Taking Shots (Assassins) (2 page)

She pulled into her round driveway, grabbing all her bags. Even before getting to the door, she heard her pug running down the hall, and then the barking started.

“
I know, Adler. I’m home, darling, hold on.” Elli opened the door and her forty pound pug attacked her, well, tried to anyways. She laughed as she threw her keys in the basket by the door, before bending down to her puppy, who was struggling to breathe.

“
Oh, my goodness, Adler, honey, breathe, darling.” Elli petted him until he calmed down, kissed the top of his head, and then locked the door as her house phone rang. She didn’t answer it, since it would be her mother, and Elli was not in the mood to talk to her. After the machine picked it up and her mother’s voice rang over the machine, telling her to call her, she pushed delete before going to the kitchen for some dinner. She decided on a frozen dinner, since she didn’t feel like cooking, and went to get her laptop while it heated up.

Elli walked through her bright yellow living room. She always loved the décor in here. The yellow accenting the black wrap around couches that had yellow throw pillows that matched the walls. Her extremely large TV - a gift from her father because she loved watching the away games in HD - hung above her mantel that held pictures of her nieces and nephews. She smiled as she passed them to get her laptop. She loved her nieces and nephews and couldn’t wait to take them to the park next weekend for their monthly visit.

After getting her laptop and returning to the bar, she loaded the pictures from her camera as she got a fork and napkin. She sat down at the bar, food and laptop in front of her. She had taken over three thousand shots of the Assassins, good amount, lots of work ahead of her. She inhaled her frozen pasta meal, realizing she was hungrier than she thought as she looked over the pictures. They were good shots, real good. Only a few were crappy. But with Photoshop, she could fix them with no problem.

As she went from picture to picture, Elli stopped at Shea Adler’s pictures. Gosh, he was so stinking gorgeous. He had the most amazing eyes she’d ever seen. They were such a gorgeous shade of blue, so bright, and so happy. He probably had a beautiful girlfriend at home, with a dog and a nine bedroom house with all the fixings. He just looked like he was happy. When she came to the pictures of him in the suit, it was breathtaking, really. The suit was black with a purple vest underneath and the hockey stick that he held was so slick looking. But you really didn’t look at the stick or the suit, you looked at his eyes.

Good golly, they were mesmerizing.

Not that Elli would admit this to anyone, but while she worked that night, she always came back to the pictures of Shea, looking at his beautiful eyes, his hard body, wishing that she was the girlfriend at his house waiting for him to get home so they could sit on the couch, cuddling as they watched highlights from the games that night, while Adler lay beside them along with Shea’s dog. Elli smiled at the thought and then rolled her eyes.

As if that would ever happen.

“
Not only did I run into the goal, but the wall too!”

Shea Adler sat with the side of his face in his hand. His glasses were crooked but he didn’t care. He was beyond embarrassed about what happened that day at the photo shoot the Assassins’ had.

“
I can’t stand it when I get new contacts. They eff my eyes all to hell. God, it was so embarrassing, Grace, so embarrassing.”

His twin sister laughed on the other end as Shea rolled his eyes, dropping his hand from his face to get up for a drink of water.

“
I don’t know why you’re so embarrassed, Shea, it was only the guys.”

“
And the staff!”

“
Okay, and the staff, so what?”

“
And the photo people!”

“
So? You’re never embarrassed about anything. What aren’t you telling me?”

Shea didn’t say anything. He wasn’t telling Grace about the beautiful brunette with the biggest and brightest green eyes he had ever seen. The kind of eyes that when he looked into them, he lost his breath, something that had never happened to him.

“
Who is she?” Grace asked with a knowing voice, “Hopefully not some dumb blonde bimbo that will suck you dry.”

“
Hey, no one has sucked me dry!” Shea said defensively.

“
They tried.”

“
Now you know that’s not true. I won’t even let them close enough to suck me dry.”

“
Whatever. The last chick, Marie, you bought her a diamond necklace!”

“
Because I cheated on her with her sister and she threatened to kill herself because she loved me so much!”

“
Oh, yeah. Well anyway, who is she?”

“
How do you know it’s a woman?”

“
Because, like I said, you don’t get embarrassed. So shut up and tell me.”

“
I don’t know who she is. She was the photographer today.”

“
Okay, and?”

“
And she was beautiful.”

“
Did you ask her out?”

“
No, she is kind of different.”

“
What the hell, Shea, you’re not making sense. Who am I talking to?” she said teasingly, “this isn’t my brother, big scary captain Adler, because my brother’s motto is ‘I came, I saw, I conquered.’”

Shea let out a booming laugh, which caused her to laugh.

“
I don’t know. She wouldn’t look me in the eye. She was shy, cute.”

“
Hmm, sounds like a winner in my book,” Grace cooed.

“
Maybe.”

“
So, anyways, the party for this weekend is almost done, planning wise.”

“
Sounds good.”

“
I’m excited. The guys are gonna have a ball.”

“
That’s why I hire the best party planner in Nashville.”

Grace giggled and went on with details, as Shea stood in his stainless steel kitchen. Grace had decorated the whole condo for him when they came to Nashville four years ago. He had just gotten signed with the Assassins from the Flyers and couldn’t be happier to be moved to a team that was gonna pay a hell of lot more than the Flyers ever did. Plus, Grace had hated Philadelphia probably as much as Shea did. Luckily, they both loved Nashville. Since Grace would never go anywhere without Shea, as he wouldn’t without her.

The joy of being twins!

