Before You Say Goodbye: The must-read heartwarming and heartbreaking love story about life and loss by Sarah Gate

Author:Sarah Gate [Gate, Sarah]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Choc Lit Contemporary Romance: A Joffe Books Company
Published: 2024-09-26T00:00:00+00:00

Chapter 12

The day before Larry Ross’s summer ball, Emma insisted on taking Maddie, Bluebell and Autumn dress shopping. They protested, but she was adamant that they needed some frivolity. It would do them good to get out of the house and away from the men, she argued. Her decision had been driven by one too many arguments over Monopoly, which they’d taken to playing on the kitchen table in their pyjamas. Bowie and Marley were incorrigible cheats, and Pip was a terrible loser. More often than not, the game descended into chaos.

Emma had told them her plan two days before, but Autumn had hoped she might forget about it. She had always hated going shopping with other women, preferring to look for clothes by herself when she had to, and not at all if she could help it. She had some dresses she’d had since she was a teenager.

“I’m really not into this,” she told them snippily once they were inside the shopping centre. She knew she should have said so earlier, but Emma would have told her she didn’t have to come even though they really wanted her to, and Autumn would’ve spent the whole day feeling guilty. Still, they might as well know that she was not in the mood. “I have something I can wear.”

“You brought a ballgown back to England with you?” asked Emma, fluttering her eyelashes in a way that made it clear she already knew the answer. Autumn blinked vacantly. She definitely hadn’t. She didn’t even own a ballgown. She’d had no cause for one in her entire life.

“I have to wear a ballgown?”

“To a summer ball?” Emma raised her eyebrows and smiled, placing a loving hand on her shoulder. “Yes, my love. Yes, you do.”

Autumn agreed to try on some dresses so long as Emma promised not to try to stage any kind of fashion show.

“But that’s the best part about having daughters,” she said, a whiny note in her voice. “And we haven’t done it for so long. We haven’t ever done it with you, Autumn. I know you’re a modern ‘screw-the-patriarchy’, ‘feminism-for-all’ type woman, but does that mean we can’t have a bit of fun when we shop?”

“It’s not about that, Mum,” Bluebell said, leading them into an expensive-looking boutique. “It’s just that we’d rather pick out what we want as quickly as possible and then go for a beer.”

Emma rolled her eyes, drilling ferociously through the hangers on the first clothes rail she came to.

“I’m not happy about how much alcohol you’re drinking at the moment, but I’ll take you for lunch and buy you bloody beer if you’ll just parade yourselves around a little bit for my entertainment. Humour me, would you?”

“That’s bribery,” Autumn said pointedly, but she agreed to Emma’s terms nevertheless. Maybe Emma was right and wearing a beautiful dress would be good for her. She had barely been out of her pyjamas for longer than a couple of hours at a time in weeks. Perhaps getting dressed up to go to a ball could even be a little bit exciting.

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