Taking Shots (Assassins) (3 page)

“
I mean, Jesus, El, if I don’t answer, obviously, I don’t want to talk to you!”

“
Shea Adler’s party planner called me to do his team party this Saturday.”

“
Really?”

“
Yeah!”

“
Okay, well we have the Baker/Poke wedding this weekend, so Alice and me will cover it, while Ryan runs the studio, and we’ll have Jack come in to back him up.”

“
That’s what I was thinking.”

“
Of course, it was! But you told the party planner you’ll call her back because you’re too chicken shit to do it, so call the girl back and tell her yes, and then don’t call me back until a decent hour.”

The line went dead.

Elli didn’t pick it back up, though; she just stared at the phone, telling herself to pick it up at call Mrs. Justice.

But she couldn’t.

The day went on, the party for Shea Adler heavy on Elli’s mind. Why couldn’t she just call Mrs. Justice back, tell her yes, she had the coverage. What was the problem?

Seeing Shea again.

Her crush had gotten stronger since she spent most of the night staring at his pictures, and she didn’t know if she could face him again, let alone work for him. After her senior shoot, Elli was sitting at her desk when her phone rang. Elli picked up, with her regular greeting, only to hear the same Boston accent from earlier.

“
Alright now, Ms. Fisher, you have not called me back, does that mean no?”

“
Oh, I’m so sorry, I’ve had clients all day, and lost track of time,” Elli lied.

“
I’m just teasing you; will you be able to do the party?”

Just say yes, say it! Elli bit down hard on her lip.

“
Yes, ma’am, I can. I’ll be there at 12:30. I just need the address and your email to send you the invoice.”

“
Wonderful! You’re a life saver Elli!” Grace gave her the email and the address to a well known subdivision, before thanking her again, then hanging up. After staring at the wall for what seemed like forever, she dialed Harper’s number.

“
I said yes,” Elli said when Harper answered.

“
Good, I knew you would.”

“
How did you know? I didn’t even know I would!”

“
Because you want to see Shea Adler again. You won’t admit it, but I saw the way you looked at him yesterday. You’re smitten,” Harper said

“
I am not!”

“
Yes, you are.”

“
I’m hanging up.”

“
Go ahead, but listen, make sure you wear the white tube top dress with the blue flowers, and your bright blue Manolo heels to the party. You’re smoking in that dress.”

“
I will not! I’m wearing jeans and a studio tee.”

“
Whatever you say, Elli.”

The line went dead again, and Elli threw the phone down. She sat down behind her desk and looked up to look at the Assassins’ team picture from last year. She needed to print one out of this year’s team, since there were new players, and some of the guys looked a little different. She looked at her favorite spot, row four, eight guys in from the left, to where Shea Adler stood in his jersey with a C on his chest and a big grin on his face.

She took a deep breath and shook her head as she said “Damn it. I’m gonna wear the damn dress.”

“
Her name is Eleanor Fisher, Elli for short.”

“
Excuse me guys, it’s my sister,” Shea said as he stood up, leaving his fellow teammates in the living room as he walked to the kitchen to talk to Grace in private.

“
Elli, I like it.”

“
She’s so sweet, shy like you said, but sweet. She said yes, after making me wait most of the day, she said she got extremely busy, which was probably true. Her studio is extremely hot right now. Not only is her wedding photography beautiful, but her in studio stuff is amazing. You should look it up online; I’ll send you the link with the invoice for her services.”

“
Okay, sounds good. How much is she charging me?”

“
Not enough in my opinion, five hundred.”

“
Add a thousand to it and send it in, don’t forward me anything, I’ll just lose it.”

“
It’s an email, Shea.”

“
I lose everything.”

“
True, so fifteen hundred?”

“
Yeah, she’s really coming?”

“
Yes, Shea.”

“
You’re awesome, Grace. I owe you.”

“
It’s my job, I’m glad I’ve made you happy.”

“
You’ve made my day, babe, thanks. Listen I got Jakob and Alex over, see you Saturday?”

“
I’ll talk to you tomorrow.”

“
Yep, love you.”

“
Love you, too.”

Shea hung up the phone, tucking it into his pocket, a huge grin on his face.

Eleanor Fisher. Elli.

The name fit her. He couldn’t believe Grace had come through. When he came into the living room, Jakob looked up at him and shook his head.

“
What’s up with the grin, bro?”

“
Grace came through for me. You didn’t finish the story did you?” Shea said changing the subject. Jakob had gone out last night with some girl he had met and was telling the guys about it.

“
No, so after going at it all night, then a good part of the morning, we wake up, and she rolls over and tells me to leave! I couldn’t believe it! No woman has ever done that!”

“
Maybe you weren’t good,” Alex said with laugh. Jakob pinned him with a glare.

“
Fuck off, Welch. I was amazing, she was amazing. I don’t know what happened.”

“
Crazy dude,” Shea said as he leaned back on the couch, a beer in hand.

“
Damn right, it was, she was heaven, damn it.”

“
What, she won’t talk to you?” Alex asked.

“
Hell no, she won’t answer any of my calls or texts.”

“
Maybe she used you.”

“
Maybe,” he said with a shake of his head. Jakob was one of those guys that was looking for true love; not that Shea wasn’t looking for
the one
, but not right now, like Jakob was. Alex had found his true love years ago; he was married to his beautiful wife and had five girls, something Jakob was extremely jealous of.

Shea hated seeing his best friend so upset over a girl, but luckily, he thought with a smile, that would never happen to him.

