She knew it was more than just getting married, or even wanting to get married, that made people look at each other that way. Her own parents had divorced when she was in middle school and, while they had managed to be civil to each other by Kara’s college graduation, there had been some rough years in between. That was one of the reasons that she had spent enough time at Michelle’s house that her parents had considered her one of their own.
What she wanted most of all was a relationship that offered the comfort of knowing that the person she was with would never think of taking their bad day out on her in the form of veiled insults or physical aggression. Kara touched her cheek just under her eye, where Jeff’s fist had landed that awful night nearly a year ago. When she realized what she was doing, she quickly jerked her hand away before anyone in the room noticed. It didn’t do any good to think about the past or pine over what she didn’t have.
“Let’s go!” she said in the most chipper voice she could muster. “I’m afraid you’ll have to find other entertainment, Hayes. Everyone knows you can’t see the bride in her gown until the big day.”
“I need to be headed back to the Henderson house anyway. I don’t think it’s quite fair that I don’t get to see the dress ahead of time though. I wonder why that is?” Hayes asked as he ran his fingers through Michelle’s wavy golden locks tenderly.
“Because,” Kara said as if it should be obvious. “You’d think she was so beautiful you’d convince her to elope right then and we’d all be out the fun of a wedding!”
“I think she’s beautiful no matter what,” Hayes said with a smile as he kissed the tip of Michelle’s nose. “I guess I can let her go for one evening though.”
Michelle wrapped her arms around his neck as if she didn’t want to let him out of her sight, but when Kara cleared her throat and tapped a finger on the face of her watch, she let go with a dramatic sigh.
“I suppose I must carry on,” she said. “I’ll see you tonight, Hayes.”
“Always,” he assured her.
Kara opened the passenger door of Michelle’s little red car and slid into the leather seat.
“He’s almost too perfect,” she commented with a smile as Michelle dropped into the seat next to her.
“Isn’t he?” Michelle asked dreamily. “Okay,” she went on, clearly forcing herself to be practical. “So we have a few shops to hit up. You’re going to make me look great, right?”
“Of course. You’ll be Kara-approved on your wedding day or my name isn’t…well…Kara. Trust me!”
“I do,” Michelle promised as she backed out of her driveway and headed for the first shop on her neatly organized list.
That promise seemed to wane as the day went on. Kara rejected dress after dress. The bridal shop owners didn’t think much of it either, but she was not about to let her friend walk down the aisle in something that made her butt look like a doublewide, or that didn’t flatter her fair skin tone.
When Michelle opened the curtain at the first shop in a high necked, long sleeved, pseudo Victorian horror all Kara could manage to say was, “That is the wrong neckline.”
“Really?” Michelle asked, resting her fingers on the warm, white fabric. “I thought it looked really dignified.”
“You have assets and that dress doesn’t even begin to show them off,” Kara said flatly.
When the curtain opened again, Kara’s eyes almost popped out of her head. The dress looked like something a Vegas showgirl might wear in her big wedding themed number. It was cut so low that Kara was pretty sure it must be near Michelle’s navel.
“That one shows them off a little too much.”
“I agree,” Michelle said quickly, her cheeks reddening as she dashed back into the small changing room.
The next time the curtain slid back it revealed the worst dress Kara could have imagined. It was a cliché on a hanger. Actually, in this case, it was a cliché on her best friend. The crinoline was so stiff that Michelle rustled like leaves on a fall day, and the top was so beaded that Kara was sure her friend had added about twenty pounds when the dress slipped over her head.
“I don’t know how to say this, but no. Just…no. Everything about that dress is wrong.”
“But it was the most expensive one,” Michelle said once they’d left the shop. “The designer is very popular.”
“If Versace jumped off a bridge would you jump too?” Kara asked as she scrolled through the pictures of the horrible dresses she’d taken to show Betsy. She shuddered when she got to the photos of Michelle in the atrocity of a dress. “Trust me. It’s not right.”
“Fine,” Michelle sighed reluctantly.
They went to the next shop where Kara deemed the dress with the poufy sleeves as being “too frou-frou.” The plain ivory sheath was quickly decreed, “too plain.” To the last dress, which was a shade of bright white that did nothing for Michelle’s skin tone, she simply said, “Ick.”
“I’m starting to think that there’s not a dress out there for me in the entire world,” Michelle groaned as they went back to the car. She slumped and rested her head on the steering wheel. Kara patted her back bracingly.
“It’s a little early to give up completely. There’s a dress out there for you somewhere in the world, trust me.”
“I’ve been trusting you,” Michelle said, ignoring the comforting words. “But it’s getting harder. I really liked that sparkly one.”
“I know you did,” Kara stated. “You wouldn’t have liked how you looked in your wedding pictures if you wore that.”
“Hey!” Michelle shouted, although deep down she knew that Kara was right.
