A nice afternoon?
Not in Bliss.
Chapter Two
NATALIE’S FAVORITE black pencil skirt and Mom’s pearls weren’t a total cure for the way her day was going, but she indulged herself with a quick trip home to change into them anyway. Because she needed something to get through the rest of today.
Not only was her heart still doing the turn-yourself-around part of The Hokey Pokey from the confessional incident, but she had issues to deal with at the shop. Fewer brides were booking appointments, the coffee maker was acting up, and today, one of the bridal consultants had called in sick. She couldn’t call Dad back from his grandpa-grandson playday with Noah so she could hide from her life and her responsibilities. Not when there was so much to do to keep the boutique running.
Not to mention the Husband Games.
After all her parents had done for her and Noah, she owed it to them to keep her life together. She owed them a hell of a lot more than she could ever repay.
So fifteen minutes after she left St. Valentine’s, she pulled on her everything’s-fine-here mask and marched into Bliss Bridal.
Since the flood three years ago, the entire boutique had been redone. Better lighting, faux marble floor, bigger dressing rooms, better layout, bigger selection of accessories, more efficient kitchenette and comfier chairs for the bridal parties that came along for the bride’s big shopping day. The second floor, where the bridesmaid dresses and the in-house seamstress shop were—which was where Natalie had happily hidden after her divorce and before her mom’s passing—was bigger, brighter and fresher too.
But the one thing that hadn’t changed was the way the shop smelled of wedding cake.
Because they shared a wall with Heaven’s Bakery, which was run by the QG.
Natalie’s steps faltered just inside the boutique, and her stomach flopped.
The boutique wasn’t hers. It had been her mother’s, now her father’s, and one day—probably one day soon—he’d discover it wasn’t doing as well as she pretended it was, and he’d sell it. And Natalie would have to find where she belonged in the world.
Because it wasn’t here. Not in Bliss’s wedding business. Not with the QG next door.
Amanda, Bliss Bridal’s floor manager, paused with an armful of dresses on her way toward the front dressing room. “Big mess up in alterations over that doggie maid of honor dress, but I think they have it under control now. Two brides canceled their appointments tomorrow. And you have visitors in the office.” She took two more steps, then looked closer. “Nat? Everything okay?”
No. “Great. After you’re done, hop online and start commenting on next week’s brides’ Pinterest boards. Be people to them—you know, connect personally. That’s harder to cancel.” She swung herself back into motion, her heels making staccato clicks to the time of a John Legend love song filtering softly through the room. No time to dwell on her latest mistakes.
She’d make another one soon enough, and she’d need her energy to deal with that.
The office and kitchenette were through a door behind the checkout counter. Since Natalie had taken over more and more of her mom’s duties while Dad retreated further and further from boutique life, she’d relocated from her spot as head of alterations upstairs to her mom’s old office. In the six months since Mom died, this was the first time she’d had unexpected visitors.
Much to her relief, they were welcome guests. “Jeremy! Gabby!” Her eyes welled unexpectedly, and she stepped into the room to hug them each in turn. “How are you two?”
Jeremy was Natalie’s favorite bartender at Suckers, her favorite bar in town, though she’d been too busy for months to stop in for a drink. He could’ve been a stunt double for The Rock, and he’d saved Natalie’s hide when he’d agreed to be Bliss Bridal’s bachelor for the annual bachelor auction last Christmas.
Gabby was his polar opposite—a petite blonde with more brains in her pinky than most people had in their whole heads—but she’d won him at the auction.
And today, she was sporting a new diamond.
A thick knot of something entirely too close to envy lodged in Natalie’s throat. The welling in her eyes morphed into something with a sting. She latched onto Gabby’s left hand, twisting it to make the rock sparkle. “Oh, beautiful.” Didn’t matter how hard Nat blinked, she couldn’t entirely clear her vision.
They both smiled, more at each other than at her. They’d join the ranks of married Bliss, and they’d live their own happily ever after. And Natalie would be happy for them. “When’s the big day?”
“The Saturday after the Games,” Gabby said.
