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“This has to be a good omen,” Mom adds, grinning.
“Try it on,” Charlotte urges while I’m trying to get my pregnant, uncooperative, body up from the sofa. “Here,” my sister bristles, “let me haul you up.”
If I weren’t so excited to try the dress on I’d have something to say to her, which she knows.
“We’ll help you.” She giggles and grabbing my arm drags me through into the dressing room. “We don’t have much time.”
“Charlotte,” I moan, exasperated. “I don’t have the energy in me right now.”
“Of course.” She shoves our purses to one side and starts unfastening my blouse. “Sirena!”
Mom snickers. “It’s nice to see nothing changes.” She shakes her head. “You where born bossy, honey.” Mom takes Charlotte’s face into her hands and kisses her forehead before pulling away. Mom says to me, “And you are going to make a beautiful bride, and afterwards I want you to find your sister here a nice man.”
Charlotte groans while I laugh, and lightly smack her hands away from my shirt. “I got this. You work on getting the dress out of the packaging.”
Shucking the shirt, I hang it up on a hook. I reach my hand out and rub the silk of the dress between my fingers. It feels so soft and the top layer is beaded lace.
“You going to remove your leggings?”
“Why?”
Charlotte huffs.
“Ugh, I can’t bend down to get the things off so I figured it would be easier to just keep them on.”
“You’re stubborn! You know that, right?” Charlotte crouches in front of me, taking my leggings with her.
Grinning, she steadies me as I step into the dress that Mom holds, and once it’s up and fastened, Mom starts crying. “Beautiful,” she mumbles.
Charlotte for once is speechless.
I turn and face the mirror and can’t believe how perfect the dress is. There is a satin band across my breasts, and then the dress is fitted over my baby bump and partway down my thighs where the dress fishtails out around my lower legs to the floor. There is a beaded lace overlay that sits over the dress from beneath my breasts to where it fishtails. It’s pure elegance and I know I won’t be leaving the store without it.
“You look like a princess.” Mom wraps an arm around me, resting her head on my shoulder. “Your father is going to cry when he sees you.”
“So will Garrett,” Charlotte adds wiping at her own eyes. “Gah . . . I can’t believe you’ve reduced me to tears.”
“I can’t believe how right it feels this time,” I confess. “I want and need to be near Garrett all the time. Sometimes I have to stop myself from asking him to take me to work with him.” I chuckle softly, t
he happiness radiating from me.
Mom smiles. “Oh, honey. I still feel like that about your father. He was all work until he met me, and then he didn’t really know what to do with me.” She smiles fondly. “You’ll get used to it, but isn’t he starting to pass things over?”
“He is, and if it wasn’t for the fact that he seems really happy to be doing so, I’d worry that I was forcing him in someway. But he is genuinely happy to be freeing up his time.”
Mom takes my hands. “He’s a good man, Sirena, and I’m sorry that I didn’t support you at the beginning. It was a shock to realize that he is closer to my age than yours, but at the end of the day, I can see how much he loves you, and how much you love him.”
“Thanks Mom. That means a lot.” Kissing her softly on her cheek, I take one last look at myself in the mirror before I turn and let them help me out of the dress and back into my clothes.
“I’ll take this to the sales woman who can help us select some shoes and accessories,” Mom says, leaving me alone with Charlotte.
My sister looks whimsical as she watches Mom leave before she deeply inhales and forces a smile. I watch her closely as she helps me dress, and then I gently hold her arms and push her into one of the chairs in the room. “We’re not leaving until you tell me why you look so sad?”
“Sirena, I’m fine.” She tries to get up, but I give her the don’t-mess-with-me look so she settles back into the chair. “I really am fine and I guess that I’m a little jealous if I’m honest.” She takes my hand in hers. “Growing up it was always you who had these big ideas of a wedding. Of getting married to the man who’d love you like Dad does Mom. Whereas I was always the one who wanted the big office at McKenzies with our brother, Michael. We both finally have what we dreamed of, except, I think I want more. I think I want what you have.”
I sit here surprised and wonder what to say next to make her smile again.
“I don’t know how to relax or meet the right guy. Even when I go out for drinks with Michael or Alex, I’m always passed over for the women with curves and big boobs.”
