“I’m afraid to look at the price tag, but this is my dream dress.” Scarlett’s voice was filled with awe. “I never thought I would find something so perfect.”
“Then you will have it,” Rosie said. “Now, pick out a veil?”
“I don’t think I want one. The dress is enough by itself.” She held out her arms, and the bell sleeves fell halfway to her knees. “If it gets warm, I can remove this”—she took off the jacket, leaving behind a sleeveless V-neck dress—“and dance all night with Grady.”
“How about red and white rosebuds tucked into your hair?” Tressa suggested.
Scarlett turned around to check out her reflection in all the mirrors. “I like that idea, Tressa. I haven’t been to many weddings, but the dresses look stiff and uncomfortable with all the satin, beads, and lace. The lace on this one is soft and moves with me.”
I could clearly see her walking down the aisle with a bouquet of red roses in her hands.
“What kind of dress do you want when you marry Jackson?” Ada Lou whispered.
“Shhh ...,” I shushed her. “This is Scarlett’s day, not mine.”
Ada Lou nodded and winked. “If that’sthedress, then we should find something in red for the rest of us. Mary Beth, can you roll that rack away and bring us something to look at that would be fitting for the mother, sisters, and grandmothers of this beautiful bride?”
“Absolutely. Long or short?” she asked.
“Short,” Ada Lou said. “Two of us—and I’m talking about me and you, Nancy—would get tangled up in the hems of something that’s dragging on the floor and fall on our faces.”
“Of course,” Mary Beth nodded. “Scarlett, if you are sure about the dress, we will put it in a garment bag for you.”
“I want to keep it on until you come back with something for the rest of the family,” she said. “But you can take the others away. This is the one.”
We’d gone into the store intending to buy one dress. We left with six. Mine was a white rose print on a red background. I’d never worn anything quite like it, but when I tried it on, it fit and Scarlett loved it. As we were walking out with our garment bags draped over our arms, I suggested that we put them all in the back of my SUV.
“That sounds like a wonderful idea,” Ada Lou agreed. “That will leave room for Rosie to ride with me. I might need her to help me haul Nancy’s drunk butt out of the truck.”
“I am not drunk,” Nancy declared. “It would take more than six of those skinny glasses of champagne to make me dizzy.”
“Then why did I have to help you get into that crimson dress?” Rosie asked with a bit of edge in her voice.
“I’m old. I can’t zip up a dress from the back. That does not make me drunk,” Nancy snapped.
Ada Lou made sure that Nancy was in the back seat and then turned to face us. “I wanted to take y’all to a really nice place, but this is Scarlett’s day, and she wants pizza.”
“All of you have spent way too much money today for us to go to a swanky restaurant—and besides, I like pizza,” Scarlett said as she slid into the passenger seat. “I already feel like a princess.”
“So do I,” Tressa said. “If I’m dreaming, don’t wake me up.”
“Me either,” I whispered under my breath.
Chapter Twenty-Four
The adrenaline rush of the whole day hadn’t ebbed by the time I went to bed. After a brief conversation with Jackson, I tried to sleep that night, but nothing worked. Finally, I pushed back the covers and tiptoed to the kitchen. Rather than switching on a light, I used the one in the refrigerator to pour a glass of milk, and carried it to the living room in the dark.
“Couldn’t sleep, either?” Tressa asked.
Her voice startled me so badly that I jumped and had to do some fancy footwork to keep from spilling milk all over her.
“Didn’t mean to scare you,” she said.
I sat down on the other end of the sofa and turned on the lamp beside me. “No problem. I thought I was the only one who had a dose of insomnia tonight. All the excitement of the day hasn’t settled, I guess.”
“I had another nightmare,” she whispered.
“Want to talk about it? I had one a few days back, and it helped me to talk about it.”
