Page 66 of All Dressed Up

A couple of minutes later, he led Christy through the flower shop and up to the boutique. “Thanks for coming.”

“I’m so happy you were able to get the same dress for me. I’m sorry about the fire.”

He fiddled with his cuff links. Did he say same dress over the phone? He probably did. “Um... thank you. I’m managing.” He took a second to choose his words. “Er... about your dress. I think it’s the same, or at least close to it.”

“I can’t wait to see it.”

“Right this way,” he said, leading her to the second room. Man, he hoped it was the same. She’d tried on a bunch that day. She’d settled on a sleek dress with an open back. He knew that because he’d checked her file this morning while having breakfast, which included a snapshot of the dress she’d selected. He’d typed up notes that she needed something functional for an outdoor wedding at the Twig & Vines Winery. “It’s in here.”

Christy looked around. “Where is it?”

He cracked a knuckle. Here goes nothing. “So, when we set the boutique up here, Rachel had this fun idea to put each dress in this antique trunk and have the bride open it. Apparently, it’s some Buttermilk Falls tradition.”

Christy’s eyes squinted. “Tradition?”

“Yeah, it’s good luck. I guess gowns used to be placed in there for brides to pull out years ago. It’s supposed to bring all good things to your marriage.” He chuckled, adding, “After the fire, I wanted to give all my clients impacted the reassurance that nothing else would go wrong.”

He paused for a minute. Was he laying it on too thick? Would the trunk do its thing? Maybe he should have taken a few minutes to have a conversation with Mary. Give her a heads-up that Christy was coming.

Not that he knew how to converse with a ghost.

He gazed down at the antique chest, taking a deep breath. “Go ahead. Open it.”

Christy knelt down, placed her hand on the handle, and lifted the lid. “Oh wow.” She pulled out a long white ruffled dress with a wide train.

Oh, crap.Definitely not the V-neck sheath dress she’d picked out with an open back. She’d sweat to death outside in that dress. “I’m so sorry. I wasn’t thinking and accidentally put this one in.” He pointed his fingers in her direction. “Your dress. It may not be here yet. Let me just go check my recor—”

“Where did this come from?” she interrupted, her eyes watery.

He’d upset her. The last thing he wanted was to make any of his customers cry anything but happy tears, and even those kind of tears made him uncomfortable. “Um...”

“I just can’t believe it.” She ran her hand along the fabric, appearing to be examining it.

He cocked his head. Something was happening here. “Do you recognize this dress?”

She looked up. “It was my mother’s. It’s been lost since she passed away.” She held out the dress in her arms. “See. Her name is on the tag.”

Will inspected the tiny bit of material that sure enough read Karen Davidson. Well, that was a plot twist. “Wow,” was all he could say, completely astonished. He’d known Christy growing up and was aware that her mother had passed away from breast cancer when they were younger.

“My grandmother searched everywhere for over a year, asking all of our relatives to check their basements and attics.” She hugged it to her chest. “How did you ever find it?”

How did he find it?Her deceased mother’s missing dress had ended up in the trunk. How was he going to explain that? “Uh...”Think. Think.“It was at the Lakeside Inn.”

“The inn?”

“Yeah.” He rubbed his nose, hoping it wasn’t growing. “Brandon and Abby had found a bunch of wedding dresses stashed on the third floor and showed Rachel and me this weekend.”

“And my mom’s was there? I don’t understand.”

Neither did he. He kept going with the pathetic lie, hoping he could spin it into logic. “They’re not one hundred percent sure, but years back, the inn used to showcase old wedding dresses for the guests to enjoy. Like a museum. Maybe your mom donated it.”

“Maybe,” she repeated, but he could tell she wasn’t really buying it. His on-the-fly story was pretty pathetic.

“We saw your mom’s name on the tag. I wanted to return the dress to you.” He added a really lame, “Surprise.”

The tears flew down Christy’s cheeks.

“I’m so sorry.” He looked around for a tissue, coming up short.

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