Page 40 of An Adventure For Aster

“You’ll find out. We are going to pay for her gown. We want her to have what she wants. Dahlia is going to let Abigail know to pull things based on Ivy’s price range, but if nothing works out, then we’ll take care of it and go from there.”

“That’s so sweet,” she said.

She knew that Ivy’s father was paying for the reception and that Brooks had mentioned that they were keeping it under seventy-five people. Mona was giving them a good deal as Jasmine’s mother-in-law, but she wasn’t going to lose money on it either.

Flowers were going to be a minimal cost on top of it, thanks to Blossoms.

She worried when her time came that her parents might not be able to afford much and she didn’t want them to even think about it.

Not many fathers were paying for weddings anymore. Things just cost too much.

She’d like to say she could pay for it herself, but the truth was, she barely could support herself at times. She paid her bills and had a savings account but wasn’t killing it there by any means.

“So,” Jasmine said. “Do we get to find out about you and Aster?”

“Don’t you dare talk about that without me,” Ivy shouted. They turned and saw her come out in her first dress.

“Guess we’ll wait until you are all done picking your gown,” Raine said. She expected this might happen and was actually looking forward to it herself. She didn’t often get to talk about her love life. She never had much of one.

“What do you think?” Ivy asked.

“It’s pretty,” Dahlia said.

Ivy frowned. “It is. It didn’t make me cry. I want to be wowed and cry. Is it horrible to feel that way?”

“No,” Raine said. “This is your day. You’ll know when you find the one.”

“It’s not it,” Jasmine said. “You know it too.”

“I do like it, and if I don’t find anything else, I could settle for this.”

It broke her heart to hear anyone settle in life, but she knew that was what she did a lot too.

She wasn’t going to do that anymore though.

“Nope,” Jasmine said. “Next.”

It went like that for four more dresses. All of them looked lovely on Ivy, but something was missing. It just wasn’t sparkling enough or didn’t make Ivy sparkle.

Jasmine stood up and walked to a section of more pricey gowns. “What do you guys think?” Jasmine asked, pulling one off the rack.

“I think that has Ivy written all over it,” Raine said.

“Me too,” Dahlia said, moving over to look at the price. The wince told her what she needed to know, but she also knew that Jasmine wasn’t hurting for money and Dahlia most likely wasn’t either. Even though the girls were raised to be frugal, she’d bet they’d splurge for their sister.

Jasmine picked the gown up and brought it to where Ivy was and then they waited.

They heard the sniffling before they saw Ivy. “I don’t know who picked this and I’m afraid to look at the price tag, but this is my favorite so far.”

Ivy appeared in front of them. Dahlia got a soft look in her eyes and they were almost moist. Jasmine let a tear drop and Raine felt one coming down too.

“That’s the one,” Jasmine said. “I picked it out.”

When Ivy went to look for the tag, Dahlia stopped her. “Do you love it?”

“Yes, but it doesn’t do me any good if I can’t afford it. I mean I can go up a little but don’t want to blow so much on one dress I’ll never wear again. That’d be silly.”

“Brooks wouldn’t care,” she said, playing along with the sisters.

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