I swap heels for boots, tucking them into my new tote as I leave the building. Biting wind aside, the day is entirely pleasant. The sun shines valiantly through the clouds, lending a few degrees of warmth. I should have taken Hendrix’s car, but I need the walk to get my head on straight. Duncan’s comment have thrown me. I never thought others had tied Pete and I together.
Or Josh, for that matter.
We’re friends because they were in my life—between Bess and Sam, Josh and Pete had always just been there. There’d never been anything sexual about our relationships.
Right?
The walk from Hendrix’s Upper East Side office down to Ada Blue, an exclusive high-end wedding boutique, didn’t provide nearly enough time to sort my feelings. I step through the door of the store and am immediately embraced by a sense of muted anticipation.
A woman dressed in dove gray glides across the plush carpet toward me.
“Welcome to Ada Blue, I’m Julianne, you must be Ms. Kirkson. You’re right on time.” The smiling sales assistant greets me in a hushed, reverent tone.
“Ah no. Maid of honor. Molly Archer,” I hold up my ringless left hand. “Just a sexy single in your area.”
Her smile freezes, eyes widening. A look of pity crosses her face before she clears her throat.
“If you’ll follow me, Ms. Archer?” The stylish assistant turns, leading me down a hall and into a private dressing room complete with large sitting area. The plush suite is decorated in soft grays and contrasting blacks paired with bronze accents.
“Something to drink?” she asks, waiting as I drop my tote by the love seat and start to remove my coat.
“No, thank you. Not at the moment.” My gaze catches on the dresses hanging from a rack on the far side of the room. The sales assistant takes my coat, leaving to stow it as I drift over to the clouds of silk and lace.
In the dark room, they stand out like moonlight on a midnight lake—gorgeous but a little off-putting.
My fingers graze the skirt of an ivory princess cut. It shimmers, the silk dancing under my fingertips.
My wedding dress had been donated to goodwill. My wedding photos locked away. All I had were memories of a day filled with laughter and dancing that were both bitter and bittersweet, truths and lies.
He fucked a guest on your wedding day. He doesn’t deserve your thoughts.
“I like that one too.” Bess’s voice shatters my trance-like state. I jerk my hand back, twirling on my heel to face the door, where she stands, flanked by her mother, her eight bridesmaids, Peter’s mother and, for some bizarre reason, Josh.
I open my mouth to explain or justify or deny, I’m not sure, but the moment is already gone. They bustled into the room,the girls chattering, the mothers gossiping, and Josh in his motorcycle jacket, black boots, and faded jeans, looking entirely out of place in this feminine wonderland.
Hands gently shuffle me out of the way as the women fall on the dresses like hens in the farmyard, pecking over this princess cut and that ball gown, cooing sweetly to each other.
I move to the sofa, dropping beside Josh.
“Surprised to see you here.”
He winces. “They needed a stand-in.”
I raise an eyebrow.
His mouth twists. “Apparently you can’t choose the dress without knowing how it will look next to the groom. I’m the stand-in.”
I smother a laugh under a cough. “They don’t have a date, venue or theme but she’ll have a dress?”
He sighs, dropping his head back and reaching up with two fingers to pinch the bridge of his nose. “They discussed it ad nauseam last night, and the night before, and the night before that. They’ve settled on September, at the Trinity Bay Winery.”
I wince, mentally totaling how much this wedding might cost me. “So it’s a destination wedding, then?”
“Deep breath,” Josh encourages. “I’m trying to talk them out of it. Not the least because there’s no way the town could cope with their guest list.”
Trinity Bay sat on the island of Kink, at the northern most point of Astipia. A tiny blink and you’d miss it island, where Josh’s family had vacationed for generations—ever since the first Greenfeld had moved to the mainland.
A gorgeous location though it was, there was no way in hell it would be able to cater for the inevitable cast of thousands that Bess’s wedding would bring.