“Would’ve been her parents’ anniversary,” Jeremy added.
Gabby shushed him. “It’s a very practical date.”
“Mm-hmm.”
Natalie wasn’t entirely following the nuances and hidden messages in their conversation, but she knew the look. The I’ve-found-the-only-one-for-me look. The we-make-each-other-right look. The I-love-you-above-all-else look.
This was what Bliss was supposed to do for couples.
Nat cleared her throat. “So you need a dress.”
“No, I—” Gabby started.
“Yes,” Jeremy interrupted. “She needs a dress.”
Natalie suppressed a smile. She’d grown up here in the boutique, and while it was unusual, this wasn’t the first time she’d seen a man have to insist that his bride get the dress of her dreams. Knowing what she did about Gabby and Jeremy, Nat guessed cost was an issue. Gabby was finishing school and working part-time down the street at Indulge, Bliss’s premiere chocolatier, and Jeremy worked as many shifts at Suckers as he could pick up.
“We give a good family and friends discount,” Natalie said. She reached for a stack of catalogs on the shelf behind the pressed-wood desk. “Peek through these. See what jumps out at you. We’re cutting it close for a June wedding, but we’ll make sure you get your dress.”
Gabby’s smile drooped until any hint of bridal exuberance evaporated from the room. “I’m not good at this kind of thing.”
Jeremy took the catalogs from Natalie and put them on the desk. “Her grandmother was making her dress.”
Was.
Natalie knew all about was. Her eyes subconsciously drifted toward the front of the shop, where her mother had collapsed right beside the checkout counter. That was Natalie’s was.
“I’m so sorry,” she murmured to Gabby. “I hadn’t heard.”
“Can you finish it?” Jeremy asked.
Gabby’s head jerked toward him. Her face scrunched up, her cheeks and nose went from pink to fuchsia, and her upper lip twisted. “I don't need a dress to get married,” she said.
Nat’s chest constricted.
Jeremy pulled a beat-up point-and-shoot digital camera from the pocket of his Levi’s and handed it to Natalie.
“Jeremy,” Gabby whispered.
“You deserve your dress.”
“We can’t afford it.”
“We’ll make it work.”
“It’s just a dress.”
Jeremy didn’t answer, just stared at her with an intensity that made Nat shiver. His mouth didn’t move, but he was saying something to Gabby. Something deeper than words.
Natalie diverted her gaze and occupied herself with looking at the pictures on the camera. The dress was far from complete, but it was pinned well enough for Natalie to see it wasn’t complicated. She imagined it was supposed to be a simple, old-fashioned, 1940’s era dress—probably similar to what Gabby’s grandmother had worn on her own wedding day.
Before Natalie’s mom died, Nat had quietly taken the occasional major modification and from-scratch jobs for out-of-town brides. Their secret, Mom had called it. A way for Natalie to use that fashion design degree her parents had paid for. Mom’s way of trying to give Natalie her full dream.
The last few months, without her mom as a buffer between the indignity of Natalie’s divorcée status and the Queen General’s rules of Bliss propriety, Nat had mostly d
one her best to keep a low profile. And that had included closing the door on her secret favorite projects.
Not making waves so she could last on The Aisle long enough to finish Mom’s work on the Games. Or trying, anyway.
But this—making Gabby’s dress—this could be her last chance to connect her name to anything in her hometown.
“Your Nana would want you to have the dress,” Jeremy said.
Gabby swiped the back of her hand over her eyes. “I have you. That’s worth a million dresses.”
“If I can’t give you your Nana at our wedding, I’m going to give you the dress she wanted you to have.” He pinned Natalie with a dark-eyed, silent order. “Can you do it?”
“Jeremy,” Gabby said again. “We can’t afford it.”
“Nat?”
“She’s busy,” Gabby said. “We can’t ask her to take this on too.”
