Page 77 of Into the Fire

This was it. This was the dress. I knew it with the entirety of my being.

The way it hugged my body. The ballgown skirt. The beading. The lace. The train. Everything about it was perfect.

“It’s beautiful,” Sally commented, nodding. “Just perfect. Do you like it?”

I nodded wordlessly.

She gave me a smile and opened the door. I walked out and went to the pedestal.

Jamie jumped to her feet the moment I entered the room and squealed, clapping her hands together, her eyes bright.

But it was Anson’s reaction that got me. He’d not moved a muscle or said a word the entire time I’d been trying on dresses. This time, he sat forward, his Adam’s apple bobbing, his blue eyes skirting over my dress.

“Rosalie, it’s perfect,” Jamie said, circling me. “Do you love it?”

I nodded. “I do.”

“We have some accessories if you’d like to try them with this?” Sally piped up.

“I’d like that,” I said.

“Can I help pick them out?” Jamie looked at me. I nodded.

“Sure. Come on. We just got some new tiaras in.” Sally exclaimed, her eyes lighting up.

Jamie squealed again and bounded away with Sally, leaving me alone in the room with Anson.

“What do you think?” I asked, swallowing hard as I faced the mirror and looked at Anson through it.

He rose to his feet and slowly moved toward me until he was behind me on the pedestal.

Gently, he rested his hands on my biceps and leaned down to whisper into my ear.

“You take my breath away,” he whispered thickly. “Every moment of every day, Rosalie, you do that to me. But today? You’re killing me.”

“I am?” I frowned at him in the mirror.

“Yes. You are. Because I know this is real now. That you’re really going to go through with this. That I-I can never. . .” He visibly swallowed as he locked his blue eyes on mine in the mirror. He forced a smile onto his face. “You’re beautiful. Enzo will love it.”

I turned to face him, my chest against his.

“Ani—”

“Shh,” he murmured, pressing a finger against my lips. “I knew how this was going to go down. It’s my fault, and mine alone, if I forced myself to believe differently. Don’t apologize to me for loving someone, Rosalie. Don’t ever apologize to me for that. If this makes you happy, I want it more than anything for you.” He swiped away the tear that had slipped down my cheek and gave me a sad smile. “You’re going to knock his socks off. This is your dress, songbird.” He leaned in and pressed a soft kiss to my forehead before fully backing away from me and stepping off the pedestal. Jamie and Sally came back into the room just then, and I quickly wiped at all the tears now trailing down my cheeks.

I turned back to face the mirror as Jamie and Sally set to work putting jewelry, different tiaras, and veils on me, each of them gushing.

But I couldn’t pay attention to any of it because my eyes never left Anson, who watched with his sad smile still on his face. A smile that crushed my soul and made me hate everything about my life.

In a perfect world, I’d sit my guys down and tell them I had these feelings. That I. . . shit, what did I want?

I stared back at Anson as he nodded slowly, a tiny, happy smile on his lips, as Sally put a different tiara on my head that he clearly liked.

I wanted him to join us.

I did.

Five of them. Loving me and me loving them back.

---