Just for Now

Chapter Seventeen

The Alvarez family made their way to where Nate and Scarlett were. Scarlett chose a pretty damn good place for pictures. The hotel definitely knew what they were doing, they had several different places to either set up the venue or take photos. They were currently on top of a ledge, of sorts. The ocean in the background.

"How about we do some with and some without Matthew?" Scarlett suggested, lifting her hand to motion for Matthew to come as well.

"You sure, sweetie?" Lorena asked, glancing back at her boyfriend.

Scarlett smiled. "Yeah, definitely, we'll get a mix. We'll have Charlie and Ashton jump in too at some point."

His sister was always good at that. She just had a knack for working things out and helping everyone feel included. Cole envied her in that way. She just got things right. It always seemed easy for her.

The photographer seemed a bit... out there. Cole wasn't one to judge, really. But he had to admit, he jumped slightly when he first saw the main photographer. The man was in quite the loud outfit. Most wedding photographers tried not to stand out at a wedding, they would just try to blend in. Not this guy, it seemed. His outfit was almost clownish, colorful stripes on oversized fabric. His face seemed to be permanently frozen on this open mouthed smile, eyebrows raised and eyes wide.

He guided the family to where the photos would be taken. He placed them in the order he desired, stepping back to check his work. Cole and Alli were next to each other, and he felt his fingertips twitch slightly. He let his arm rest on her waist, gauging her reaction. A shiver ran down her body, little goosebumps over her arms. Allison sucked in a sharp breath, but relaxed into his touch.

Cole turned his attention to Nate and Scarlett, asking, "Hey, Nate, you stop crying yet?"

"Shut up," Nate shot at him with a laugh.

Scarlett shrugged, rubbing his arm fondly. "If you didn't cry, I would've been kinda pissed."

"Wait, do you guys remember the family photoshoots we did when we were younger?" Lila quipped suddenly with a chuckle, glancing at her family.

"Oh my god," Scarlett laughed out, shaking her head.

"Oh, you guys hated those," Lorena recalled, her eyes closing.

Cole raised an eyebrow. "Could you blame us? They would take hours!"

"Only cost me a small fortune, too," his mother added. "One of you would always storm off at the end."

"Yeah, none of that today," Scarlett said firmly, glancing at all her siblings.

"Here we go, family!" the photographer shouted enthusiastically as he got into his position. "Biiiig dynamic smiles!"

Sam tilted his head. "Come again?"

The photographer's smile didn't waiver from his face as he repeated, "Biiiig dynamic smiles!"

The family awkwardly flashed their smiles, but no pictures were taken. If Cole wasn't busy posing, he would have looked around to see if anyone else found this slightly strange as well. The photographer was just standing there in his squat position, camera in hand and an open-mouth smile on his face.

"Bigger!" They smiled bigger.

"Biiiger!" A little bigger.

"Biiiiiiger!"

"Just take the damn photo!"

"Lila!"

˗ˏˋ ★ ˎˊ˗