Page 53 of Theirs to Tempt: The Marriage Claim

I don’t want to look.

Which is absurd. It’s fabric. Expensive fabric, certainly, but still nothing more than something I’m going to wear for a few hours before Lucian and Caleb undoubtedly⁠—

No.

I am absolutely not finishing that thought.

Hannah trailing behind me, I return to the area with the pedestal. Piper leaps up, and I hear my mom exclaim through the phone.

Reluctantly I look in the mirror.

And I exhale.

The dress is beautiful.

Worse, I look beautiful in it, even though my eyes are wary, and my mouth is pressed into a disbelieving line.

“Well?” Piper asks.

“I don’t hate it.”

Randy puts a hand over his heart. “From you, I’m accepting that as unqualified enthusiasm.”

Mom is quiet.

When I look at the phone, her eyes are shining.

“Oh, Sophie.”

My throat tightens as unexpected emotion swamps me. “Mom! Don’t cry.”

“I’m your mother. I’m allowed.”

So that I can hold my feelings back, I turn back toward the mirrors.

There was a time when I dreamed of shopping for a gown with my mom and finding the perfect one to walk down the aisle toward my happily ever after.

Piper comes to stand beside me, making me ruthlessly shove aside my childish fantasy.

“You really do look gorgeous, Soph.”

“Piper is right,” my mother agrees.

“Is this your dress?” Randy asks.

I study myself again, critically turning this way and that.

It’s only a dress, I tell myself.

Liking it doesn’t mean I want the wedding.

And it definitely doesn’t mean I forgive Lucian and Caleb for backing me into this impossible corner.

And it certainly doesn’t mean I’m looking forward to becoming their wife.

“Sophie?” Randy prompts a second time. “Is this your dress?”

Chapter Seventeen