All Dressed Up Read Free

you're going to do, Charlie?” Lainie asked. “Go back to
work?”
    “Yep.”
    “She’s left
the dress behind. You’re wanting to close up, aren’t you,
Reverend?”
    Mac. Mac. But
she couldn’t call him Mac to his face after the delicious flirting
in the rain, after discovering such blue eyes and such a bear-like
build, such a hearty laugh, such a sexy black Norton motorcycle,
parked beside the church. And she couldn’t go on flirting with him,
even though he’d made it clear he was single, because she didn’t
have enough faith in God.
    “Yes, but
there’s no rush,” the Reverend said.
    “I’ll take the
dress,” Charlie announced. “We can’t leave it here. I’m going to
head back to New York. She can pick it up from my apartment if she
wants it. She has keys. She has half her stuff there.”
    “You mean head
back to New York tonight?” Lainie asked.
    “Yes.”
    “Go to the
hospital tomorrow?”
    “Probably.
Monday, anyhow.” He virtually lived at the hospital. He was a
neurosurgeon the way some people were vampires or nuns. It ran
right through him. “Tell her I’ll handle canceling the honeymoon
arrangements, can you, please, Mom? I’d offer to do other stuff –
returning the gifts, calling the goddamned florist – ” Lainie
flinched at the repeated blasphemy on the Reverend Mac’s behalf. “
– but she has it sewn up so tight with all her lists…” He shook his
head, gave another agonized grin. “She’ll have to do it.”
    “You think I
can talk to her, Charlie?” Lainie said. “Me? The mother-in-law?
Without us yelling at each other?”
    “Can’t you?”
He blinked and looked at her warily as if realizing, oh yeah, she’s
not just my mom, she’s human. He bent to pick up the gown. “I’ll
drop you home, Mom. Let me see if she’s left anything in the back
room. She was pretty upset.” He spoke as if he’d already begun to
forgive her, and yet he added immediately, “I probably should have
put the brakes on months ago. I didn’t want this. Any of this.” He
straightened with the dress in his arms. It looked like a bride
being lifted over the threshold.

 
    Chapter
Two

    “Yeah, hi,
honey,” said Angie, into her cell. The ring tone told her it was
Brooke. “You’re at the rehearsal dinner?”
    “No, I’m not,”
her daughter answered. “I’m checking that you’re home. I’m coming
over.”
    “I have a new
listing to measure up. I’m walking out the door. You should be on
your way to the restaurant by now, shouldn’t you?”
    “Except that
Emma and Charlie both lost it in the church, right in front of the
minister, so the wedding is off.”
    “Off? It’s
off?” God help her, the first reaction was triumph. God help her,
please God forgive her. Angie schooled herself, knowing how wrong
it was, hating the terrible jealousy, the lurching kick of it in
her stomach. “Oh… Brooke… Lordy crap! If only I didn’t have to see
these clients! Where are you? Do you have Ashlyn?”
    “On my way
from the church. Emma and Sarah and Amber have gone back to the
Deans’ place. Ash is still with the sitter. I should pick her up.
I’m not thinking.”
    “Of course
you’re not. Come over. You have your key? I’ll only be an hour.
Less, if I can. By the time you’ve picked up Ash… Or – Should I
call Lainie? How is she taking it? She must be devastated.” Saying
it, Angie felt the relief of some empathy for her cousin, felt the
jealousy loosen its claws.
    “I’m not
sure,” Brooke said. “It happened so fast. She and Charlie and the
minister were still in the church when I left. I have no idea
what’s happening, how anyone feels. Shall I stop off for pizza or
something?”
    “Sure. Yes,
do.” Angie couldn’t think, couldn’t even feel. Her teeth were
chattering. It was decades long, this battle between what she
wanted to find in her heart about Lainie, and what was so often
really there. This was the thing people didn’t understand if they
hadn’t