by Ali Olson
Renee looked around at the sterile environment. “What could possibly happen to it here?”
“I don’t know. Somebody could walk in with tomato sauce and trip and spill it all over me or something.”
Renee didn’t say a word. There was no point commenting every single time her sister worried about something ridiculous.
As Renee moved toward her own dressing room, her sister turned back to look at her with a smile. “Remember when we were kids and would play dress-up wedding with that old white dress of Mom’s?”
Renee chuckled at the memory. “Yeah. That was fun.”
Jessica’s smile widened. “We’d take turns being the bride and the bridesmaid.”
“You were really bad at taking turns. You always wanted to be the bride.”
“Well, I’ve grown up and gotten much better at taking turns.”
Renee wasn’t sure exactly what Jessica was talking about, but she had a bad feeling as to where this was going. “What do you mean?”
“It’s your turn,” Jessica said, pointing to the dressing room.
Renee moved the curtain that served as the door to her dressing room, and there was a giant mass of white fabric that hadn’t been there before. “Oh no,” she muttered.
“Oh yes,” Jessica responded, triumphant.
“I’m not putting that on.” What was Jessica thinking?
“Come on. I saw it here months ago and thought of you. Please? For me?” Jessica begged.
Renee cautiously moved closer to the dress, as if she was afraid it would bite. The strapless bodice sparkled, and the full skirt looked light and airy. “Rhinestones make you think of me?”
“Just try it on,” Jessica demanded.
Renee pressed her lips together. She’d do it, but only because it was her sister’s wedding week and she was trying to be nice. Not because the fabric was beautiful or she was at all curious how it would look on her.
One of the saleswomen followed her into the dressing room and helped her into what looked like miles of fabric. “When are you getting married?” the woman asked.
“I’m not,” Renee answered as she wriggled herself into place. “My sister is making me do this.”
The woman began lacing up the back and adjusting the dress until it sat comfortably on Renee’s hips. “Well, I think she picked the perfect dress for you. Now you know which one to get whenever you and Mr. Right decide to settle down.”
Renee had to force herself not to shake her head. Clearly the woman was trying to make a sale, because there was no way she could pull off a dress like this. On some tall curvy woman it might be beautiful, but she was sure that she’d look like a little kid playing dress-up, just like she and Jessica used to do.
She stepped out of the dressing room, hoping Jessica would let her change back into her regular clothing as soon as she saw how ridiculous this dress looked on her.
Jessica was standing there in jeans and a T-shirt. When she saw Renee, her eyes widened.
“You really thought I could pull this off?” Renee asked, gesturing at the full skirt that poufed out from her hips.
Jessica just pointed at the mirrors. Renee sighed and walked over to them. Then her breath caught in her throat as she took in her reflection. She didn’t look silly at all. The rhinestones on the corset top and the wide tulle skirt should have looked like too much, but somehow it just looked elegant and...well...
Beautiful, she admitted to herself. She looked beautiful.
Renee couldn’t stop staring at her image in the mirror. Jessica beamed at her. “I knew you’d love it.”
Renee couldn’t deny it.
Finally, reality set in. What was she doing goggling at herself in a wedding dress? She wasn’t getting married. Not even close.
She looked at her sister. “I’m not getting married anytime soon, Jessica. So why did you want me to try on this dress?”
“For one, I was sure it’d be perfect on you,” Jessica answered. Then her expression became more serious. “And for another, I think you’re hiding from any opportunity to find a relationship that makes you happy. I thought maybe this would help.”
Renee didn’t know what to say, so she just continued to look at her reflection. Was her overly blunt sister right? “I’m too busy for a relationship, Jess.”
Jessica rolled her eyes. “You choose to be too busy. Don’t think I haven’t noticed, even from Texas. You never go out on dates, and you work every chance you get. You’ve been doing this to yourself for years now. Have you thought about why?”
Renee tried to push away her sister’s words, but it was hard. She reminded herself why she worked so hard, and how it was finally paying off with her dream job so close she could smell it.
Those thoughts didn’t stop the roiling in her stomach, though. Maybe she’d eaten too many cake samples that morning, she told herself.
She wasn’t sure she believed it.
With difficulty, she tore her eyes away from her reflection. “Can I put on my regular clothes now?”
She tried to sound exasperated, but by the look on Jessica’s face as she nodded, Renee doubted it worked.
After changing back into her jeans and T-shirt, Renee left the store with Jessica, wedding dress in tow. Renee said nothing about the other dress, but her sister’s triumphant expression didn’t leave her face the entire way back to the ranch.
Renee felt unsettled about the whole thing. Even the perfect dress and Jessica’s words shouldn’t change her feelings about marriage and all that, but for some reason, she didn’t feel nearly as terrified by the prospect as she used to. She was going to be too busy with her new job to even consider a serious relationship, but the usual relief that came with that idea was no longer there. It felt more like resignation.
Maybe her sister was right. That thought left a bad taste in her mouth and she pushed it away.
She seemed to be doing that a lot lately.
