A Case For Love (Royals Series Book 3)

by Nicole Taylor

  “No. You didn’t. Is that why you’re so interested in photography?”

  “Maybe. Or maybe it’s genetic. I don’t know. Anyway, I’m in the process of publishing a book of his photographs.”

  “You are? That’s wonderful.”

  “Yeah. It’s something I’ve wanted to do for a while.”

  David rocked back in his seat as he observed Ronnie carefully.

  “Were you and your dad close?”

  She didn’t answer for a couple of minutes, just looked down at the floor. He wondered if it was because they hadn’t been close at all.

  “I never met him.”

  “Oh. Did he run off?”

  It was a story he heard so often in the communities he served, it seemed like the most logical reason.

  Her head came up in surprise.

  “No. He had died before I was born.”

  “Oh. I’m sorry.”

  This seemed to be quite an emotional journey for Ronnie. David wished he could ask her more about her feelings, but he restrained himself. He couldn’t afford to get any closer to her than he already had.

  “David?”

  He looked at her expectantly.

  “There’s something I want your advice on. For a while, I’ve wanted to do this. I’ve gone through this journey. And suddenly it feels like I’ve gone about this wrong. Like I’ve left something out.”

  “What do you mean?”

  “My sisters knew our dad. They have those memories. I have nothing. I felt like this project was mine and that it had nothing to do with them. I met with them recently at our quarterly girl’s night out event, and it came up. They seem to feel like I should have involved them more. I got annoyed and implied that it didn’t have anything to do with them, you know? Was I wrong?”

  David sighed inwardly. Why did he even try to keep Ronnie at bay? He couldn’t keep her from getting under his skin any more than he could try to hold back the ocean with his bare hands. His heart ached for her now. Anything that bothered her seemed to impact him on an emotional level. Here she was with a family dilemma. Who was he to give advice about fractured relationships? Yet, for her sake, he would try.

  “What are you afraid of?”

  She shrugged. “I’m afraid that if I get them involved it will be their project, not mine.”

  “But he was their dad too. You say they knew him as if that somehow should be enough. I think, Ronnie, that when you’ve known someone, when you have memories of them and then they die, in many ways it is harder than a person who has never experienced any of that. I know you feel like you were disadvantaged. But that wasn’t their fault. I’m sure the loss of your dad was an extremely hard thing for them to cope with. I speak from experience.”

  He paused, debating with himself if he should share what he was about to.

  “My mom was killed in a car accident six years ago. There isn’t a day that goes by when I don’t miss her. Yet, my father and sister and I never really talked about it. The focus was on catching the guy who had done it and making him pay.”

  He shook his head as memories of that period in his life washed over him. He had been angry and upset, and it had resulted in him making a foolish decision which he was sure his father was still punishing him for.

  “I’m sorry. I wasn’t aware,” Ronnie said, splaying her fingers over her mouth and turning sad, soulful eyes towards him.

  “Yeah. So, if assisting you with this project will bring some relief to them do you want to selfishly withhold that? Isn’t this, in fact, an opportunity for you three to share what your dad meant to you? It could be cathartic if you think about it. A God-given, incredible journey.”

  When she looked at him, her eyes were moist.

  “You’re right. I never saw it that way. I saw them as somehow intruding on this one thing, the only thing I shared with Dad. I’ve been so selfish. Thank you, David.”

  Their gazes locked and held and in that instant, David knew that Ronnie intended to come behind his desk and hug him. The determined look in her eyes said it all. She had just made up her mind to throw caution to the wind and just go for it. But he couldn’t let her do that. If she touched him, it would be all over. There would be no turning back.

  As Ronnie stood, David said hurriedly, “Where will the shoot be?”

  She faltered, and the intense look in her eyes was replaced by a puzzled one.

  “Shoot?”

  “My portrait.”

  “Oh…yes…right here in this office. You’ll love it. Promise.”

