Chapter 1
Ruby
Luke’stextcomesinat 6:47.
Be outside in five minutes.
My stomach flips the way it has all afternoon. The kind that feels like excitement until you look closer and realize it’s mostly nerves dressed up pretty.
I stare at the message. Then at my mirror.
Then at the black box on my bed.
Luke sent the dress three days ago. No note. No explanation. Just sleek packaging, tissue paper, and a flash of red that looked like trouble. It was clearly meant for tonight, our three-month mark.
I tried it on once for maybe ten seconds, then shoved it back inside like it might bite.
It’s short.
Short like a statement.
Short like I’m supposed to stop being a person and start being a shape.
I tug at the navy dress I picked instead, the one that wraps and ties and lets me breathe. It’s still nice. Still feminine. It feels likemine.
My hands smooth over my hips, my stomach, the parts of me that have always been discussed like they belong to a committee.
Too soft.
Too round.
Too much.
My parents had a thousand ways to say it without ever using the words.
I left them for a reason.
Swoon Peaks was supposed to be quiet. Bookstore shifts, my rented room upstairs, a life where nobody watches me like I’m a joke they can’t wait to tell.
It’s a small room, tucked up a narrow stairwell above the shop with its own entrance, but it’s private.
It’s mine.
Five minutes pass.
I grab my purse, take a breath, and head down to the door.
Luke is waiting outside, leaning like he belongs in glossy magazines. Dark hair styled. Clean jaw. Crisp shirt. An expensive watch on his wrist.
His gaze sweeps over me.
The easy smile he usually wears hesitates.
“What’s that?” he asks.
I blink. “A dress.”
His eyes slide down my legs and back up. “Not the dress I sent.”
