Chapter Six

“Are you sure you’re okay?” Aunt Dee Dee asked a while later when Kit emerged from the ladies’ room in a minty cloud after some serious gargling. “We can come back another time.”

“Mother, no, we can’t. We’re in a time crunch.”

Kit’s stomach was empty, but her mind was full. She wanted to tell Co-Co she could take that old dress and that new solitaire diamond ring with the baguettes and march her skinny ass out of Rosie’s Bridals. She’d deal with the fallout when it made its way through the family grapevine.

But out of the corner of her eye, she spotted Rylee as she lovingly positioned a shipment of tiaras in a display case. This shop meant everything to Rylee. It was her legacy, and she’d worked so hard to help make it succeed. Kit couldn’t be the one to turn away any business.

“I’m fine.” Kit smoothed her hands down her front. “Let’s do this. Co-Co, did you say that you’ll be having your bridesmaids coming to Rosie’s for their dresses?”

“Yes! And we’d like to find dresses that will complement mine, of course.”

“Of course.”

“I’ll make an appointment today for the girls. I have ten bridesmaids, well, nine plus one junior bridesmaid, Cousin Paul’s daughter, Abigail.”

Oh for God’s sake.

“Okay, so tell me what you have in mind for the alterations.” Kit smoothed her hand over the fabric of the dress. She did her best to detach from its loveliness, its history. But her fingers savored the nub of each bead as her touch ran over the intricacies of the pattern.

“I was thinking of lopping off the arms maybe.” Co-Co tilted her head. “Making it strapless if we could?”

Sharp filaments of anger sliced through her, and heat flooded her cheeks. She clenched her fists, feeling the bite of her fingernails digging into the flesh of her palms. “You what?”

Co-Co held up one of the sleeves of the dress as if it were a fish she’d caught that had just died in the bucket. “I can’t do long sleeves for an August wedding. Not going to sweat like a pig on my own wedding day.”

“You can’t be serious.”

“Why?”

Kit bit back an expletive. “Not happening.”

Co-Co dropped the sleeve and folded her arms. “Mother, you see? What did I tell you? She’s still mad at me.”

“Girls.” Aunt Dee Dee touched a hand to each of their arms. “Let’s remember we’re family no matter what. Kit, honey, we came to you because you’re the best, of course. But also, if you help with the, um, redesigning of Grammy’s gown, then it’s like you’ve shared in its legacy as well. See? It’s perfect.”

“I’m not chopping off the sleeves,” Kit said. “I draw the line.”

“But…”

“No,” Kit said. “I’ll tailor Gram’s dress to your body. I’ll fix the beading, replace any missing stones. But I will not, cannot take scissors to that dress.”

Co-Co pursed her lips. “You’re just saying that to be mean.”

“You’re ridiculous.” She turned to walk away from them.

“Wait,” Aunt Dee Dee called. “Kit, dear, come on, wait.”

She turned back to them.

Aunt Dee Dee put her hands together as if in prayer. She looked to her daughter. “Co-Co, honey, maybe Kit’s right.”

“What?”

Kit half expected Co-Co to pull one of her fits like in the good old days when they were in grammar school. Like the time she locked herself in the coat closet in fourth grade when she’d lost out on the lead in their end-of-year play. Kit had been chosen as the damned narrator, as she had every year since first grade, and nobody saw her hiding among the windbreakers and bookbags.

“Look.” She closed the distance between them. “If Gram’s gown isn’t the vision you had in mind, maybe we can show you another dress that better suits you. We have so many great designer samples—”

“No, no. You’re not talking me out of the dress. Nice try.” Co-Co folded her arms across her chest. “Fine. We’ll keep the sleeves. Just make me look spectacular in it. That’s all I want.”

How could she share DNA with this twit? She needed to quell the fire in her veins. As much as it hurt that Co-Co had Gram’s dress in her bony-fingered clutches, Kit had bigger things to worry about.

When Aunt Dee Dee meandered over to a rack of mother-of-the-bride dresses, Co-Co took the opportunity to sidle up to Kit. “You’re okay about all this, aren’t you, Kitty-Cat? I mean, you and me, we’re fine now, aren’t we?”

Kit blew out a minty-mouthwashed breath. “Stop beating a dead horse. I’m over it.”

“I just don’t want it to be awkward for you, you know, attending the wedding festivities alone and everything.”

Kit pointed to one of the dressing cubicles. “Take the dress in there and try it on so I can see what we’re dealing with.”

Co-Co came in close for a stage whisper. “Lola’s groomer is single. I think you might like him, and you’ll get used to his glass eye. I won’t even tell you which one it is. You’ll never guess.”

Lola was Co-Co’s spasmodic Something-poo, and Kit was not at all interested in meeting her faux-eyed groomer. She tamped down the niggle of anger that rose in her veins. “No, thanks. Go try on the dress.”

“I just hate that you’re alone.”

“I’m not, okay? Happy?”