“I’m sorry, but it’s true! It made your behind look huge!”
“Kara!” Michelle moaned jokingly. “Don’t say things like that!”
“We both know it’s not,” Kara amended. “The dress just made it look that way. That is why it’s not the right dress. The right dress will make you look like a queen.”
The way Hayes treats you, Kara finished in her head, a little sadly.
“There’s only one more option,” Michelle said as she cranked the car and headed for the edge of town. “It’s a really small boutique and, when I called them earlier, they said they only had one dress in my size. It’s kind of a long shot.”
The moment they pulled up to the little shop, Kara had a good feeling. It was perched near the river and, with its small stature and bright paint it looked like a gingerbread house. When they stepped inside Kara could see that the lighting was flattering while still allowing people to see how they actually looked in front of the long triple mirror. That was a big plus. If Michelle had tried on that hideous dress under these lights, she couldn’t have failed to see how washed out she’d looked.
The dress the shop owner had hung in the changing room for Michelle was wonderful. As a matter of fact, it was much more than wonderful: it was perfect. It was refined and innocent, while at the same time being a little flirty. It was light enough to be ideal for an outdoor June wedding and long enough to be the touch of semi-formal Kara knew Michelle had been searching for. The warm candlelight white set off her skin tone flawlessly.
“I told you!” Kara said when her friend stepped out in the dress with tears shining in her eyes. “Who’s the smartest and most wonderful best friend in the world? That’s okay,” she said when Michelle couldn’t speak. “You don’t have to say it. We both know it’s me. Oh, you look gorgeous! Spin around.”
Michelle obliged her and turned around in a stately fashion. There was no denying it. The dress was ideal from every angle.
“You do look lovely dear,” the shop owner, Mrs. Woodward, said as Michelle pressed her hands to her mouth to keep from crying.
She also gave Kara an indulgent smile as she began circling her friend and snapping pictures. That was a step up from the other two shops where they’d looked at Kara as if she was crazy when she had pulled the small camera from her back pocket. Of course, she wasn’t howling with laughter
at this dress the way she had the others. That probably had something to do with it.
“Obviously she’ll take it,” Kara said when Michelle still couldn’t speak. When Mrs. Woodward walked to the back to write up the sale Kara gave her friend a huge smile. “I told you there was a dress for you somewhere in this world! You are definitely Kara- approved right now. I have a little feeling that you’ll be very Hayes-approved, as well.”
Michelle didn’t answer; she just threw her arms around Kara and laughed.
Chapter Three
When they pulled into the driveway, Hayes’ black car was already parked there.
“Hi!” Michelle called out as they walked in.
“Hello beautiful,” he called back. “I brought Chinese food home.”
Michelle’s eyes widened. She’d been talking about going and getting Chinese for dinner just seconds ago.
“See?” Kara asked as she hip bumped her friend with a smile. “It was clearly meant to be. Unless he forgot my General Tso’s chicken with white rice. If that’s the case, then you’ll have to call the whole thing off.”
“Well, luckily for me, I remembered,” Hayes said as they walked into the kitchen. He pointed out a container of General Tso’s with a grin.
“Thanks!” Kara said enthusiastically as she took a sip of the iced tea he’d brought. When Hayes pulled Michelle against his side and kissed her on the top of her head, Kara went on, “You know what? I think I’m going to dine al fresco tonight.”
“You’re eating outside?” Michelle asked with a slight frown.
“Sure,” Kara insisted. “It’s a beautiful evening. Warm spring breeze, apple trees in full bloom, General Tso’s chicken with white rice, I ask you, what could be better?”
She left the lovebirds cozy in their kitchen nest and headed out to sit under the McIntosh tree. Killer, the collie puppy they’d gotten last spring, gave a hopeful bark but she didn’t join him by his little doghouse. They would be taking what Betsy referred to as their evening constitutional soon enough.
She stabbed her chopsticks expertly into the sweet, spicy chicken and munched thoughtfully. She was trying to remember how many apartments were near her office building and still close to Michelle. She didn’t think she would love living far away from either of those things. In addition to hating the long commute and loving her friend, she didn’t have a car. Of course, she could always fix her transmission. It had died soon after moving in with Michelle and it simply hadn’t been necessary to fix it as long as she was carpooling with her friend. Her meager savings should be enough to fix the transmission and put in first month’s rent on something. At least she hoped so.
She glanced down at her feet. The savings would have been enough for sure if she hadn’t fallen in love with her new soft leather boots. But they had been too perfect to pass up. Of course, she’d bought other things that day too. Like the peach button up and grey tweed skirt that had gotten a coffee bath that morning. She’d also bought new eyeliner, that amazing new red lipstick and quite a few other things now that she thought back on it.
“Okay,” she whispered to herself. “So I shopped a lot last week. And the week before that, and the week before that, and every week since I started getting an allowance. I’ll just have to do better from now on.”
