Page 98 of Love and Other Trials
Rob kicked at him, making Dax jump back to avoid being kneed in the balls. “That’s rich, coming from you. Dammit, give Tiff back her dress.”
“I don’t know where the dress is, man.” Dax’s jaw cracked audibly. “Listen to me. I didn’t take it.”
Ariel walked over to her visibly shaken sisters. “You checked to make sure it’s not in the bridal suite?”
They both nodded, their faces pale with shock. “We texted Tiffany,” Terry said, choking back tears.
Oh God!
“Ariel!”
The air fairly crackled after her sister’s anguished cry, and Ariel wouldn’t have been surprised if lightning had struck something. A tree. A happily swimming koi in the wedding pond. The four-tiered wedding cake.
Disaster was joining danger in the air, and this time, it had the Deverell name written all over it.
Mother was striding toward them in her silk pajamas, Tiffany right beside her. Hands pumping at her sides, she didn’t notice her robe was gaping open. No, there was murder in her sister’s wild eyes.
“Where’s my dress?”Tiffany practically screamed.
Ariel stood rooted in her spot. Her brain wouldn’t process anything but the one problem she didn’t have an answer to. She had an entire bag filled with disaster-solving items, everything from wet wipes to extra extension cords, but nothing that would solve this. Checking the time, she noted they had ninety minutes until the wedding started.
Ninety minutes!
TheLord of the Fliesboys were suddenly running toward them and skidding to a halt, staring up at the adults. When she glanced around, everyone was staring at her. Right. Because she always knew what to do. A surge of nausea shot up her throat like she’d downed a vinegar shot. She had no answers. Only the urgent pounding of her heart in her ears, making her pant rapidly.
Dax’s hand on her shoulder brought her back into focus. God knew how much that had cost him at such a fraught moment. Oh, she couldn’t have loved him more.
She walked toward her sister and leaned close to make direct eye contact. “Somehow your dress got misplaced, Tiffany.”
“Misplaced?”Her sister’s voice was full of venom. “Well…then you’d better find it—or you won’t be getting what we agreed to.”
She could feel everything inside her drop. Yeah, this was the other shoe she’d feared was coming. Swallowing the ball in her throat, she reached for her famous calm, the kind she gathered when she faced impossible odds. “I know what’s at stake. Don’t worry. We’re going to find it.”
Her voice sounded more assuring than she felt. Surely they would find it. A wedding dress didn’t just up and walk off on its own. If her family was the kind who could joke, she’d say maybe a bunch of crabs, relatives of the one who’d worn her wig, had taken the dress off into the ocean. Perhaps a mermaid had needed it for her perfect wedding under the sea.
But they weren’t that kind of family and never would be.
Her sister’s wedding dress was missing. They had less than ninety minutes to find it. And if they didn’t, after all this, the one thing she’d wanted all along would never be hers.
TWENTY-FOUR
The wedding dresswas nowhere to be found.
Dax stood beside Ariel as the last reports came in from the search party they’d formed. Even theLord of the Fliesboys had been eager to help despite their shocked faces, muttering about Dax being blamed for it. Which had only made him want to snarl. Being accused of something he hadn’t done—would never do—was new to him, and he hated it. And he had no idea how to clear his name or find the damn dress!
They’d searched cottages.
They’d searched the common areas of the resort.
No dress.
Anywhere.
Focusing on his objective kept him from wanting to shake Rob senseless. Hell, he wanted to clock him for accusing him of such a low, vile thing. How could his best friend think he’d ever hide a wedding dress?
A friend didn’t.
They were done.
