An Ashy Affair by Lynn Shurr

Author:Lynn Shurr [Shurr, Lynn]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: romance, contemporary, Firefighters
Publisher: The Wild Rose Press
Published: 2016-10-14T16:00:00+00:00

Chapter Sixteen

Why? Why? Why? Leah bumped her head softly against a full-length mirror in the commodious dressing room of the formal wear shop and left a small smudge on the glass at Chapelle’s one and only Belles, Beaux and Brides. Why had she accepted two tickets for the Firemen’s Ball from Ash? Why was she trying on an endless array of long gowns that failed to fit her bust and dragged on the floor? Why endure shopping with Rachel at all?

An entire rack of rejected dresses hung in a row to one side. Outside the cubicle, she heard Rachel and Regan, her friend from the pageant circuit, whom Leah always considered to be a blonde ditz, reminiscing about their past triumphs and trials, catching up on their current lives, approaching with another excruciating offering.

“I’ve found my dream job right here. All these gorgeous clothes. With my experience as a pageant queen, I can give such good advice to young women who need the perfect dress to catch the eye of the judges. That carries over to brides, too. They do want to look their best as well. Not to mention all the studly groomsmen you meet.”

Regan, which one was she? Miss Yambilee, Miss Cracklin’ Festival, or both? Meanwhile, Leah shivered in her bra and panties as cold air blasted from a vent overhead. She suspected a plot to keep customers from sweating in the dresses.

“This is the one, I’m sure. Even with your sister’s odd build and darker coloring, this will flatter with a few adjustments. I have an eye for it, Miss Helen said, when I worked at her boutique during high school before she passed. That woman must have been ninety if a day, but she kept herself up until the end. She’s my idol.” Regan entered with a billowing gray cloud of a dress draped over her arm.

“Too poufy,” Leah said immediately. She intended to make her escape from this agonizing situation that pointed out all her physical flaws in three-way mirrors by simply saying she’d wear her red dress. The end.

Rachel tossed her curls, the effect wasted on Leah. “You haven’t tried it on yet. What a quitter. I was willing to try on dozens of gowns to get the right one when I competed. Of course, most of them flattered me. Really, it came down to which flattered the most. Up you go. Raise those arms.”

Regan and Rachel each took an elbow and coerced her onto a low platform used for displaying and fitting wedding gowns to advantage. The skirt floated across her eyes like a heavy mist, then the bodice passed creating a blackout. Once Leah got her vision back, her attendants fussed with long, filmy sleeves and a black pearl button holding the netting of the bodice in place at her nape. Below that, her breasts filled out, but did not overflow, a strapless corset top of black satin encrusted with rhinestones that sent deep darts into a skirt as diaphanous as smoke swirling around her feet.

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