When they walked inside Jessica and Aaron’s home, Renee flopped on the couch, exhausted. She felt like she’d had more cake and self-reflection than anyone should on one day.
Jessica sat beside her, and Renee could feel her stare. She opened her eyes and waited for whatever her sister was going to say.
“I know it’s been a long, wedding-focused day, but do you mind going through the receipts with me to make sure I haven’t missed anything?” Jessica asked, a pleading look in her eyes.
Renee was absolutely positive her sister hadn’t missed anything, but nodded anyway. At least Jessica didn’t seem inclined to discuss the dress or Renee’s relationships or anything like that. She wasn’t sure she would’ve been able to take much more of that in one day.
“Great!” Jessica exclaimed, bouncing up to grab her binder, a large manila envelope and her laptop. She passed the computer over to Renee. “I’ll read off an item, and you can go through the folder on my desktop. I have a few paper copies,” she said, pointing to the envelope, “but almost everything is digital.”
Renee placed the laptop on her legs and began to open the folder labeled Wedding when something else caught her eye—a document titled “City Girl, Country Life.” While Jessica flipped through her binder in search of the right page, Renee opened the document and began reading.
Her eyes skimmed down through the pages. It was an article all about transitioning to life on a ranch. And it was good. Renee could easily imagine it as one of the articles she’d design spreads for back in New York.
“Did you write this?” she asked, turning the screen toward her sister. Jessica looked up, confused, but she blushed the moment she saw what Renee had opened.
“Oh, that’s nothing. Just something I wrote when I first moved here,” Jessica said, trying to lean over Renee to close it.
Renee pulled the laptop back, out of
her sister’s reach, relieved to find something new to focus on that had nothing to do with weddings or sexy cowboys. She was finally in an area where she felt confident. “This is great, Jess. You should submit it for publishing. I bet Empire would run it. We’re always looking for pieces with interesting perspectives.”
Jessica waved her fingers in front of her face, as if trying to clear the air around her. “I don’t think so. It was just for fun. I’m an editor, not a writer, remember?”
Renee pointed at the screen. “Looks to me like you’re both.”
Jessica grabbed the computer from Renee and closed the document before opening the wedding folder. “Anyway, back to the receipts.”
Renee didn’t say anything else about the piece, but she decided that she would get her sister to submit it to the magazine before the end of the week.
They spent an hour going through every item, and as expected, everything was in order. “I don’t know what you’re so worried about,” Renee told her sister as they stood and stretched. “You’ve planned it all in excruciating detail. At this point, it doesn’t seem like there’s anything you could have missed.”
Jessica nodded and held her beloved binder tight to her chest. “I know, but I just have this feeling that something’s going to go wrong, and I’m trying to catch it before the big day.”
Renee put her hand on her sister’s shoulder. “You’ve got it all taken care of. Just enjoy this time, okay?”
Jessica nodded, but she still didn’t seem reassured. Renee shrugged and began climbing the stairs to her room. She’d tried for years to stop her neurotic sister from worrying, but it never worked. Meanwhile, she had enough on her plate, between helping with the wedding, preparing for her new job and trying to simultaneously have a sexy tryst with Jeremiah and keep it totally under wraps.
As she dropped onto the bed and smelled his already-familiar scent, she finally allowed herself to think about him and their few short stolen kisses. He had been on her mind all day, but it was only now that she let herself truly delve into it.
Renee knew they would never be in a serious relationship, but she couldn’t stop her heart from fluttering when she thought of him. Something was different now, though. Ignoring her sister’s earlier words and trying to forget that dress was harder than she liked.
She grimaced and sat up, rubbing her face with her hands. Was that going to ruin her one chance to have a spectacular time with the sexiest man she’d ever met?
Renee hoped not, but it was all getting tied up in her head, and she didn’t like that. She grabbed her laptop and opened a page she’d been designing for a future issue. At least work could keep her mind off things. Life was always a little clearer when she was working on a project.
For the rest of the evening, Renee worked on the page, tweaking it until it was close to perfect. When she went down to eat, Jessica said nothing about their earlier conversation, to Renee’s relief.
By the time she finished the page, it was late enough to go to bed, and Renee pulled up the covers, ready to be done with this day.
Jeremiah had promised that tomorrow would be their chance, but suddenly she felt more nervous than excited. The whole thing suddenly seemed like a train wreck waiting to happen, and she didn’t know if she had the power to prevent it.
7
JEREMIAH LOOKED OUT the window of his house, watching as the color of the sky slowly shifted from pink and gold to blue. Yesterday had been frustrating, to say the least, but it was finally over. Today was going to be different, he was sure. After he and Aaron went to pick up the rings, he would finally get some real time alone with Renee.
He thought of her smile, the way her hands felt pressed against his chest, and his body reacted immediately. He leaned his forehead against the cool glass and closed his eyes. The same thing had been happening over and over since he’d first seen her. He just hoped that he would be able to work whatever this was out of his system by the end of the week.
Aaron’s text from yesterday popped unbidden into his head. Aaron had thought it was hilarious that Jessica managed to get Renee to try on a poufy princess wedding dress, but it wasn’t that funny to Jeremiah.