“Kara dear?” Betsy’s voice came from behind her. “Are you all right?”
“Oh sure, Mrs. T,” Kara answered brightly. “I’m just giving myself a pep talk. After all, I’m the best motivational speaker I know and I never charge myself a fee.”
Betsy laughed and said, “Well young lady, if you’re done with your motivational speech and your dinner, Sandy and I are ready for a nice long walk. It looks like Killer feels the same way.”
“Just let me grab the leash,” she answered as she stood.
“How did the dress shopping go?” Betsy asked as they walked along the quiet street.
“I got pictures!” Kara said excitedly as she pulled the camera from her pocket. “Here are the dresses.”
She scrolled through the pictures for Mrs. T slowly. “Oh dear,” the elderly lady murmured in distress. “Oh my. Oh, my dear.”
“And then,” Kara said with a dramatic pause. “We found this.”
She clicked the button and the picture of Michelle, beaming a happy smile and truly lovely in a dress that was perfect for her, popped up on the screen. Betsy gasped.
“Oh my!” she exclaimed in a totally different tone. “She is absolutely radiant!”
“Isn’t she?” Kara put her arms across her elderly friend’s shoulder and squeezed enthusiastically. “If I hadn’t been there, she’d have ended up in the sparkly horror. Can you imagine that?”
Betsy patted Kara’s cheek. “You’re a good girl and a wonderful friend, Kara Steward.”
“That’s what I’ve been saying for years,” Kara joked. Killer tugged impatiently at his leash and she laughed. “I guess we’ve kept them waiting long enough.”
She and Mrs. Turner finished their walk in high spirits and Kara was surprised to find Hayes’ car missing when she got back home. Surely he and Michelle hadn’t had a fight. They almost never fought.
“Michelle?” she called out as she walked in. “Is everything okay?”
“That’s what I was just going to ask you,” Michelle called back from her seat on Kara’s bed. “Come in and let’s talk.”
“Okay, sure. What’s up?”
“Are you okay?” Michelle asked in a concerned tone. “You seemed a little down this afternoon.”
“After all that dress shopping, you can accuse me of feeling down?” Kara hedged as she picked at a ball of fuzz on her vibrant red comforter.
“Not when we were shopping. I really only noticed it when Hayes was around. Tell me what’s wrong please.”
“Oh Michelle, it’s nothing serious,” Kara said with a sigh. “It’s just that, well, you and Hayes are so perfect together.”
“You’re not jealous are you?” Michelle asked in shock.
“No,” Kara said with a half smile. “It’s tempting sometimes, but no. I’m just a little lonely I guess. Ever since things with Jeff went the way they did, I’ve been thinking that maybe I’ll never find that once in a lifetime love.”
“Did you think he was it?” Michelle asked as she tried hard to keep a level tone in her voice.
She hadn’t really liked Jeff from the beginning, but she had tried to be supportive of her friend’s choice. Ever since the night Jeff hit Kara she had wished she had spoken up.
“Maybe at first,” Kara admitted, even though she felt silly considering that the relationship had ended with him screaming drunken obscenities and throwing her things onto Michelle’s front lawn. “He wasn’t like that in the beginning. It was like his personality changed when we moved in together. He started to think that he could control everywhere I went and everything I did. He even wanted me to quit my job and stop hanging out with you so much.”
“Really?”
“Yeah,” Kara’s voice trailed off as she slightly hung her head. “That was the final straw for me. That’s why we broke it off. It just seems impossible to find a guy that I’m attracted to that isn’t crazy.”
“Have you ever considered that you might be attracted to the wrong type of guy?” Michelle asked gently.
“Sure,” Kara admitted. “But what am I going to do about it? I don’t want to end up with a man I’m not attracted to and I certainly don’t want to be attracted to another guy that’s just going to hurt me. But hey! Why are we talking about me? You’re the one with wedding plans on the brain and a wedding just around the corner!”
Michelle sighed and accepted Kara’s change of subject. She wished her friend could find a good man. She wanted her to find a steady, stable man like Hayes, but Kara clearly wasn’t ready to talk about the possibility just yet.
“I think we’ve got pretty much everything worked out, actually. Hayes took care of the music and we’ve just found the most gorgeous dres
s ever. Thank you for talking me out of the sparkly one by the way, Kara.”
“I’ll talk you out of horrible dresses any day of the week,” Kara assured Michelle seriously. “So did you ever decide on the bridesmaid dress color?”
“It took a while,” Michelle admitted. “But I finally did.”
“Well?” Kara held her breath. “Tell me what color I’m wearing!”
“I’m going with the peach,” she said with a smile.
“Thank you so much!” Kara threw her arms around her friend. Not only was the color great on her, it would be so perfect for the early summer outdoor wedding. “Irregular hemline?” she asked hopefully.
Impulsive (Reach out to Me) Page 2
