Gabe tucked his fingers into his jeans pockets. “What luck. She needs a replacement gown for her brother’s wedding this weekend.”
“For Nicholas’s wedding?” Mr. Perez looked utterly delighted. “I would be honored if you wore one of my creations to such an important event. I will give it to you on the house—”
“No,” she said quickly. “I don’t take things for exposure. If I buy a dress from you, I’ll pay.”
Mr. Perez pursed his lips, but he didn’t argue. “If,” he scoffed, and moved away, to the front window. “As if I would let Maria’s daughter wear anything but my own creation.”
“Why do you want me to get that dress?” she whispered, once Mr. Perez was out of earshot.
“Why don’t you want to get it?” Gabe countered. “It’s pretty, you like it, and we won’t have to drive all over the county to get something that’s not as good.”
She opened her mouth, then closed it. “It’s a lot of money,” she said.
“Do you not spend money on clothes?” He shoved his thumb over his shoulder. “You didn’t skimp on the car out there.”
“Why do you care?”
It wasn’t an antagonistic question. She truly was confused as to why he cared.
So was he, to be honest. Except he’d liked seeing the smile on her face and the look of pleasure in her eyes, and he wanted to keep them there.
Before he could answer, Mr. Perez was back. The older man gestured at a seat for him, and led Eve to a small, curtain-enclosed area. She cast him one last searching look before the dressmaker whisked the curtain shut.
She felt like a princess.
“Come out, Evie. Let me see what I need to do to fix this.”
Eve closed her eyes, thinking of all the times she’d accompanied her mother to this shop and heard Mr. Perez call out the same thing, while she sat outside, sipping her root beer float.
Her chest tightened, with fear and grief. It had been a mistake to come here with Gabe, but there was no hope for it now.
She walked out from behind the curtain. Gabe lounged on the sofa, tapping something into his phone. He glanced up at her, blinked, and then blinked again. “Wow. You were right. That’s beautiful.”
Delight warred with wariness. She couldn’t have manufactured a better response, or one more boyfriendly.
This was confusing and weird and emotionally fraught.
“Very nice, very nice,” Mr. Perez murmured. He led her up to the dais, and she reluctantly stepped onto it, worried the multiple mirrors would show a different reflection than the one in her changing room.
But no. The dress, though slightly large, could have been made for her. The skirt flared with gentle ruffles, the bodice far more low-cut than anything she would have ever chosen for herself.
She swallowed.Cuteorattractivewere the words people generally applied to her. In this, she looked downright sexy.
Mr. Perez walked around her, pinching the fabric and muttering to himself. “Tighten it here and here. Won’t take me long at all.”
She smoothed her hand over the skirt. She’d come too far to back out of this now. Something large and dark loomed on her emotional landscape, the sharp winds prickling against her skin.What’s the worst that can happen?“Can you have it ready by Saturday for sure?”
“Of course.”
She raised her hand to her naked collarbone. “This neckline is low.”
“I can add a bit of sheer fabric.” Mr. Perez critically eyed her chest. “Yes, trust me.” He whipped out his measuring tape and a notebook and started scribbling in it. “Hold still.”
She let him do his job. Gabe was out of her line of vision in the mirrors, though she could feel his gaze on her.
He was right. She spent money, though not as much as she probably could. Her clothes were expensive, her cars more so.
She hid the trembling of her fingers in the skirt of her dress. She knew why she was so affected, buying a dress here, but it was irrational to feel this pulse of fear.
