Page 64 of Hot Mess

She nodded.

I kissed her. It was the only thing I could think of to take away the fright I saw on her face. Kissing her made me want to cancel tonight and carry her up to my room and stay there until my flight in the morning.

“You should go get Grace. We need to figure out what we’re wearing,” she said as she wiped at her eyes. “At least I cried before Carly did my makeup.”

I left Kayla sitting on the dais as I crossed the room and opened the door. I walked down the hall and found Grace playing on her phone.

“Ready for me?”

I nodded.

“Just so I’m clear, the engagement is…”

“It’s just a rumor, and Kayla hadn’t been aware of it. It caught her off guard, in a big way. But we’re good.”

I followed Grace back into the fitting room. Kayla stood in front of the rack of tuxedos. She pulled out a dark brown velvet jacket.

“What’s the dress look like that goes with this one?”

Grace smiled and crossed to the dressed rack. She pulled out two different dresses. One was brown with burgundy. Kayla’s face lit up when she saw it.

“That’s the dress,” I said as I reached for the tux jacket.

“I haven’t even tried it on.”

I shrugged into the jacket. I rolled my shoulders, it fit well. I smoothed my hands down the front. I shuddered, there was something sensual about velvet, it almost seemed like a waste for it to be on me and not on Kayla.

“What shoes do I wear with this?” I asked as I looked through the shoes Grace brought with her.

“I didn’t bring anything for the brown velvet. You have dress slippers in your closet from Manolo Blahnik. I remember them from before,” Grace said as she helped Kayla into the dress.

“You want me to wear last year’s shoes?” I joked.

“I know, tragedy. But the perfect shoe is the perfect shoe.”

Kayla emerged from the armful of skirt like a flower emerging in the spring.

“You have Manolo Blahnik shoes? Like from Sex in the City?”

I laughed. “Not exactly. Mine aren’t stilettos. But yes, I have designer shoes”

She preened in the dress and adjusted the way the burgundy side of the dress draped over her shoulder. “I like it.”

She was gorgeous. Yes, that was the dress. “Yeah, I like it.”

“Sorry, I didn’t know you had a designer preference for shoes. Next time I’ll get something from Manolo for you, but will Louboutin work for tonight?”

“Are you serious?” Kayla grabbed the shoes. She flipped them over and held out the soles for me to see the designer branded red bottoms. “Real Louboutins!”

27

KAYLA

Three weeks later…

Igot out of the car and thanked the driver. I really did need to learn how to drive. I was bored, so Isaac had arranged for me to actually get a part time job with one of the stylists he knew. Not Grace, not someone so high profile. I spent my days shopping for looks. It was fun.

I climbed the few steps up to my porch and noticed a large manilla envelope.

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