  “I’m sure I will,” David said, reaching for his phone. “You need to excuse me, though. I’ve got a couple of calls to make.”

  ~*~*~*~

  He did love it – in the end. At first, though, David questioned his sanity in having agreed to this shoot.

  To begin, he awoke that Saturday morning with a headache. He knew it was stress-related. In addition to spending every weekend attending fundraising events, he was now also spending much of his weekday afternoons and evenings walking the length and breadth of the district, knocking on doors and asking people to support him.

  And the calling…

  He had personally called over 200 people that week alone. The calls had been quick, but it was tiring speaking to so many people. He’d tried to cut down on the number, suggesting to Gershon that it would be easier to get volunteers to complete that task. Gershon had told him people wanted to hear from the candidate, not a volunteer.

  David felt as though the campaign had taken over his life. He spent a huge chunk of his days attending to campaign matters which left only evenings or weekends for Jones Law work. He was delegating more and more, but there were some things that only the CEO could deal with.

  The shoot was scheduled for 8:00 a.m. He had decided to arrive an hour early and do some work.

  He was in for the shock of his life when he showed up to see Ronnie Dickson directing two burly men to remove furniture from his office.

  She had her back to him, and when he tapped her on the shoulder, she almost jumped out of her skin.

  “You scared me half to death,” she announced with a hand on her chest.

  In her green and navy, plaid Capri pants, white turtleneck sweater, and ballet flats with her hair pulled up into a dangling ponytail she reminded him of a heroine in one of those sixties summer movies.

  “What are you doing?” he asked.

  “Setting up for the shoot. I need to move out some of your furniture to get all my equipment in there.”

  “What equipment?…”

  David’s voice trailed as he observed one of the two moving men almost drop his prized cedar conference table.

  “Hey be careful with that!” he exclaimed.

  Ronnie placed a hand on his arm.

  “Relax. It’s all insured. I checked,” she reassured him.

  He gave her an exasperated look and was about to tell her he didn’t want to have to go through the trouble of having his furniture replaced when two young black men appeared carrying what looked like a backdrop, an umbrella, and a power pack.

  “David, this is Duane and Adeko. My part-time assistants and two of the young men in my youth group at Changing Lives.”

  David reached out and shook their hands.

  “Man, you can play a sax like no one I’ve ever seen,” Duane said.

  David laughed.

  “Let me guess. You were there the night of the concert.”

  “Sure was,” answered Adeko. “I’d love to play like that.”

  “What do you play?” David asked.

  Duane pulled his nose and said with a cough, “The fool,” which earned him an elbow in the ribs from Adeko.

  “You really own all this?” Adeko asked, looking around in awe.

  “I guess you could say that I’m in charge of all of it.”

  “One day I want to work in a firm like this.”

  David nodded.

  “Nothing is preventing you. Tell God what you want, your
heart’s desire. And be prepared to work hard to achieve your dream. Remember His promise in Philippians 4:6. Do not be anxious about anything, but in everything by prayers and supplication with thanksgiving make your requests known to God.”

  Duane quipped, “That’s one of my favorites, along with another one Ronnie made us memorize, ‘I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me.’ Philippians 4:13. I’m holding on to that one. I’m beginning college in the fall, so I need all the strength I can get.”

  Ronnie reached out and ruffled Duane’s hair.

  “Guys, go on and put the stuff in the office. You’ve still got another load to bring up from the van.”

  She turned back to David.

  “So…you were saying?”

  David shook his head. That exchange had distracted him a bit, and he wasn’t sure what they had been talking about before. When he looked around and saw his sofa being removed from his office, he remembered.

  “Oh, yes. You were explaining why you’re emptying my office of its furniture.”

  “Right. Okay…you see the stuff Duane and Adeko just brought up? Well, they’ve got to make two more trips. It would be a pretty tight squeeze to get in a backdrop, lights, umbrellas, and still have enough room to shoot. And I’m not emptying your office. Just removing what I need to. What did you think was going to happen anyway?”

