Page 70 of Burning for Alexander
“My life is over. I might as well go to the thrift store and grab any old white dress.”
“Hey to you, too. I hear you’re having a crisis, even though half your friends are literally seamstresses and tailors.”
She moaned pathetically. “You shouldn’t have to work on the bride’s dress when you’re a guest.”
“They’re not a guest for two more weeks. Ask Lisette to do you a favor. Doesn’t she owe you one from that time you hooked her up with pointe shoes?”
“It’s my job to hook her up with pointe shoes.”
I wrapped my free arm around myself and rubbed my hand up and down my other arm. It was freezing out here. “You know what I mean. You got the specialty ones from… wherever. She basically thinks you’re Jesus now. If you don’t want to ask her to do the work, ask her for a recommendation, and we both know she’ll beg to be the one to help you herself.”
After talking her off the cliff, I ended the call and texted my dads.
Crisis averted. I talked her into asking Lisette for help.
Papa
Oh right. She’s friends with people who sew.
Dad
Don’t act like this is the first you’re hearing this. I’ve been saying it all night. She’s the *wardrobe* coordinator. Jesus fuck, Blue.
See you next week. Love you.
Papa
My baby’s coming home!
Dad
Can’t wait to see you.
As I slid the phone in my pocket and turned to go back inside, a red light swept across the back of the building. I spun around immediately… and found the fire chief was using his lights to flirt with me.
He pulled into the lot and rolled down the window. “It’s too cold out here for you to be standing around soliciting people,” he teased.
I put my hand on my hip and canted it out, striking a sultry pose in my black twill pants and Timber fleece. “I’m too expensive for you, boy.”
He looked around to make sure the lot was empty before crooking his finger at me. I approached his open window and leaned in, enjoying the waft of Judd-scented heat.
“Come home with me,” he said in a sultry rumble.
“How much you got, sailor?”
He moved his hand down between his legs and rubbed himself suggestively. “Just enough to make you let out that little sound that drives me up a wall.”
I thought back to the restaurant and mentally checked in with the status of everyone’s roles before I stepped out to make the call. The orders had died down, and my assistant manager already knew she was handling closing tonight.
Judd put his warm hand on mine where it clutched the rim of his door. “Get in the car, Marian,” he said softly. “Please.”
I moved around the truck quickly and got in. “What the chief wants, the chief gets,” I said, reaching for my seat belt.
On the way to his house, I texted everyone I needed to at Timber, ignored a text from Ella asking me why I was suddenly Mattie’s favorite sibling, and allowed the heat vents to thaw me out.
“Will you tell me about Tavo?” Kincaid finally asked.
The question was gentle. I didn’t feel like he was prying for any nefarious reason, and after what he’d overheard at the farmer’s market, he’d probably figured most of it out already. But I still owed it to Tavo to protect his identity. “How come you never believed me when I said the two of us were together?”
