“Hell, no. This is to throw those boys off the trail. They have bets on.”
I groaned and rolled my eyes, dropping my hands to the cinched waist of the dress and attempting to pull in a deep breath.
“Don’t they always?”
Raising her camera as I dropped the veiled tiara on my head, I struck a pose and blinked as the flash bounced off every mirror and blinded me a dozen times over.
“You sure you don’t like this one, doll? You look gorgeous.”
I growled at her.
“Okay. Okay. You want my choice, or do you wanna look?”
“I’ve looked, I don’t see anything that…” I trailed off and stumbled down the platform on the teetering heels as Autumn held out a dress with a broad, knowing grin.
The dress now holding my attention was backless with spaghetti straps, a plunging neckline, and it was made of crocheted lace that fell into a gathered waist with modest, pooling train. The dress was lightweight, simple, and beyond perfect.
“You’ve had that all along?”
“I saw it the moment we walked in,” she said proudly, holding out an arm for me to steady myself on as I stepped from the heels and ran my hand over the gorgeous material. “You wanna try it on?”
I nodded, unable to speak as I took the dress from her hands and headed to the changing room slowly. Autumn trailed behind me, unbuttoning the seventy buttons on the back of the dress’s corset. By the time I stepped into the changing room, I was able to just bounce out of the one I was wearing.
I held up the new dress and admired every detail on the bodice before I pulled it over my head and smiled at the gentle slide of fabric. I knew this was the dress the moment I slippedit on. It fit perfectly. No clips were needed, and no straps needed to be loosened. The bohemian style felt like me, and my reflection made me grin back at it.
“Autumn.” I could hear the smile in my voice as I spoke but ignored the need to giggle as I waited.
The moment Autumn stepped into the changing room, she started to cry. She gave me a once over, covered her mouth with her hands, and shook her head.
“Happy tears,” she mumbled, waving me away with a watery chuckle when I tried to comfort her. “Doyoulike it?”
I twirled. “I love it. This is the one.”
“You don’t want to look somewhere else?”
I shook my head and glanced at the mirror, bouncing on my toes and ignoring the fading bruises that were beginning to look like I had jaundice. “This is it.”
Autumn nodded and watched as I checked every angle. Eventually, she helped me out of it and took the dress with her to wait for me, while I dressed and tried to hang the other dresses I’d tried on as neatly as I could. When I’d redressed in the clothes I’d arrived in, I walked out and found Autumn standing with Deeks, the two of them looking proud of themselves while the sales assistant bagged the dress.
“What did you do?” I asked, looking between them.
“It’s our gift to you,” Autumn squealed wringing her hands. She flung a hand out at the dress, sending her hair swinging over her shoulder. All the air left my lungs for a moment before I remembered how to breathe in again. I gaped at the two of them with an open mouth—the credit card Drew had given me suddenly weighing a hundred pounds in my back pocket.
“Guys…”
“Don’t gush,” Deeks begged with a wink.
“You really didn’t have to do this.”
“We wanted to.” Autumn took the dress from the salesassistant and draped it over her arm. “I’ll keep this at my place so the guys can’t take a peek. I’ve sent Deeks the pictures of the other dresses to throw the boys off. So, the only thing left to do today is the flower market.”
“I’m going back to the bar,” Deeks grumbled, only half joking. He looked so out of place amongst all the whites and off whites, I wasn’t surprised when he eased the dress from Autumn’s grasp and mumbled something about taking it to the van and meeting us at the market.
It felt good to stretch my legs and body as we headed toward the flower market that was only a couple of blocks over. The area we were in was full of small boutique shops, small bakeries, and coffee shops, too. The smell of coffee beans filled the air as we passed the door of one of the smaller coffee shops, and when I glanced in, ready to bemoan my self-induced coffee ban, I froze in place.
Tucked in the back of the small shop were several intimate loveseats and armchairs. The one in the corner held my interest the most. In that loveseat sat Rosie Sullivan, wearing a slutty little low-cut dress as she leaned over to reach her coffee, flashing major cleavage. In the chair opposite her was a guy with lank, dark, shoulder-length hair, broad shoulders, and he was wearing a leather cut.
I thought I was seeing things when he eased forward and slid his index playfully into the neckline of her dress, tugging it down a little farther for him to get an eye full.
