Chapter One
Grace
Hanging upside down in a bridal garden with a dress over your head is not the best time to regret your underwear choices. But here I was.
I meant to go to the rehearsal dinner. I did. I even turned to follow Brooke out of the bridal garden when she went to find her groom. But…if hiding out here would prolong the awkward setup Brooke was trying to trick me into then I’d pitch a freaking tent and call it home.
I paused for a final moment to admire the arbor. It looked good. I’d built it myself and installed it yesterday. The florist had filled it today with hundreds of flowers from Miss Lily’s garden right here on the grounds. Fitting, since it was Miss Lily’s grandson who Brooke was marrying. The blossoms spilled over the top of the arbor, twining with the sheer swathes of fabric swagged from the—
Ah, dang it. Like it knew I was thinking about it, the fabric pinned dead-center to the arbor’s peak came loose and fluttered down, drooping sadly.
I walked up the aisle to examine the problem. It was sunset and not quite enough light to see by. Even squinting didn’t help, so I slid off my shoes—a pair of platform wedge sandals I was only wearing because Brooke vetoed my flip-flops—and dragged a chair beneath the arch. Now I could see the problem. The florist had secured the gauzy fabric with tape, but that wasn’t going to stick well to the wood. This would work better if—
I reached up to hook the fabric to a piece of vine, but since I was 5’3, it was like Jackie trying to climb the beanstalk.
In fact, climbing was the only thing that would work. I hopped down and studied the arbor again. I’d built it super sturdy with latticework up the sides. The cross pieces would support me without any trouble. I could zip up the side, secure the tulle, and shimmy down, easy.
Except I was wearing a dress. It was a floaty blue dress that Brooke had loaned me for the rehearsal dinner. I eyeballed the distance to the house. The flower garden was in the side yard, out of the direct line of sight of the people mingling on Miss Lily’s back terrace. I could be up, fix the tulle, and down without anyone noticing. It would be one less thing for Brooke to worry about in the morning.
I climbed up the side of the arbor in no time flat, but when I drew even with the top, I couldn’t reach the tulle hanging in the center despite stretching as far in as I could. “Great. Why did Brooke have to marry someone so tall?” It answered with a small flutter that I took personally.
I climbed on top of the frame, careful to keep my weight on the arches on either side while I scooched to the center. I reached down for the tulle, but it was a few inches too low.
I glared down at it. “I’ll get you, my pretty, and your little bow too,” I growled.
It took careful maneuvering, but I made a quarter turn so instead of a hand and knee on each side of the arbor arch, my knees rested on two of the cross slats, my feet on the frame behind me, my hands braced on the frame in front of me. Now all I had to do was lean down and…
My knee slipped and pitched me forward. I squeaked, but six years of gymnastics kicked in and I grabbed the frame in front of me tight with both hands. A second later, I was upside down but steady, my hips resting against the wood like they used to do on the uneven bars. Unfortunately, my dress was hanging upside down too, blocking out everything but a small patch of grass below me and flashing my panties to all the crickets hanging out in the garden.
I gave big, huge thanks that the garden was out of sight of the terrace and batted at the dress, feeling as lost as I used to when Tabitha and I had played hide-and-seek in the living room curtains when we were little. What underwear was I even wearing? I winced. Brooke’s borrowed dress was so pretty that I’d almost grabbed my one pair of fancy underwear—a lacy thong—from the bottom of my drawer. Then I’d remembered I hated thongs and that was why I only owned one. Instead, I’d grabbed the ones on top, a bikini cut pair with frosted donuts printed all over them. Hanging upside down in a thong was the only thing that could have made this whole situation worse.
“Whoa.”
I froze at the sound of a male voice. It turned out there weretwothings that could make this situation worse.
“Are you okay?”
I didn’t recognize it, but it didn’t matter. There wasn’t a single soul on the whole entire earth who I wanted to see me hanging upside down in a garden with my dress around my ears. “I’m fine.”
There was a long pause. “Are you sure?”
“I’m sure. Just fixing something.” I thought about pushing the dress up to cover my butt, but honestly, I didn’t want to lose my curtain and have to look this person in the face. I left it.
“Can I help?” Whoever it was sounded like he was trying not to laugh.
“Nope. I have it totally under control. Just fixing the arbor.”
“Fixing the arbor,” the voice repeated in a skeptical tone.
“Yes. Fixing. The. Arbor.”Go away, whoever you are. Far, far away.
“Right. Okay.” Another long pause. “I might come out here again in ten minutes to check on you.” He still sounded like he was trying not to laugh.
I wanted to groan in frustration. “Are you some kind of creeper?”
“No. I mean, I don’t usually expect to find women hanging upside down in gardens. Do you usually flash people?”
Fair point. “Only when I’m trying to fix an arbor.”
