Page 18 of Forever Oblivion

I closed my eyes, worry gnawing at my gut as she pulled the material over my shoulders and settled it against my back.

“Oh,” she whispered. “Oh, Aya.”

“Cash is fine; Cam’s fine. I feel better. Thanks, Kate,” Jenna said. Her eyes widened as she caught sight of me. “Oooh, I need a better look.” Jenna elbowed her way into the small dressing room. She lowered her granola bar and swallowed. “Girl you look fire. I mean, that’s it.”

“You didn’t button it,” I said, biting my lower lip. “Because it won’t?”

“You have space,” Kate said. “In fact, it may need to come in a little for the true silhouette.”

“Or you can wear it a tad roomy a la Duchess Meghan,” Jenna said. “I loved her dress! Or in case you blow up like the Michelin Man. Pregnancy hormones are a bitch.”

“So are postpartum ones,” Kate said, her tone stern. “Stop stressing Aya out.”

I tried to turn to get a sense of the back, but with the three of us in the tiny space, I couldn’t maneuver.

Kate stepped back, bumping into Jenna. “Let’s get her out there and have a proper look-see.”

“You sound like your brother,” Jenna remarked.

“We are related,” Kate said.

I ran my hands over my ribs and hips. From the moment I’d first seen this gown, I’d felt a deep connection.

“Come out,” Lani, the shop owner, called. “The suspense is killing me.”

I stepped out, shocked that the length was perfect even in my one-inch pumps. Good, maybe I could wear comfortable heels. Wouldn’t that be a treat?

Lani gasped, her hands clutched under her chin. “You are an absolute dream in that gown.” She wiped the corner of her eye.

“What do you know about it?” I asked, turning to face the three mirrors. Kate stepped forward and buttoned the tiny pearls.

“Oh, this dress has the best story,” Lani gushed. “The granddaughter brought it in a few months back. They’d cleaned out her grandmother’s house, and since there weren’t any young girls in the family, there was no reason to keep it. But parting with it was a challenge.”

“Why?” Jenna asked. She opened the second granola bar and crunched off a big bite of dried oats. “I hate granola. I’m going to have to pump all this milk out of me soon or get Cam to bring Cash here so I can nurse him.”

“Call Cam,” Kate said, plopping down into the chair next to Jenna. “Then I can snuggle my sweet nephew while I ooh and ahh over Aya. This is the perfect day!”

“I don’t want to because he’ll take over the shopping. I’ll have him meet us at a restaurant.”

“Fine,” Kate said on a sigh. “I see your point.” She turned back to Lani. “Tell us more about the dress, please.”

“According to the granddaughter, the dress was made in the mid-eighteen-hundreds, making it fairly risqué for the Victorian era. The bride was an East Coast debutante who married a self-made businessman from the West. He made musical instruments, I think.”

We shared a look, and I cracked a smile. No wonder I’d felt a connection to this dress.

“But here’s the great part: the dress was designed by a London seamstress who made gowns for the Queen and for the London Royal Opera. The debutante’s father was a lord of the realm, and he was not pleased to have his daughter marry a brash, newly rich entrepreneur, so he tried to sabotage the wedding. But the grandmother was prepared and announced to everyone that she was pregnant, and her father had to let the wedding proceed.”

“Smart woman,” Jenna murmured. “Gotta have a plan to get what you want in those times.”

“And these,” Kate murmured.

I nodded in agreement.

“Right,” Lani said with a nod. “Well, the grandmother went on to start the first nonprofit for reading and educating women in San Francisco, Boston, Chicago, New York—you name it. I looked her up. True story. And she was pregnant. Her son took over his father’s musical instrument business—I think it was clarinets—and her three daughters each started their own colleges that taught women to become teachers or nurses and the like.”

“Not that different from your story, Ay,” Kate said with a smile. “No wonder you were drawn to the grown.”

“Good juju, as Nash would say,” I said.

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