  “I thought you’d have a camera, that you’d point it at me, that you’d press the button at the top a few times, and that ten minutes later we’d be all done,” he said with utmost seriousness.

  Ronnie laughed until her sides ached.

  “David…Jones…you… are…so…funny.”

  When she finally stopped and looked at David through watery eyes, she realized he was not smiling. She sobered and straightened up with effort.

  “Okay. Maybe I should have explained the process. The shoot itself will take about thirty minutes. And that’s only because you’ll be changing outfits a couple of times. If it was just a straight shoot or a headshot, sure, it could take ten minutes. The thing is though, the set-up time takes a while. Today it’s going to take about an hour.”

  “Does that hour include taking out the furniture?”

  “No.”

  David closed his eyes and released a resigned sigh.

  “Okay, Ronnie. I’m just going to go sit by your desk and do some work. Give me a shout when you’re ready.”

  “I’ll be ready in about 45 minutes. That’s when Owen, the guy from Ralph Lauren, is due to get here with your suits. You need to get dressed before the shoot so…”

  “Fine.” David held up his hands and walked over to her cubicle.

  One hour later, David showed up ready for his shoot. His office had been transformed with lighting gear and camera gear, a photographer and her assistants, and a stylist. He was wearing what Owen had described as Ralph Lauren’s slimmest silhouette, a blue-grey suit with a strong shoulder, narrow lapel, and slim trouser. It had been paired with a pink, pin-striped shirt, a navy and white patterned tie, and a matching pocket handkerchief. There was even a tiny flower in his button hole. It made David feel like quite the dandy. And it was a most uncomfortable feeling.

  David struggled to follow Ronnie’s direction as he posed at his desk, but he was not relaxed. He was a serious man. A lawyer. A CEO. A university lecturer. And this nonsense was getting to him. Sit forward. Sit back. Hand under chin. Hands folded. Face forward. Face to the left. Look straight at the camera. Look to the side. This was not his style. Quite ridiculous in fact. A waste of his precious time. Why he could be signing off on–

  “David Jones!”

  David snapped to attention.

  Ronnie lowered her camera and blew out an exasperated breath.

  “You are ruining this shoot.”

  She jammed one hand on a hip and glowered at him. David saw the two assistants exchange smirks.

  David’s jaw tightened.

  “Fine. Let’s forget it then,” he said between clenched teeth, already pushing himself away from his desk and standing.

  Ronnie walked over to him, skirted around his desk, and stopped directly in front of him with her hands folded across her chest. She leveled her brown eyes at him.

  David loosened the Windsor knot on his tie and stared defiantly back at her.

  She looked across at Duane and Adeko and gave them both hard looks which left them looking at the ground. She glanced over at Owen, then back at her assistants.

  “Can you gentlemen excuse us for a few minutes, please?”

  When they were alone, Ronnie turned back to David.

  “What’s the problem?”

  He didn’t answer for a minute. He watched her and debated whether he should plant a kiss on her pouting lips and show her what the problem really was, or order her and her stuff out of his office.

  “I am not comfortable with this type of frivolous nonsense, Ronnie. I never envisaged all this fuss. I appreciate what you’re trying to do but…”

  “No. I mean what’s really the problem, David?”

  “I just told you. I’ve got stuff to do. I can’t spend the entire day doing this. So, whatever photos you’ve taken will have to suffice.”

  He tried to walk past her, but she put a hand on his chest that brought him to a halt. Not because he couldn’t physically move, but because her touch felt so good he lost the will to move. Again, he battled the crazy voice within that told him to take her in his arms and kiss her.

  “No. You are really tense. And I suspect it has nothing to do with this photo shoot,” she said.

  David expelled a long sigh and turned around to lean his back against the desk. He crossed his arms over his chest and crossed his feet at the ankles.

