CHAPTER 5

Sutton – 2 months later

“There isn’t a dress in the entire city that doesn’t make me look pregnant!”

Mandy Brand gave me a look.

“You are pregnant,” Mandy said jokingly.

I made a face. “I don’t want to look like a walrus!”

Mandy grinned. “I don’t think that is possible. You have the tiniest little baby bump imaginable.”

I turned toward the three-way mirror and tried to see myself through their eyes. Obviously, everything was going to show in a fitted dress. But in the princess gowns, I felt like a giant puffball. These hips didn’t need accentuation.

Mandy tipped her head to the side. “I think I liked the first one better.”

The poor frazzled bridal shop assistant looked up with dismay. She had been sorting through the rejected gowns, and the pile wasn’t small.

Mandy shook her head. “Not to worry. I don’t remember which one it was either. A part of me thinks one white dress is pretty much the same as another.”

Candice—who was on video chat—and I drew in a sharp breath.

“That is just blasphemy,” I said in mock horror.

I could hear Candice snickering from Mandy’s phone as the bridal shop assistant went for help.

“Do you think we are the worst clients they have ever had?” I worried my bottom lip.

Candice piped up from the phone. “You aren’t quite Bridezilla yet.”

“Why am I acting so crazy?”

“Pregnancy,” Mandy said wisely. “How many weeks are you now?”

“Seventeen. After this I am meeting Mark over at Dr. Roberts’ for the ultrasound.

Mandy grinned. “What do you think of his medical assistant?”

I grimaced. “Tina? What is up with that woman anyway?”

Candice chimed in. “I sense a story. Do tell, ladies.”

“While I was pregnant, Tina insisted on calling me Mrs. Johnson even though she knew I wasn’t married. I thought at first she was just old school. A part of me worried that she was judging me because I was obviously a single mother. But then she started giving me sexual advice.”