Page 10 of Follow Your Bliss

“Hi Mrs. Betty.” Great. Let me add another mom who didn’t like me to my collection. Why were so many of them like this? I was a delightful mess.

“How long have you been making dresses, Rose?”

Translation:Are you sure you’re good enough to make my Becca’s wedding dress?

“Oh gosh, I’ve been sewing and sketching dresses since I was able to hold a needle and pencil. And I just finished up an internship at Lovelace Bridal in New York City.”Boom. Big name-drop.

Her eyebrows went up in grudging respect. “Well, if the dress itself is anything like the sketches Becca showed me, it will be just beautiful. I was just asking Becca the other day…”

Jason’s presence moved into the edges of the group like warm sunshine, greeting Lily with his brother, Alex. I tried to catch pieces of what he said while answering Mrs. Betty’s questions about sourcing fine fabrics.

“Hey, Rose.” Jason came around Lily, smiling, our shared time capsule secret dancing in his big brown eyes. “It’s been such a long time!” His dimples deepened as he came in for a hug.

His arms came low, so mine went high around his neck, my breasts pressing against all those muscles. My cheek brushed his beard as I murmured into his ear, “Thank you again and please don’t tell Becca.” Hewinkedat me as he left the hug, and heat shot up my face. Curse my pink skin. I had to be red as a lobster. Again. And now I’d smell like his panty-dropping cologne all night.

“Hey Rose.” Alex gave me a half-hearted, bored sort of hug. Closer to my height, the youngest Soniat was the one I knew the least about, save for their parents. And I think there was an older brother off somewhere else?

“Rose, how do you like being back home?” Becca asked.

“Girl, I’m not gonna lie. It’s been rough. I’m three days into apartment hunting, and I can’t find anything in my price range. So, I’m stuck living with my mom and her boyfriend. And let me tell you, the walls in that little house are so thin—”

Mrs. Betty literally clutched her pearls as Lily laughed and Jason snorted. I bit my lip. I had to stop being so blunt when so many people were squeamish about sex.

“Oh, Steve, um, Steve snores like a freight train. Yeah. So, I’m desperate for a new place. I’d live in my car, if I had one.” I laughed awkwardly. Way to sell yourself to the crowd, Rose.

Becca turned to Jason. “Wait, this is perfect timing! Aren’t you ready to rent your apartment at the church?”

Nooo. No no no. My pulse was a tiny tribe of cannibals pounding on my ear drums, and I was on the menu. Jason nodded, smiling but not meeting my eyes. Yeah, he clearly wanted nothing to do with that.

“Oh, that’s okay,” I blurted, to save him. “I’m sure I’ll find something soon. I have headphones to drown out my—Steve’s snoring.” My face had to be a darker pink than my dress, and Jason’s eyes were sparkling with held-back laughter.

Did I have to add Becca to my shit list?

Jason

At Becca’s suggestion, Rose’s already-red face had gone wide-eyed and still,still, she wasn’t fooling me that Steve’s “snoring” was anything but code for loud sex. I could listen to her put her feet in her mouth all night.

“It’s just the old rectory.” I was damn proud of that “just the old rectory,” but I was downplaying it now, both to bail Rose out from something she obviously wasn’t interested in and to head Mom’s disapproval off at the pass. “And I’m not exactly ready to rent. We’d have to share the bathroom and the kitchen until I get those built in the church, so...”

Mom bristled beside me. Her next phone call was already playing in my head:you can’t let that Guidry girl move into the rectory and share your bathroom. Lightning might strike her when she walks into the church! And what will Misty think?

Although, a seamstress would be a quiet neighbor, and at least I knew she wasn’t a serial killer or anything. “If you’re interested, you should come by tomorrow to see it.”

Rose’s eyebrows went way up. “So, we’d be, like…roommates?”

“Don’t worry about all that tonight, dear.” Mom put her arm around Rose’s shoulder and started walking, physically removing her from the conversation. “What I want to know is, what did Becca pick for the flower girl’s dress? She still hasn’t shown me…”

Mom’s voice faded as Rose’s big eyes glanced back at her sister, who walked along with them and Becca.

Alex chuckled beside me. “Mom’s gonna give you so much frickin’ grief if you let a woman move in with you, especially one as hot as Rose, especially one of those ‘godless Guidry girls.’”

I shook my head, but my eyes followed Rose across the room. She pulled her iPad out of her bag and fumbled it, nearly dropping it. Adorable. “She says that shit around you too? I thought it was just me.”

“Mark my words. If Mom comes over one day and finds some pagan altar in your house, she’ll freak the hell out.”

I heard Alex, I really did, but I couldn’t take my eyes off Rose. She’d been beautiful, all sweaty and mud-streaked last night, but tonight she was luminous in that petal-pink dress, long dark curls falling around her creamy shoulders and arms. That sexy tattoo of roses rambling down from her shoulder.

Annnnd now Mom was introducing her to Misty. Fantastic.

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