings, but corporate parties, birthdays, baby showers, things like that,” Sarah says. Grinning, she adds, “If you’re having an event,
Affairs to Remember
, will make your affair one to remember.”

“I love the name.”

“Thanks. It’s not very original, but our Mom’s favorite movie was the 1954 film,
An Affair to Remember.
”

“I’ve never seen that one.”

“
What
?” Aaron asks indigently, entering the conversation and making me giggle. “That’s it, we’re watching it this afternoon.”

Sarah and I look at each other and smile at his adorable insistence.

“I wish I could join you. But you don’t get snow days when you work from home,” Sarah says with a playful pout, making me laugh.

“Don’t feel sorry for her, Sunshine. She wouldn’t know what to do with herself if she wasn’t working,” Aaron teases her.

“That’s true. I do love what I do,” Sarah agrees.

“You are both so lucky, to be doing something that you love,” I say longingly, taking another bite of my sandwich.

“If you love photography, don’t give up. The best thing you can do in life is find a job that doesn’t feel like work,” Sarah says sagely. I smile brightly, my heart lighter. It’s nice to know there are other like-minded people who value the importance of loving your job. My friends, even Becca to a certain extent, don’t have the same values I was taught growing up. My dad always said that you should love what you’re doing, and that way you will inevitably work harder and take more pride in you work.
Money can’t buy happiness.

Our conversation is interrupted when my phone beeps loudly in my pocket, alerting me to an incoming text from Dad.
Speak of the devil
. Digging it out of my pocket, I quickly read the message.

              Dad: Mom wants to know you’re safe???

“Sorry. That’s my dad,” I laugh, shaking my head. “He just wants to make sure that I’m safe from the storm.”

Nina: Yes! W/ my friend Aaron @ his sister’s house. I <3 U! xxx

After quickly sending my reply, I tuck the phone back into my pocket.

“Do they live close by?” Sarah asks, in between bites of her sandwich.

“Yes, on the Cape. Near Hyannis,” I reply, reaching over and stealing a pretzel off of Aaron’s plate.

“I spend a lot of time there in the summer. It’s a popular wedding destination,” Sarah says.

“Do you want something?” Aaron asks, pretending to be angry, but I can see the twinkle of amusement in his eyes.

“No. I’m good.” I pop a piece of my stolen pretzel in my mouth and smile up at him. Sarah watches us, and chuckles into her glass.

After lunch, Aaron heads out into the storm to begin shoveling, and I grab my camera, venturing out to join him. Russell happily runs around outside and proves to be an excellent subject to shoot. One great shot I take is of him standing in the yard, shaking the snow off his back. I’m able to capture the snow as it’s flying every which way.

Aaron refuses my offer to help with shoveling, but instead sends me back inside to make coffee. While I wait for him to finish his manual labor, I sip coffee at the kitchen table and take the opportunity to upload the photographs from my camera onto my computer. I play with several of the photos, adjusting the contrast, lighting, and saturation of color.

Having finally come in from the raging storm, Aaron stands over my shoulder. Looking at the computer screen, he gives my cheek a quick peck with his frozen lips and says, “Nina. These are amazing.”

“Thanks,” I say softly, blushing at the compliment.

“Sarah! Come look at Nina’s pictures, they’re amazing,” he calls out loudly to where she’s working in the living room.

“Aaron,” I say, embarrassed. “You don’t have to say that.”

“Trust me, I’m not. These are great!” he says, wrapping an arm around me from behind and kissing my temple gently.

Golly my man can be sweet!

The two of us are soon cuddled up on the sofa in the living room, drinking coffee, eating cookies, and watching
An Affair to Remember
on the large cinema-quality TV that’s hanging over the fireplace. In the corner, Sarah is in a chair typing away on her laptop, while Harry plays on the floor, creating towers with his large blocks. Russell is lying next to the sofa, snoring loudly.

“What did you think?” Aaron asks when the film ends.

“There’s no denying it now. You’re a romantic at heart,” I say, teasing him. Placing my empty mug on the floor and leaning over, I wrap my arms around his neck and taste his coffee-flavored lips.