  “I’m beginning to feel overwhelmed, Ronnie. All this campaigning, fundraising and then coming in here on evenings and weekends to catch up. It’s draining me.”

  “Have you prayed about it?”

  He shook his head.

  “Not really. Honestly, until you just pointed out how stressed I was, I didn’t realize it was getting to me. I’ve just been doing and moving from task to task, figuring that an end is in sight. In a month it will all be over.”

  “Yeah, but four weeks is a long time to be feeling stressed out. And if you win the seat, which I’m sure you will, then it will mean additional responsibilities. Remember what you just said to Adeko?”

  When he gave her a blank look, she said, “Philippians 4:6. Take your own advice. Let’s pray about it.”

  She reached for his hand, and he didn’t resist. She said a prayer for him. Afterward, he felt much better, and he did relax. The shoot went much smoother after that.

  The other two suits were more his style. There was the olive green three-piece plaid wool suit, with a double-breasted vest, paired with a light blue shirt and maroon, paisley bow tie. The other was a tapered khaki suit with the light blue pin-striped shirt and dark blue polka dot tie.

  Later, when they looked at the digital images, David was blown away. The photographs were amazing. Her use of light, bold colors and poses made all the photos come alive. The end result was that he had great difficulty choosing just one.

  The portrait he went for in the end was of him reclining in his chair in the three-piece plaid suit, an intense, pensive look on his face, his arm bent and positioned near his face, fingers curled inward, thumb and index finger touching as all the world lay at his back. That was what he felt was the most accurate portrayal of his position. He had a lot on his mind these days.

  “So you like them?” she asked, and she seemed nervous.

  “I love them,” he said quietly, and their eyes met.

  His arms ached to hold her.

  “That book you’re publishing. Will it have your own photos?”

  “Mine? Oh, no. I’m nowhere as good as Dad.”

  He shook his head.

  “I don’t know what your dad’s work looks like, but this is great, Ronnie. You should publish it. In fact, i
t could be a father and daughter compilation. Kinda like what Natalie Cole did with her dad’s song, Unforgettable.”

  She glanced away.

  “I don’t know if I should. Dad was a photojournalist…a serious photographer. His work had meaning and purpose. It demanded people’s attention, compelled them to look even when they didn’t want to, forced them to face what was happening in the world around them. In many ways, his work inspired change. Me, on the other hand, I just take photos of people posing or just doing ordinary things. What’s the big deal?”

  Such self-effacing comments were surprising coming from his Girl Friday. But David was learning Ronnie was a complex individual.

  “I don’t agree with you. You may not be covering wars and persecutions and killings, but you are telling a story. A story of everyday life. Real people going about their business. Capturing important events in their lives. That has significance. Most of us may never experience a war, or famine, or calamity but we all go through certain epoch moments like graduation from high school, weddings, bar mitzvahs.”

  He had her complete attention, so he continued with more boldness.

  “And then there are the everyday things that in themselves tell a story. The hanging out at the mall, going to the cinema, sitting in a pew at church and listening to a sermon. These things matter greatly to people. You doing a good job with that documentation of their lives means a lot to them. Looking at a great photo of themselves can inspire people, give them hope for the future, evoke feelings of nostalgia. Don’t discount what you do. This is incredible work.”

  He looked back at the photos again.

  “How did you get the colors to look so vibrant? I didn’t realize my eyes were such a light shade of brown.”

  “Whiskey,” she said so softly he almost missed it.

  “Pardon me?”

  “Your eyes. I call them whiskey-colored.”

  David swallowed. She had a description for his eyes. God, I don’t know how much longer I can hold out. This is really hard.

  Chapter 13

  Ronnie sat crossed leg on her bed leafing through the newspaper as she searched to see what was showing at her local cinema. She was bored being at home with little to do. A photo caught her eye, and she immediately paused. It was David Jones. He looked gorgeous as usual, but then she noticed who was beside him, looking into his face as though the moon and stars were reflected in his eyes. Linette Laney.