Shea never planned on what to wear. He usually just threw on a pair of ripped up jeans and a tee, but he would be seeing Elli today, and he wanted to look good. So he spent a good thirty minutes trying to pick something out, he even made the mistake of calling Grace. After being cussed out, he went back to trying to pick something out on his own. He decided on a nice white button up shirt, and a pair of cargo shorts. After fixing his hair, he threw his black Billabong hat on and slid his black Converse shoes on.

He was nervous, something he never felt. Not even during game seven of the playoffs was he nervous. He was always ready.

Shea was basically bouncing in his seat as he drove his chromed out Range Rover over to Grace’s house, where the party was being held. Grace had way more room than he did, plus she loved having parties at his expense. When he pulled up into her driveway, he noticed a huge black F-150 sitting on the side of the road. None of the guys drove that, so he wrote it off as one of the workers. Some of the team had already arrived with their families and the party was just getting started when Shea entered the backyard.

It was the perfect September day for a party. The sun was shining and the sky was brightly blue as kids ran through the sprinkler and went down the water slide that Shea said had to be there. He had a pair of shorts in the car, just in case he got to urge to go down it with Ryan, his nephew. As Shea walked through the party, he stopped to say hi to his teammates and their wives or girlfriends. He looked around the party and saw James, Grace’s husband, holding Amelia in his arms. Shea went straight to them, taking Amelia from him, kissing her loudly on the cheeks. She squealed in delight, kissing Shea right back.

“
Hey Shea,” James said. Shea smiled over at him. He had always like James. He was a good man, treated his sister well, and was a great father.

“
Hey, man, how ya doing?”

“
Good. Amelia has been a terror about going to bed, though. I feel so bad for Grace, she’s gotta be tired.”

“
I bet she is. The party looks amazing.”

“
Like always, she out does herself, she’s over there with a photographer.” Shea whipped his head around so quickly that he was surprised he didn’t have whiplash. His beautiful sister was wearing a long flowing pink dress, her black hair up in a bun, with her big shades over her eyes. She was laughing and he smiled, but when he looked over at the woman in front of Grace, he lost his breath.

Elli was wearing a beautiful summer looking dress, her hair was down in ringlets, her eyes also covered with sunglasses, but he knew the color of them, since he had been dreaming about them for the past two days. His eyes drifted down Elli’s body. She wasn’t skinny like most girls Shea went after, but she wasn’t fat. She was curvy, sexy. He started walking without thinking, he was pretty sure James said something, but he was mesmerized by the beauty in front of him.

Right when he was about to reach the two women, Elli walked off, camera in hand, towards the kids slide.

“
Shit,” he muttered as Grace grinned up at him, taking Amelia from him.

“
She’s not your norm, Shea.”

“
No, she’s better,” he said as he watched her follow the kids around, taking pictures. Grace laughed before kissing his cheek.

“
I hope something happens between you guys.”

“
Oh, it will.”

The party was going beautifully. Grace Justice was one hell of a party planner. The large brick house was covered in lights, with lanterns hanging above the party. The team colors were everywhere, on every surface. There was lots of stuff for the kids: water slides, games, and even a prince and princess reading stories off to the side in a flower garden. For the parents, there was food galore and drinks, to boot. The party was something straight from LA, in Elli’s opinion.

Elli was getting great shots: the kids, the teammates, everything. It was so amazing to get this inside look on the team, they were such a family. Elli was bending down, taking a picture of the most gorgeous little girl, who happened to be Grace’s daughter, when she felt someone standing behind her.

“
I see you’ve found the most beautiful baby girl to take pictures of, Ms. Fisher.” Elli stood up and looked behind her to see Shea Adler looking down at her. She always thought he was tall on his skates, but he was still massive without them. He was such a big man, so strong. Being a defenseman, Elli guessed he had to be huge.

“
I did, she’s gorgeous.”

“
She takes after her uncle, right baby girl?” He scooped the baby up, kissing her loudly on the cheeks.

“
You’re niece?” Elli asked as she turned off her camera. Then she looked at the two of them together and she could see the family resemblance: same blue eyes, dark as night hair. The baby pushed on his glasses, causing him to laugh as he put them back on his face. All the Sports Center guys made fun of his glasses. They were big and black, geeky looking, but Elli loved them. She thought he was geektastic in them. “So Grace is your sister?” she said when she found her voice again. Being as close as she was to him was making it hard for her to breathe.

“
My twin sister.”

“
Wow, I didn’t know, she didn’t mention it.”

“
I doubt she talks about me a lot,” he said with a laugh as the baby tried to get down. “Alright, alright, calm down Amelia, go on, baby,” he patted her on the butt as she waddled away. “She’s a busy one. Do you have any kids?”

“
Oh no, just a lot of nieces and nephews.” He smiled as he looked over at her, his blue eyes set just on her. They stood there staring at each other before his eyes raked over her body, making her nervous.

“
It’s a beautiful party,” Elli said breathlessly.

“
Yeah, like always, Grace outdid herself.”

“
She did, this is really nice of you, though, having this for the team.”

“
Yeah, I’ve done it the past three years, since I became captain, Wavier did it before me.” Elli nodded, he smiled, and she blushed. God, she was an idiot.

“
Wavier was a good captain.”

“
He was. I miss his crazy ass,” Shea said with a big smile “So you follow hockey?”

“
Oh, yes, I love it. I have glass seats right beside the penalty box. I go to every home game.”

“
Do you now?”

“
Yup, I’m a big fan.”

“
That’s awesome. Is that how you got into sports photography?”

“
Yeah, I always bring my camera with me to all the games and take pictures, but when I got the opportunity to shoot for y’all, I jumped on it.”

“
You did a great job. I saw my pictures this morning actually.”

“
Oh, thank you.”

He already saw them? She just sent them in yesterday!