AllFreeNovel
Share Us
“That’s the spirit.”
* * * *
An hour later, Rylie was still struggling to breathe. She’d never laughed so hard as when Dustin had come out in that seafoam green spaghetti strap dress, his broad shoulders and muscular arms at odds with the delicate fabric. Even as she’d tried on other dresses and styles, he’d kept the scrap of cloth on, just to tease her.
When he’d done several model turns across the floor after her third option, telling her to “vogue,” she’d thought she’d fall to the floor and never be able to get up again. If he hadn’t caught her around her middle and pulled her against him, she would have.
As it was, when her mirth subsided, she’d found her gaze held by his too blue eyes, and she wasn’t thinking about the dress or his ridiculous antics.
She was wondering what it would be like to have him dip his head and kiss her.
Another flash from Dustin’s iPhone had broken through her disturbing thoughts. Now that they were walking out of the store, going through all the pictures, she realized it had been a really long time since she’d had so much fun.
“Ew, delete that one!” she said.
The picture in question had her with her mouth open like a braying donkey, one eye wide and the other in a slit. She looked like Qua
simodo from the animated version of The Hunchback of Notre Dame.
“No way, that is Instagram worthy.”
She leaped onto his arm as he held the phone out of reach. “No! If you do, I will annihilate you.”
“Oh, I’m so scared,” he teased.
“Please don’t,” she said, all serious now.
He brought his arm down and she watched as he deleted it. “There. See. Not such a bad guy.”
“Thanks.” He brought up the next picture of her in a dark green Cinderella style gown complete with poofy tulle skirt. “You think it’s too much?”
“No, but this one…” He swept until he found what he was looking for. “This one is it for me.”
The dress was a wine-colored chiffon with an empire waist and off-the-shoulder sleeves. It had been her favorite as well.
“Can you just e-mail me the best ones and delete the rest? Except the silver one she wanted. I want her to see it on, so she can compare the others to it.”
“You think I should send her this one?”
He lifted his phone so she could see it was one of him in the seafoam green gown, giving the camera his best Blue Steel.
“Oh my God, if I didn’t think it would get us both fired, I’d double dog dare you.”
“Hmmm, fair enough. That does give me an idea though,” he said.
“What?”
“First—lunch.” They stood outside the little drive-up diner, Runaway Burger, and he pointed to a picnic bench. “Snag that table while I get us food. You like everything on your burger?”
“Yeah, with curly fries and a root beer. I left my purse back at Something Borrowed, though.”
“Don’t worry about it. It’s on me.”
She didn’t like him paying for things, especially since she was already living in his pool house for way less than he could be charging her.
“Fine, but I get the next one.”
“We’ll see.”
