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“Why? She’s hilarious,” Gampy argued.
“Thanks, bestie!”
“Alice, stop yelling,” Julie yelled. “Dad, you only think that because she’s turning intoyou. Addy, go change before you catch a cold. And Ria, honey, take a seat. I’ll pour you some coffee.”
Instead of leaving the room to change, Adrien stripped out of his shirt right then and there, wiping his face and hair with what little dry fabric was left.
Muscles. So many corded muscles. His arms and shoulders bulged, his abs impossibly—
“Take a picture, Sanchez.” He winked at me, dimples popping.
“Lice!” Gampy called.
“On it!”
This time she flew at him with a wet mop.
* * *
“Where’s your ring?”
I stopped chewing, my eyes darting down to my naked ring finger in response to Alice’s question. “Um...”
“We’re getting it resized,” Adrien cut in before I could stumble over a much less reasonable excuse. “It’s too big. Keeps falling off.”
We were sitting at the kitchen table. He had one hand draped over the back of my chair, the other cradling a fresh cup of coffee. Half his body was turned in my direction, and his knee kept brushing my thigh.
The weird part? My body language wasn’t all that different. My torso was twisted toward him, my foot hooked behind his ankle. And every time I looked at him, it felt like either he’d moved closer, or I had.
I also felt a little on edge. My gaze kept cutting to the clock every few minutes, as if that would somehow make the handles move faster toward 9 p.m.
“Have you started looking for dresses yet?” Julie asked.
I stiffened slightly, swearing internally that if she evenhintedat taking me dress shopping, I’d run. Hostage situations be damned. “No, I—um, haven’t really had a chance yet.”
“Okay, because if you’re interested, I can start to make some calls and set up appointments,” she offered kindly.
Uh oh. Divert, divert.
I could tell Adrien was struggling with this one, too. His knee jolted against mine in silent apology, and his mouth opened like he wanted to say something, but he shut it again.
“You’ll probably want to skip Kilarni, but if you’ve got any other designers in mind, I’m happy to make the arrangements.”
My palms were starting to clam, my heart pounding roughly against my eardrums. I was not—I was not—going to go wedding dress shopping with Adrien’s mother and sister. That was a firm, sacred line I wasn’t willing to cross.
“Wait, why would we skip Kilarni? Their bridal collection is amazing,” Alice said, buying me a few seconds to figure out how the fuck I was going to talk my way out of this. “That’s the first designer I thought of.”
Julie cleared her throat, her shoulders inching back. “Well, because it sounds like Mandy has her eyes set on a few of their pieces. And I thought we might not want a potential run-in or overlap. But it's, of course, up to Ria.”
Alice made a face, as though her mother had said something vile.
“Who’s Mandy?” I asked, taking advantage of the small opening.Let’s talk about her instead.
The question was meant to distract them, turn the attention away from me and the nonexistent wedding. But the only thing it did was suck all the air out of the room.
All eyes turned in my direction, wide and unblinking. Beside me, Adrien had stiffened to absolute stone.
Uh oh.I’d fucked up. I didn’t know why yet, but I’d fucked up.
