Page 70 of Follow Your Bliss

“Girl,” he said.

“I know!”

“GIRL,” he said again.

Hands over my face, I started crying. His arms came around me. “Congratulations! Baby, this is huge! You can’t get much higher-profile than PJ Lane and Sam Cooper! Hey…” He knelt beside me and dabbed at my face with a clean napkin. “You’re officially a designer to the stars. How does it feel?”

“Terrifying!” I cried. “How am I going to do this? I’m already so behind!”

“I think you need more information. They can’t be getting married next month. Has he even called you yet?”

I took a shuddering breath and took my phone from him. The unknown number. “A text and a call.” I played his voicemail on speaker.

Sam: Hey Rose, this is Sam Cooper. Heather Aucoin sent me your beautiful dress designs, and I sent them to my fiancé, PJ Lane? She went nuts over them. We set a tentative date for July. I hope that’s enough lead time. Heather said you’re already really busy, so if I can help by hiring a team to help with PJ’s dresses, I’m happy to do that. So, give me a call back when you can, and maybe we can set up a time to meet at your studio? Looks like I’ll be relocating to New Orleans for a while with work, so I hope we can work it out. Thanks!

“Jason, this can’t be real life.” Something like impending doom settled on my shoulders. “How am I going to do this? I have three dresses to finish for Becca. I haven’t even started Mom’s.” I gestured wildly at my phone. “He thinks I have a studio. Like some kind of professional.”

“Youarea professional.” He kissed my forehead and tucked my hair behind my ear. “It’s okay. We got this. Let’s focus on one thing at a time. You have two weddings to finish now, but Sam and PJ aren’t getting married until July. It’s only September. That’s like…ten months away. Tell him you’re booked through October—it’s not a lie. Then you don’t even have to think about PJ until after your Mom’s wedding.”

His smile steadied me, and I smiled for the first time with this news in my life.

He wrapped my hands in his. “Meantime, we need to get all those dresses we talked about photographed and beef up your social media presence before this news drops. Baby, you’re going to have more requests and offers than you know what to do with. Own this. You deserve this success.”

Happy tears welled in my eyes. My boyfriend was…amazing.

He squeezed my hands and leaned his head against mine with an excited littleahhhh!“Now I’m all hyped to take pictures of you in your beautiful dresses. Tomorrow I really have to make progress on some custom pieces I’m behind on, but I’ll scout some locations in the afternoon. It might be kinda hard to find places not affected too badly by the storm, but I’ll find them.”

I grabbed his beautiful face and kissed him, hard and long, sinking down to straddle him. He adjusted, stretching his legs out long and settling me on his lap. His hands and arms snaked around me, pressing me close at every point like I was lovingly ensnared by a hot octopus.

After a minute, he came up for air with a smile. “Damn, woman, what was that for? You’re making me want to throw you over my shoulder and carry you upstairs.”

“I can’t tell you how much your support means to me. I’ve never had a boyfriend who cared about my dreams enough to help me with them.”

His smile widened, dimples engaged. He kissed me softly again. “How can I help my girlfriend tonight with these dresses?”

I laughed. “You want to help me sew? Do you even know how to sew?”

“I’ll have you know I once sewed my own button back on a shirt by watching a YouTube video. You might say I’m a master seamstress. Seamster. Sewer?”

“Sewer looks weird written down, but it works orally.” I raised my eyebrows at him suggestively.

He chuckled. “I see you, trying to skip ahead to the good stuff. What’s the next thing you need to do on Becca’s dresses?”

I smoothed my hand down his T-shirt. Sure, I wanted his help. But being this close to him was turning me on. I tried to focus on my work. “I have to rip that skirt apart and put it back together the right way. Ummm…oh! How do you feel about learning to make ribbon roses? I need a shit ton of ribbon roses.”

“Is that a US shit ton or a metric shit ton?” He shrugged with a smile. “You know what? Either way I’m in.”

“Awesome. But there’s one problem.” I went back to kissing him, but with more tongue and hip action. I ground against him and found hard evidence that he was into it too. “You being all helpful, and sweet, and hot has me too turned on to do anything but you.”

He chuckled and gently slapped my ass. “C’mon then.” He coaxed me up, took my hand, and led me across the dimly lit church to the plush rug before the fireplace. I unzipped his shorts and pulled off his shirt and undies, and he made quick work of my clothes, too. Standing naked face to face with him, I reached between us and grasped his erection—already hard and needy.

But he took my hand away, slipping his fingers through mine and placing his other hand at my waist. “Dance with me.” He leaned in at the hips to press against me as he began to move under the muted colors of a streetlight through stained glass.

“But there’s no music,” I giggled.

“I’ll sing for you.” He took a few steps with me with anummm, as if searching in his head for something to sing. “It had to be you…it had to be you,” he sang, dancing slowly with me. “La la la la laaa, and finally found…somebody whooooo…I don’t really know the words to this.” He dipped me as I laughed, my long hair hanging down. “La la la la…”

Skin to skin, Jason danced with me, his not at all bad voice echoing through the big room withla la la’sand snippets of words he remembered. His dark eyes twinkled and never moved from mine. It was deeply romantic, maybe the most romantic moment of my life. He pressed his forehead against mine, and I hummed along with him.

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