“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.
Lani stepped back. “It really does suit you.”
“You’re poetry in that dress,” Jenna said. “Plus, Nash’ll swallow his tongue, which is always fun to watch.”
She wiped the crumbs from her lap and dumped the few she gathered into her palm into a nearby trash bin.
“That was the easiest dress shopping ever. Remind me to bring Aya along from now on, Kate. She’s way less maintenance than you.”
“Hey! Just because I struggled to decide between two gowns for the Grammys last year doesn’t mean I’m high maintenance.”
“Well, you are, and that’s supposed to be my title,” Jenna said with a smirk. She turned back to me. “Plus, I’m the new mama, so you have to be nice to me.”
“Wait!” Panic clawed at me. “The grandmother—the dress’s owner. What about her marriage?” I asked.
Lani smiled. “That was the best part. They were married sixty-one years and died holding hands.”
Kate placed her palm to her chest. “I want to wear it now, just for the good juju.” She shook her head. “But it wouldn’t fit me. Damn these hips.”
“You have a lovely shape,” Lani said. “And I have a few other dresses that may be right for the wedding.”
“They’re my bridesmaids,” I said with a smile at their widened eyes. “Like I could ask anyone else.”
They hugged me, and Kate jumped up and down while Jenna squealed. Lani sorted through a few racks, finding dresses in similar colors or styles for them to try on.
We continued to chat while Jenna and Kate tried on a couple of gowns. It didn’t take either of them long to settle on the ones they wanted. As we finished up, Lani offered to take in the waistline and hips a half-inch to make my dress snugger, but I shook my head.
“I’m pregnant, too, and I want the baby to have room to grow.”
She smiled. “I hope your love affair is every bit as successful as the original owner’s.”
Nash’s lustful look this morning flashed through my mind, followed by the gentle way he’d cupped my jaw in his palm, the tenderness in his kiss.
“I think it just may be,” I said.
“Girl, it is,” Jenna said, plopping down next to me. “You go together like sunshine and caramel corn.”
I sucked in my lip to keep from grinning.
Jenna threw up her hands. “I need food. I’ll make more sense then.”
We all laughed, and Lani handed us our bags. Our bodyguards took up their positions as Jenna and Kate bickered about the place Cam had chosen for lunch. I texted Nash, asking him to meet us, so Kate invited Rye.
I smiled as my family laughed and ate and snarked together in the thick Austin heat, and I dreamed of sixty-one more years of this kind of happiness.
9
Aya
The island was perfect. Sure, it was crazy seeing the place for the first time the day of our wedding—but hey, Nash and I weren’t the typical couple. Hugh and Cynthia, Pop Syad’s former personal assistant, had come up earlier in the week to ensure everything was in order. So far, the media hadn’t gotten wind of our wedding because Nash had used Steve’s name for wedding-related purchases, and Hugh had interfaced on the house deal.
I was giddy at the idea of pulling this off without the constant clicking of photographers.
We’d chosen not to decorate the house. Instead, we’d erected an arch in the garden that was now entwined with my mother’s favorite flowers.
Jenna and baby Cash, Kate, and I had stayed at the house while Cam, Rye, Ike, and Nash stayed back in Austin—Nash with the cats—to keep the press unaware of our plans. Nash should have arrived by now, but Cam, Rye, and Ike wouldn’t get here until just before the ceremony later this morning. Mama Grace had opted to stay at a nearby bed and breakfast with Steve.
I woke and stretched, a wide smile stretching my cheeks. “I’m marrying Nash Porter today,” I whispered.
“Say what now?” Jenna asked from the corner. Little Cash grunted and slurped at her breast, a tiny fist pressed against her sternum.
“He’s so cute,” I cooed as I hopped from the bed. “I can’t believe he’ll be seven months old soon.”
“I was sleeping,” Kate muttered from the other side of the king-size bed. We’d all passed out last night in the middle of a movie, just like one of those slumber parties I’d never had before. Jenna must have turned off the TV when she collected Cash for his morning feeding.
“Gawd, girls. Eight full hours of shuteye. Delicious,” Kate said.
“Do it again later,” Jenna said with a shrug. She smiled at me, her eyes bright, though surrounded by fatigue. I guessed baby Cash hadn’t slept as well as Kate…or me.
“So, you’re getting married today,” Jenna said with a grin.
I bounced on the balls of my feet. “I am.”
Kate yawned. “I smell something good. Guess Mama and Steve are dueling it out for kitchen supremacy. I need some coffee and whatever yummy baked goods they’ve concocted. I’ll get yours, Aya, while you get in that gorgeous soaking tub. Jen, you want me to take my sweet nephew down to Mama so you can hop back in bed?”
“Please. And bring me at least two of something. Cash is sucking calories out of me. But make the coffee—”
“Decaf, I know. You can have that after your cat nap,” Kate said as she pushed her wild, fiery hair from her face. She headed to the bathroom and cleaned up there before going down to grab some food.