A smile broke out across Co-Co’s face. “You’re seeing someone?” She whipped around. “Mother, Kit’s dating.”

Kit wasn’t prone to lying, but somehow this one tumbled out of her mouth, and there was no pulling it back. She’d deal with it later.

“Oh, do tell,” Aunt Dee Dee cooed as she closed the gap between them, her hands waving in the air as if she were about to take flight.

“Not now.”

“Come on,” Co-Co urged. “Just a tidbit. What’s his name?”

Kit pulled open the door to the dressing cubicle. “Change, Co-Co. I mean it.”

“Fine, but just so you know, I’m counting this as a preliminary fitting because I’m bloated this week. I thought I’d come back next week for any adjustments. That good with you, Kitty-Cat?”

“No can do.” There was no way Kit was going to accommodate her cousin’s tragedy of premenstrual bloat. Co-Co and her cycle could just deal with it.

“Why not?”

Co-Co had the simpering whine of a toddler. Maybe she was teething. And she didn’t need to know that the lessened client load around here gave Kit’s schedule a lot of leeway these days.

“We’re booked next week, Co-Co. As it is, count yourself lucky I was even able to squeeze you in today. Now, are you going to go put on the dress or what?”

“You’re being deliberately difficult.”

Did she stamp her foot? Kit sucked in a breath to keep from calling her a body part. She thrust her arm toward a dressing room. “You can either go in there and put on the gown, or you can go home. I don’t care. But do one of those things now.”

The little bell that hung above the front entry jangled, and Shane Dugan strode in. The catgut of nerves in Kit’s midsection tightened its gird. He wore a fire academy T-shirt that clung to his muscles. His black hair looked damp and had been combed back over his head, leaving his pleasant face more exposed, open, his smile eye catching. Lordy. He was a fine specimen of a firefighter. Something inside her did a little somersault, her pheromones ignoring totally that she was the self-appointed president of the man-haters club.

Co-Co unfolded her arms from her chest, casually put a hand to her blonde bob, and gave it a tussle. In Co-Co speak that was a loud Notice me.

Shane latched his mottled-green gaze on to Kit, and his full mouth broke into a grin. Despite herself, her heart did a wiggle.

“Hi,” he said.

“Hi.”

“I see you’re busy.” He cast a glance toward Co-Co. “I was hoping you had a few minutes to talk.”

Kit watched Co-Co’s gaze move back and forth between them in rapid succession. She was a walking, talking slot machine. “Sure.” She bit her lip. “Just give me a sec.” She slid her gaze over to Co-Co. “Are we done here, or are you going to try on the dress?”

“Fine.” Co-Co’s tone changed to that teasing lilt she saved for each and every man on the planet. “I’ll ignore the grumpy pill you took this morning, and we’ll do it your way, Kit. But before I change into the dress, are you going to introduce me to your friend?”

“Nope. Go change.”

Co-Co looked around Kit and waved her fingers. “Hi, I’m Co-Co, Kit’s cousin.”

Aunt Dee Dee sidled up beside Kit and lifted a coy shoulder. “Who have we here? I’m Kit’s aunt and the mother of the bride here.”

“Pleased to meet you.”

Co-Co came close. “And you’re?”

“Shane.” He looked over to Kit, one eyebrow quirked upward, giving him a look that Kit decided meant he wasn’t buying Co-Co’s saccharine persona. Even though she hated men, right at the moment she kind of liked Shane Dugan.

“I can come back,” he said. “I wanted to get your thoughts about my moving in.”

While Kit’s heart plummeted to her feet, Co-Co coughed and slapped a hand to her chest. “Are you her new man? Oh my God, and you’re moving in together?” She sounded as if she’d sucked helium.

Kit didn’t answer but instead prayed for a bolt of lightning with good aim. Considering it was one of those blue-sky, yellow-ball-of-sunshine kind of days, the chances were slim.

“Is that what I’m hearing? You two are a couple?” Aunt Dee Dee slapped a hand to her chest, and the valise-sized purse over her arm went swinging.

“My next appointment is due in fifteen minutes.” It was another lie, but this was a desperate situation. She needed a second to think her way out of this. “We have to do this now or reschedule, and like I told you, I’m pretty much booked for the foreseeable future.” Lie number three. She was going to hell.

“All right, all right,” Co-Co said. She grabbed her mother by the arm. “Mommy, come on. You need to help me.” She cast her doe-eyed gaze on Shane. “But don’t go anywhere, you. I want to hear everything about you two.”

Co-Co and Aunt Dee Dee disappeared into a dressing room, and when the door had sufficiently clicked shut, Kit gave Shane a poke in the shoulder, one hell of a taut shoulder. “Come here.” Her whisper was a hot rasp. She marched toward the bank of windows at the front of the store. “We need to talk.”