Natalie had the boutique to keep afloat. The Games to plan. Noah to keep fed and clothed—and she liked to see him on occasion too. She did not have time to take on another project. Especially if there was any chance of the Queen General hearing. Gabby and Jeremy weren’t Aisle people, but they were one of the success stories from the last bachelor auction, which would put them on the QG’s radar. Natalie could be accused of sewing divorce cooties into Gabby’s wedding dress. Wouldn’t that be fun? She was hanging by a frayed thread here already.
Jeremy had one giant arm tucked around Gabby, who was watching Natalie as though she held the key to giving her back her grandmother.
Natalie was leaving Bliss. She might as well leave with a bang.
“Of course,” she said to Jeremy. Because if she looked at Gabby again, she’d see herself in those first few days and weeks after Mom passed away, lost and sad and angry, but Gabby had something else.
She had a future with a man who loved her. She had hope.
Natalie swallowed hard. “Bring me everything you have.”
“Really?” Gabby whispered.
“For my favorite couple? Absolutely.”
Gabby tackled her with a hug. “We’ll repay you for this,” she said, her voice wavery and watery. “Thank you. Thank you so much.”
“I got you covered, Nat,” Jeremy said.
Natalie squeezed Gabby back. “Not necessary,” she said.
Because nice as a little extra cash might be—especially given the state of Bliss Bridal’s financials and a few things she’d done for the Games—having friends who trusted their wedding dress to her was worth so much more.
AFTER JEREMY AND GABBY left, Natalie checked that everything was running smoothly—if a bit slowly—out on the showroom floor and upstairs. Then she tucked herself into the office to answer the most vital Husband Games e-mails—one from the farmer in charge of the sunflower field, the other from the web design company that was setting up the voting page for one of the Husband Games events. The rest she saved for after Noah was in bed tonight, and she set to work on payroll.
Thirty minutes later, she needed a Tylenol. An hour after that, she wanted a whiskey sour, but since she was shaving her own salary down to the bare minimum to pay the rest of the employees, she couldn’t afford a drink, much less the cash she owed Noah’s college fund.
If sales didn’t pick up, they wouldn’t make it to Knot Fest. And she didn’t know how she’d tell Dad.
Mom had been the primary force behind everything at the boutique. Dad had been on hand during busy times when Mom needed him. He was fabulous at convincing brides they looked beautiful in their gowns, and he’d supported whatever Mom needed supporting in her various Knot Fest and Bridal Retailers Association commitments. But mostly, he’d taken care of Natalie and Lindsey while Mom kept the boutique running.
Natalie pushed aside the keyboard and rested her forehead on the pressed-wood desk. She’d grown up watching her mother work at her grandmother’s classy antique walnut desk in this room, but the flood had taken it too.
In some ways, it was nice, how much the flood had taken. How much had changed. When Natalie left her hometown after Knot Fest for whatever the future held for her and Noah, it wouldn’t be the same town she grew up in.
Maybe she would miss it less.
Or maybe all her happy memories would be swallowed by the last six months. If today were any indication, the next two months would only be harder.
Knot Fest crunch time.
She also had to find the time to make Gabby’s wedding dress and somehow keep Bliss Bridal in the black.
Discover the key to invisibility so she wouldn’t have any more run-ins with CJ Blue.
Even if by some miracle CJ resisted the QG’s mind control and left town, Nat would still have the memories of today’s mortification. That was enough to last another five years.
The worst part was, until she’d known who he was—when she’d thought she was talking to one of the normal wedding guests—she’d thought he was a semi-decent guy.
Not only was she a fool, she was a fool who kept repeating her own mistakes.
“Are you a princess?”
The little voice out on the shop floor startled her. The shop girls and the bride-to-be giggled and oohed and aahed over Natalie’s little minion. He was back from his playday with Grandpa, and he was working his magic. She straightened and pulled the keyboard back to its place. Her dad poked his head into the office.
In his prime, Arthur Castellano had been just shy of six feet tall, with thick, jet-black hair and a hooked nose. He’d lost a couple of inches in height as he’d aged, and his thinning hair was closer to salt than pepper these days. Since Mom died, there was a light missing in his eyes. “That’s my princess, always working too hard,” he said.