He didn’t really know how he felt about it, but amused definitely wasn’t one of the competing emotions.
* * *
RENEE WAS JUST finishing yet another delicious breakfast when Jeremiah walked in. She’d been anxious all morning, waiting for him to arrive so he and Aaron could go pick up the wedding rings, but his sudden appearance still made her almost choke on her bacon. She felt her face go warm. Why was it that every time she saw him, a jolt went through her entire body?
He smiled at her with one eyebrow raised, and she knew he was enjoying her inability to control her reactions. Impulsively, she dabbed her finger into the syrup on her plate and sucked it off, not taking her eyes away from him. The grin fell away from his face and his mouth opened slightly as he watched. A feeling of power coursed through her. She wasn’t the only one who could be thrown off balance.
Any hesitations that might have resulted from her conversations with Jessica the day before disappeared as she felt her blood surge. Whatever her issues were, she wasn’t going to let them—or her sister’s opinion of them—stop her from taking advantage of this once-in-a-lifetime opportunity.
Aaron jumped up from the table. “Great. I’m glad you came over early. Let’s get going.”
Renee saw disappointment flash across Jeremiah’s face. “Will the store even be open this early?”
“No, but there are a few other things we need to take care of. That’s okay, right?”
Renee knew there was nothing he could say that wouldn’t give away that something was going on, so he shrugged one shoulder and turned to leave back through the door he’d just entered from, but not without sending a look of regret her way.
Renee was simultaneously disappointed that he had to leave so quickly and secretly pleased that he had tried to come over early so he could spend time with her.
And then he was gone, and the warmth that had flowed into the kitchen when he arrived disappeared, too.
She remembered his promise about the afternoon, and a thrill ran through her. She would just need to occupy herself for a few hours.
Renee turned to her sister. “What’s on the docket today?”
Jessica looked excited, like she’d hoped Renee would ask her that. “We need to create the centerpieces and wedding favors,” she said, holding up a bag of what looked like art supplies.
Renee waited for more of an explanation. She didn’t have to wait long. “We need to spray paint wine bottles,” Jessica continued, “and decorate some flower pots. Once they’re dry, we’ll be able to start adding the plants and arranging them on a test table.”
Renee smiled at her sister. It sounded more fun than going over receipts or seating charts again, at least.
Three hours later, Renee brushed the hair out of her face with the back of one paint-speckled hand. She looked over the sea of flower pots spread out before her in varying stages of completion. Some were still their original terra-cotta color, others were bright white and still others had painted stenciled flowers drying along the top. Jessica sat beside her, cheerfully dabbing paint onto yet another pot.
* * *
“WHAT DO YOU THINK?” Aaron asked, turning the tiny box so the diamonds on the wedding band nestled inside glittered in the light.
“I think I’m the luckiest girl in the world!” Jeremiah exclaimed.
Aaron rolled his eyes as Jeremiah laughed at his own joke. “Is it too late to get a new best man?”
Jeremiah waved off the question. “You know Jessica will love it.”
“I hope so.”
“Stop worrying. At this rate, you’re both going to have breakdowns, and I don’t want to be the one picking
up the pieces.”
Jeremiah took one last look at the ring as Aaron handed the box back to the jeweler. It was a strange thought, his best friend getting married. They had gone through childhood and wild young adult years together, and now Aaron was officially moving into the next stage. The wife-and-kids stage.
And Jeremiah was happy for him, even as he wondered when he’d be moving into that stage, too.
The sexy redhead, never too far from his mind, resurfaced again. She wasn’t looking for anything serious. He knew that.
But he was an optimist. Maybe by the end of the week it could turn into something more.
* * *
RENEE LOOKED IN the mirror, checking to make sure she’d gotten all the paint off her face. Her stomach roiled in anticipation. Jeremiah could be back at any time, and then they’d enact whatever plan he had. And she could finally play out a few of her fantasies.
She suppressed the urge to dance around her room.
As Renee straightened up, her cell phone began to ring from the bedside table. She could only think of one person who might call her today, and a surge of either excitement or fear shot through her. Renee picked up her phone and looked at the screen. It was Patty, just like she thought. Nervous tension knotted inside her. What if it was bad news? What if they’d found someone else to take the position?
She took a deep breath and answered. “Hello?”
“Hi, Renee, it’s Patty. I just got out of the meeting. I told them you were perfect for my position and recommended that they have you step in when I leave.”
She paused, and Renee thought she might have a heart attack before Patty told her what happened.
“They trust my opinion, Renee. We’ll iron out the details when you get back.”
Breath whooshed out of Renee’s lungs. Relief flooded her. This was actually going to happen.
“They just want to see some of your work, pages that haven’t been edited by anyone else, to make sure they’re happy with what you do. You’ll need to pick a few of your pieces and get them to me. It’s just a formality, so don’t worry about it at all this week. Whatever you pick when you get back into town will be great, I’m sure. I know they’ll be impressed.”