The sunlight coming in through the windows brought out the multiple flecks of gold in his eyes, and she did her best to ignore their appeal. She swallowed hard. “Shane.” Her eyes flashed to the door to the dressing room. “Here’s the thing.” She pinned his gaze. “That’s my cousin and my aunt in there and…”

“I think I know this story,” he whispered back. He leaned in close. He smelled spicy, like cloves. “Hop mentioned something.”

“Oh, did he? Nice. I’ll kill him later, but for now listen up.” She took a breath. “So you know she’s marrying my ex-boyfriend.” Shane nodded. “Well, she was just saying how terrible it is that I’ll be alone for all the wedding activities, and God only knows what that means, and I kind of stretched the truth, okay? No, I lied, okay? I’m not proud of it, but yeah. I sort of intimated that I have a boyfriend. And then you walked in the door. She’s assuming you and I are, you know, a couple, especially since you said you wanted to talk about moving in.”

“Oh boy. I’m sorry. That didn’t help the situation, did it?”

“No.” She watched the brass doorknob of the dressing room. “Here’s the deal, Shane. I know you have a girlfriend in what was it, France or something?”

“Italy.”

“Yes. Italy. But for now, could you just go along with it? The wedding’s August fourth. Maybe you wouldn’t even have to attend the spectacle with me. I could say you had to work. Something was on fire maybe. If you help me out, the loft is yours. For the two grand up front, of course.”

The door to the dressing room burst open, and Aunt Dee Dee came out first, her hands clasped in front of her. “Oh, Kitty-Cat, wait till you see how my baby looks in Grammy’s gown.”

She latched on to Shane’s gaze. This fireman owed her nothing, but she needed him to take her offer. She couldn’t even think about what that meant. For now, all she worried about was that two-timing cousin of hers emerging from the dressing room wearing Gram’s wedding gown.

His green eyes flashed over to the scene at the dressing room; Co-Co had stepped out of the cubicle, Aunt Dee Dee audibly sucking in her breath. He fixed his gaze back on to her. “Deal,” he whispered.

“Thank you, thank you.” She had pulled a nice-enough, unassuming guy she barely knew into her web of lies. She was shameless.

Co-Co looked stunning in Gram’s gown. Even Kit had to admit it. The gown was at least two sizes too large, but with Aunt Dee Dee holding the excess in her fist from behind, it was apparent that when Kit did the alterations, Co-Co would make for a beautiful bride.

“I’ve got my work cut out for me, huh.” Kit came up and nudged Aunt Dee Dee’s hand from the fabric. She pushed at Co-Co’s shoulder. “Turn around.”

Co-Co gingerly made a slow full circle and stood facing Kit and Shane. She pulled bunches of the fabric into her hands, stepped over to Shane, and gave him a coy look. “Hey, you,” she cooed. “You have no idea how happy I am to meet you.” She lifted her shoulders in delight. “Mother, aren’t they adorable together?”

“I can’t believe it.” Aunt Dee Dee’s voice rose high, as though it were so farfetched Kit could have found a man. She licked her lips, collected herself, and extended her hand like a debutant. “I’m delighted.”

Shane promptly accepted the handshake.

“Welcome to the family.”

Kit pinched the space between her eyes where a headache had begun to throb into the beat of a one-word chant going on in her head—liar, liar, liar.

Co-Co clapped her hands. “I guess we’ll all be seeing you at all the wedding events.” She turned to Kit. “Saturday! Don’t forget! The whole family can meet your new man at Mom’s dinner party on Saturday.”

Saturday’s dinner party. Crapola. She’d forgotten all about it. Kit met Shane’s gaze and tried to convey an apology.

A relentless Co-Co leaned in close. “Touchy subject, I know, but I’m sure you’re aware of the circumstances.” She pulled her mouth downward into an exaggerated frown. Just as quickly her coral-slick mouth sprang free into a grin to rival a gussied-up jack-o’-lantern. “But this changes everything. Brian is going to be so relieved. I mean happy, yes, happy to hear the news.”

“Come on,” Kit said. “Let’s get you pinned.” She tapped a finger onto the face of her watch. “Chop-chop.”

“I, uh, have to get going anyway,” Shane said. He met her gaze. “We’ll talk later, then. Okay?”

“Sure, yes,” she said. “Uh, Shane.” For effect, she rubbed her hand up and down his upper arm. Quite the upper arm. “Have a good day, um, babe.”

The awkwardness cut off her air. Her lungs were filled with cement now, too. And while she suffered to breathe, he wrapped one of his big arms around her shoulders and gave her a squeeze. She peered up at his face, her mouth open, but she was too stunned to speak. Then just when she was sure this could not be happening, Shane Dugan kissed her on the temple.

“See you later, honey.” He flashed a smile to Co-Co and her mother. “Have a nice day, ladies.”

“The pleasure was all ours!” Co-Co gushed, and Aunt Dee Dee smiled like a loon.

Kit’s eyes followed him as he left the shop while she breathed in and out. He opened the door to his green truck and lifted his gaze. He smiled at her through the front window, and then he winked.