Natalie tried to smile, but she’d used up her faking-it quota already today.
“Someday I’m going to marry a girl as pretty as you,” Noah said, still out on the floor, “and then”—Natalie didn’t have to see him to know he’d be leaning forward, holding his arms out while his dark hair fell in his eyes—“I’m going to kiss her.”
He was the perfection in Natalie’s life. The absolute perfection.
Over another chorus of squeals and awws, Dad chuckled. “Gonna have to give that kid a commission.”
Natalie’s heart hiccupped. He’d said the same thing about her at that age, and look how she turned out. “Darn child labor laws,” she said. “You two have a nice afternoon?”
“We went to that indoor fun center over in Willow Glen.”
“Bet Noah loved that. Did Lindsey go?” Lindsey, her older sister, lived and worked in the trendy little city half an hour away. Close enough to visit, far enough to not violate the Queen General’s No Divorce Attorneys Allowed edict.
Both the Castellano girls loved following the conventions of their hometown.
Dad’s lips slanted down before he shook his head. “She’s working.”
No big surprise there.
Dad jerked a thumb out toward Noah’s voice. “Tell you what, that little guy takes after his grandpa. Should’ve seen him in the batting cages.”
“He hit a ball?”
“Nah, not just yet. But he’s got a good swing in him.” He bent to sit in the corner chair and let out an old man grunt. “Looks like business is good today.”
Natalie hid a wince. “Mm-hmm.” She fiddled with the mouse, debating the wisdom of showing him the payroll. He hadn’t double-checked her work since Christmas, said he trusted her, but sooner or later, she needed to tell him the truth.
That she was failing Mom—and him—one more time.
Another round of titters erupted out in the shop. “I like the sparkly one!” Noah said.
Nat’s breath caught. She’d let him down too. She started to stand. “I should rescue the customers.”
“Let the girls watch him a minute.” Dad reached over to push the door mostly closed. His eyes took on a glossy sheen. “Been thinking a lot about the shop lately. ’Bout the future.”
Natalie’s chest squeezed and her l
egs gave a shudder. She gripped the seat of the folding chair that served as the desk chair and lowered herself back into it, slowly licking her lips. She’d known this was coming.
But did it have to come today? “Yeah?”
“Really become obvious lately I can’t do this forever.” His self-deprecating chuckle boomed louder in Natalie’s ears than it should’ve. “Guess I haven’t been doing it anyway the last few months. Probably longer, but I suppose you’ve figured that out.”
“Dad—”
“No, no, it’s the truth. But you’ve impressed me. Made this a whole lot easier, to be honest. Your mother was always proud of both you girls, but she’d be glowing to see what you’ve done since she’s been gone.” His voice cracked. He pulled his glasses off and wiped his eyes on the sleeve of his shirt.
It was hard enough to breathe past the lump in her throat, but Natalie’s heart was stuck somewhere between swelling and twisting, adding an extra pressure in her chest.
She hadn’t done anything near as well as she’d let him think she had. And he had a point. If they were selling, they needed to do it now, while the shop was still worth something.
How would she keep the Games afloat then? “Dad, it’s okay. I know.”
“It’s not just the shop.” He was still talking to the floor. “I know it’s not easy on the committee, but you’ve shown them all that you belong here despite your circumstances. I’m proud of you, honey. Real proud of you.”
He was proud of her for being a fraud. She didn’t fit in on The Aisle. She didn’t fit in with the Knot Fest committee. She pretended she did for him. So he wouldn’t worry over her. So he wouldn’t worry over the Games. So he wouldn’t worry over the boutique.
Dad drew a shuddery breath. “And that’s why I want you to have the shop.”
Natalie bolted so straight her neck popped. “I—you—what?”
No. No. He wouldn’t be this cruel. He wouldn’t offer her the one thing she couldn’t keep. Not today.
She’d failed her parents enough already. She wouldn’t run her mother’s boutique into bankruptcy too. Not when they could sell it while it was still worth something.
Blissed (Misfit Brides #1) Page 3
