Sweet on You (The Bridesmaids Club Book 4) by Leeanna Morgan Page B

where it had gone. Her gran had bought the camera for her eighteenth birthday. It had been an extravagant gift, expensive beyond what they could afford.
    The money Molly had saved from her part-time job would be put toward her education. Her gran told her it would be an investment in her future, something she would never regret.
    And she’d been right. But the greatest lessons Molly had learned hadn’t come from college. They’d come from her gran. She’d learned that working hard, loving deeply, and knowing what was right, would take her through the best and worst life had to offer.
    No money or experience could buy such lessons, and Molly was thankful each day for her gran’s wisdom.
    A flash of sunlight broke through the clouds, distracting Molly from her thoughts. She held her camera in her hand and focused on the view in front of her. The pine and spruce trees added shadow and depth, the sun, clarity. She brought the camera to her eye and quickly captured the scene.
    She took more photos, changed the settings, then caught the light as it skimmed across the lake. Next came the panoramic shots, the ones that would tie the lake to the land, the water to the dream.
    After an hour of alternating between her hand-held camera and her tripod, Molly was happy with the photos she’d taken. She’d work with what she had in her dark room; layer the colors, the tone and the texture. By the time she finished, the photos would be even more stunning than what she’d seen today.
    After she’d put her cameras carefully away, she sat on her blanket and pulled a sandwich out of its wrapper. As she watched the sky lighten and the world wake up, a deep sense of peace settled inside of her. No breakfast had ever tasted so fine or been eaten in such a lovely setting.
    Jacob would be giving away more than he thought when he sold Emerald Lake. She knew without knowing how, that this land had the power to heal, to rejuvenate lost souls and heavy hearts.
    And if she could have afforded it, she would have bought Jacob’s home in the blink of an eye. But for now, the images she’d captured on film would have to be enough. And that, she thought, was more than most people had the opportunity to enjoy.
     
    ***
    His parents’ kitchen was the last place Jacob thought he’d sign a business contract in. But in some strange way, it was the only place he could imagine starting a working relationship with Molly.
    The kitchen smelled of gingerbread and baking, the kind of smells that reminded him of what was important. His mom took pride in her home. The kitchen counter sparkled in the afternoon light and the table he was sitting at with Molly shone with a fresh coat of polish.
    Molly opened the contract he’d spent a lot of time deliberating over. She signed on the dotted line, kept a copy for herself, and handed the original paperwork back to him. The only pages she looked at belonged to appendix two. With her head bent, she studied the carefully constructed text like a student studying for her final exams. Her finger skimmed along the words, stopped every now and then before moving onto the next line.
    He glanced down at her signature. It was quirky and complicated, a lot like the woman in front of him. “You need to read the entire document.”
    Molly looked up. From the slow, distracted smile on her face he’d say her mind was still on the second appendix. “You’re an honest man, Jacob. I don’t need to see what you’ve written to know that it will be fair. A brief summary is all I need.”
    “It’s an Independent Contractor Agreement, Molly. If I summarize the document, I’ll leave something out.”
    Molly shook her head and ignored him. Appendix two was obviously more interesting than reading about their rights and responsibilities in the main part of the contract.
    What had surprised Jacob, was how much time it had taken him to create appendix two. Listing every photo he wanted hadn’t been as easy as he’d first thought. It