Grace had helped pick out the condo and even lived with him for a while to get it looking perfect before looking for her own. Then she met James Justice and after only being together for a couple of months, got pregnant. Now Grace lived ten minutes from Shea in a beautiful 1.2 million dollar house, blissfully married, with two of the greatest kids in the world, Ryan and Amelia, while running the biggest party planning business in Nashville. Shea couldn’t be happier for her, but he always got nervous with the thought that one day he would be leaving her, if he got traded or anything.

“
Does that sound okay?” Grace asked, bringing him back to the conversation.

“
Of course, do you have a photographer?” Shea found himself asking, Grace starting laughing.

“
No, you never said you wanted one.”

“
Well, maybe it would be a good idea. With all the new players and their families, don’t you think?”

“
Yeah, you have a certain photographer in mind, Shea?”

“
Oh hush, and get her.”

“
Who is she!?”

“
I don’t know, but find her and get her. Offer her a price she can’t refuse.”

“
You have no idea what her name is?”

“
I think I heard Elli, but I’m not sure. Call Melody, she would know.”

“
Fine. I’ve got three days to find this chick. Jeez, Shea.”

“
I love you, Gracey,” he cooed. She laughed.

“
I love you, too. Bye.”

“
Bye.”

He hung up his phone, tucking it into his pocket with a grin on his face. He went to his fridge, smiling at his niece and nephew’s pictures before opening it to get a beer. He popped the top as he walked to the dimly lit living room. He sat down on his leather couch and turned on the TV to catch some of the highlights before turning in. He had an early practice in the morning. Plus, he was volunteering at the hospital with the team tomorrow over at Vanderbilt.

As he drank his beer, he found himself grinning. If Grace came through, he would be seeing the beautiful photographer by this weekend. And this time, he would conquer.

Elli was dragging ass when she came into the studio the next morning. The tall mocha from Starbucks she had stopped to get was not doing the job. She was exhausted. She had stayed up until two in the morning editing pictures and got up at six to let Adler out and to get ready for work. She had two newborn shoots, a senior, and then two families, all before three o’clock.

Today was gonna be long.

As Elli unlocked the big glass doors to the studio, she read the writing on the doors, something she did every morning.

Time Standing Still

Owner: Eleanor Fisher

Established: 2004

She smiled to herself as she shut the door behind her, turning the lights on as she walked to the back, where her office was. She laid her coffee down before slipping off her heels and picking up her phone to listen to her messages since she wasn’t there all day yesterday. Usually Harper would do all this, but she wasn’t coming in today. Elli had given all the assistants the day off, since yesterday was such a biggie.

She had forty messages, so she sat down and listened to every one of them. Writing phone number’s down and putting stars beside her past clients because she would call them last. She took a drink as the answering machine lady said “Message Forty, September 13
^th
, 2010, 10:30pm”

“
Wow, they are calling late,” she muttered as she listened.

“
Hello, my name is Grace Justice, and I am calling on behalf of Shea Adler.”

And with just the mention of his name, Elli knocked her coffee cup all over her desk.

“
Shit!” she yelled as she flew up, wiping off the front of her skirt.

“
If you would like to listen to the message again, press five.”

“
Shit!” Elli yelled again, pushing five on the number pad.

“
Hello, my name is Grace Justice, and I am calling on behalf of Shea Adler. I am planning his team party that he is having this weekend and we need a photographer. The one I had canceled on me, so I am in a spot. Melody recommended me to you after Mr. Adler had mentioned meeting you yesterday. He asked me to tell you that whatever the price is to get you here for the party is the price he’ll pay. Please give me a call at -”

Elli wrote the number quickly, and then listened to the message again, just to make sure she wasn’t imagining what was happening. Shea Adler had mentioned meeting her? He said he would pay anything for her to be at the party?

This had to be a prank.

Elli glanced at the clock; then dialed the number that Mrs. Justice had left. The phone rang twice before a thick Boston accent came over the line.

“
Planning Your Moment, Grace Justice speaking, how can I help you?”

“
Yes, this is Eleanor Fisher, with Time Standing Still. I just got your message and was returning your call.”

“
Yes! Hello! How are you?”

“
Fine, thank you, and yourself?”

“
Oh girl, I’m dragging this morning. My daughter kept me up all night, you would think at the age of fifteen months she would be sleeping through the night!”

“
I hate to tell you this, but my youngest niece didn’t sleep through the night until she was three.”

“
Oh, good God, please don’t tell me that!”

“
Sorry!” Elli said with a laugh.

“
I just don’t understand. My son, perfect angel, my daughter, a demon!” That had both women in a fit of giggles. “So anyways, sorry to get off subject and bother you with my problems.”

“
Don’t you pay it any mind, I love talking about kids.”

“
Okay, good, I’m hoping you can help me this weekend, Ms. Fisher.”

“
Call me, Elli. When is the party?”

“
Saturday at one o’clock, I would need you until everyone leaves.”

“
Okay, just a second.”

Elli pulled up her schedule. She had a wedding that day, but Harper could do it with Alice as her assistant. They would be fine, but then that left the studio business. Ryan could handle it, probably; maybe she could call Alice’s brother, Jack, to back Ryan up. It could work.

“
Okay, I might be able to, when do you need an answer?”

“
When can you give me one?”

“
By lunch?”

“
Sounds good to me. I’ll be waiting for your call, Elli.”

“
Okay, talk to you soon.” Elli hung up the phone and just sat there staring into space. Was this really happening? She couldn’t do the party, she was booked that day. She picked up the phone, dialing Harper’s number, but it went to voicemail, but that didn’t stop Elli from continuing to call her. Harper finally picked up after the ninth time.