Page 22 of The Duke Who Saved Christmas
That was a true story. Two months after Julian had proposed, they’d both come to see me for a long weekend to start planning in person, and Hazel had tried to bridezilla my arse.
I’d grabbed the nearest wedding magazine, rolled it up, and smacked her on the head with it.
I’d always wanted to do that to a bridezilla. The problem was that doing it to someone who wasn’t my sister was highly unprofessional.
Actually, it might have been a little unprofessional to beat her with it, too, since she was technically a paying client. A heavily discounted one; but a paying client, nonetheless.
Thankfully, she hadn’t done it since. Except for one minor issue with her shoes, but I forgave her that. They were verypretty shoes and I, too, would have been upset that the wrong size was ordered right before that style was discontinued.
Let me tell you, finding those shoes was why I hadn’t had to pay for my part of her hen party to Paris. Julian had sent me the money for my partandHazel’s part to thank me for making sure he never had to hear about the shoes again.
Hmm. In hindsight, maybe there was more bridezilla left in her than I’d thought.
“You hit her?” She sat back on her heels and stared up at me, two pins stuck between her teeth.
“Yes. I’ve always wanted to hit a bridezilla, but she’s the only one who was my sister.” I smirked. “Besides, Mrs. Michaels is going to look over what you’ve done, and if there are any minor issues, my grandmother is a master seamstress herself and will be able to fix it.”
“What if there are major issues?”
“Oh, I can’t help you there.”
She laughed again, and I could see the tension she’d been holding just wash away from her, and she got to work in a much happier manner than she had before.
Hopefully, I wouldn’t get stabbed with a safety pin again.
Those things were small, but shit, they hurt.
Thankfully, Monica managed to get through the rest of my fitting without stabbing me with her pins, and she unbuttoned the back of the emerald green gown before leaving so that I could get out of it without ripping it.
Thankfully.
I might have done that before.
Not with this dress, but a dress.
All right.
It was my prom dress. Nowthathad been an emergency sewing session with two days before the actual event. Nana might have held that over my head for a while.
I said goodbye to Monica and Mrs. Michaels and left the house. There was one more fitting to go for us all, and I wasn’t looking forward to that being all the bridesmaids.
Sometimes, you just couldn’t get over a girl stealing your boyfriend when you were thirteen, and it’d been killing me to be nice to Colleen Cates through this planning and my sister’s hen party.
Alas, she was one of Hazel’s best friends, and it’d been more than a little sweet from my perspective when she’d found out that I was the maid of honour.
Look.
You were never too old to be petty.
At least privately petty.
I got in my car and pulled away from the side of the road where I’d parked. I had to go back home and call the caterers to confirm the final numbers for the wedding party as the RSVP time had just finished, and then I needed to make plans to meet Julian in a nearby town to make sure he and his groomsmen’s suits were perfect.
At that their ties werejustthe right shade of green.
Hazel had been adamant that they match our dresses perfectly, and yes, I did have a swatch of the fabric to make sure they matched.
I didn’t know how they wouldn’t.
