One Fiancee To Go, Please by Jackie Braun

Author:Jackie Braun
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Harlequin
Published: 2013-12-15T00:00:00+00:00

Chapter Six

Tess hadn’t realized a day of dress shopping could be so emotionally taxing. She, of course, was the only Donovan woman who felt that way. Her mother and sister were enjoying themselves immensely. Rita went with the apricot dress she’d mentioned at dinner the day before. Betsy chose a full-length satin sheath in pale yellow. The saleswoman measured them, ordered their dresses in the appropriate sizes, and then the trio turned to Tess, looking expectant and hopeful. But she purposely avoided the racks of bridal gowns. She felt like too much of a fraud to look at them, even as her fingers itched to touch the delicate lace sewn onto silk and satin.

“I’ve got my heart set on one I saw in a bridal magazine,” she fibbed. The saleswoman, being ever so helpful, brought over a stack of the latest volumes.

“If it’s in one of these we either have it in stock or we can order it,” she announced cheerfully. The woman was fortyish, blond, and had perky all but stamped on her forehead. But she was only being helpful, Tess knew. And since she reminded Tess of June Cleaver on “Leave it to Beaver” she found it hard to dislike the woman. Who, after all, could hate the Beav’s mom?

Tess was flipping half-heartedly through the pages of the sixth magazine when she spotted it. Her busy fingers stilled, and she forgot her clever plan to pretend not to find the dress of her dreams within the magazine’s pages.

“Oh, Tess, is that it?” Betsy chirped, peering over Tess’s shoulder to get a better look. Rita stopped hunting through a selection of dyeable satin pumps and hurried over to do the same.

Tess didn’t know what possessed her, but she said, “This is the dress I’ve always pictured myself getting married in.”

And it was true. As a girl she might not have been able to imagine the face of her prospective groom, but the dress she had known in detail. And there it was on the page before her.

“Well, you’re in luck,” the saleswoman beamed. “We have that one.” She looked Tess over with a practiced eye. “The one we have in stock is in a size ten, but I can pin you into it, and if you like it, we’ll order it in the appropriate size.”

Five minutes later Tess found herself in a fitting room, wearing a crinoline. As she pulled yards of lace-trimmed ivory satin over her head, she became as caught up in the excitement of planning her make-believe wedding as her mother and sister were.

“Do you have it on yet?” Betsy called from outside the fitting room. Tess had insisted on going inside with only the saleswoman to help her. The woman was busily tucking in the extra folds of fabric with straight pins she pulled from between her compressed lips.

“I’ll be out in a minute, Bets.”

Tess couldn’t take her eyes off her reflection. The dress shimmered in the room’s bright lighting. It had small beaded cap

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