Tango in Paradise Read Online Free PDF Page B

already flipping through them.
    “Terrible. A complete waste of good film,” he muttered.
    “You make taking poor pictures sound like a crime. I know they’re bad, but—”
    “Unless these are pictures of the Headless Horseman at a family reunion, they’re the worst things I’ve ever seen.” He looked up at her, disgust showing plainly on his face. “Please, tell me you didn’t shoot these.”
    April couldn’t help it. Her lips twitched into a dry smile. “Why? Do you have some criteria about only working for someone who can handle a camera as well as you? Wouldn’t that make you a bit dispensable?”
    Given his track record, she’d fully expected a sarcastic response. Instead he looked as if his entire body had just been interred in a deep freeze. His shoulders tensed and his fingers gripped the glossy photos for a never-ending second before they slowly flexed, allowing the sheets to drop back onto the table. She watched the rigid line of his back slowly relax and the tendons in his neck smooth. Apparently she’d hit a major nerve. Well, turnabout was fair play, she thought, although she gained no satisfaction from it.
    “I’m sorry. Really. I was kidding.”
    “I know you were.” He sighed, then tilted his head back to look up at her, a shadow of his usually dry smile curving his lips. “It’s just ironic that the reason I’m here is to prove exactly that.”
    “Exactly what?”
    “That I’m dispensable.”

THREE
    “You may kiss the bride.”
    Jack waited as the groom lifted the bride’s veil. He released the shutter just as the young man gazed into the eyes of his wife for the first time, capturing for eternity the private look of love and trust that passed between them in that special moment.
    When the newlyweds continued kissing, cheers and a smattering of applause broke out from the guests.
    Irritated for some reason, Jack wondered if the couple planned on breathing sometime in the near future, or if they were just giving a new meaning to the vow “till death do us part.” He ran off a few shots, then quickly moved to get several more of the young couple as they walked down the narrowwhite rug that had been rolled across the east lawn in honor of the occasion.
    He packed his equipment and headed for the large mass of floral arrangements that served as an altar. “Jack Tango shooting a wedding,” he grumbled, thinking that being dispensable might not always be a bad thing. Thank God Franklin hadn’t witnessed this. After years in friendly competition, Franklin would give his right lung to see his Pulitzer prize-winning colleague and close friend reduced to using his talents for assembling a debutante’s wedding album. Jack had never been one to flaunt his achievements, but anyone familiar with his work would have to agree this was a bit like asking Paul Prudhomme to put together a few peanut butter and jelly sandwiches. Overkill.
    He pasted a smile on his face and yanked up his damned cummerbund again. The absent Steve had apparently taken advantage of the daily buffets during his tenure as staff photographer. As Jack adjusted the tripod, his gaze scanned the crowd, instantly zeroing in on April with an unerring accuracy he’d given up trying to figure out hours ago. He watched as she smiled and skillfully moved from one cluster of reception guests to the next, leaving smiles in her wake. The lady knew how to work a room. Her guests were content.
    It came as a bit of a shock, but for all his grousing, so was he. He’d convinced himself he’donly jumped on the crazy trade idea as a way to get the attractive CEO to spend some time alone with him. Although he had to admit it was a rather unique predicament for him.
    He watched her smile fade a bit as she lifted her one and only glass of champagne and surreptitiously surveyed the crowd, and admitted to himself that his physical response to her was only a small part of it. Even with her diminutive stature, she had this incredibly dynamic