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Robin noticed the dreamy smile on her face as she looked at her reflection in the floor-length mirror of the dress shop. Wow. She looked like a lovesick teenager. Just thinking about dancing with or—gulp—kissing Jack Rhodes had her starry-eyed and blushing.
This wasn’t news, of course, since she’d been low-key crushing on the guy for years. But it had always seemed like such an impossibility that standing here now in a blue satin gown, thinking about going to the Gingerbread Ball with him, had her positively giddy.
Just as quickly as she’d acknowledged that, however, the buzzing in her veins dulled considerably. She looked up. Guilt. Again. Should she feel this way? Was four years too soon?
She would give anything for a sign that Matthew would want this for her, but if he could let her know such a thing, it would mean he wasn’t gone. And if he weren’t gone… none of this would be happening.
She still felt lingering grief, but its edges had been softened over the years. She’d accepted he was gone and wasn’t coming back, but imagining a future with someone else was new to her. And imagining a future with someone like Jack was an even more recent development, and unquestionably more terrifying.
A knock on the window of the shop startled her, and she spun, nearly tripping over the satin dress as she did.
Jack stood on the sidewalk—looking so handsome in his uniform it should be illegal, ironically. He had a cup of coffee in one hand, and the other made theokaysign. Then he pointed at the dress with a flick of his finger, and his wide-eyed appreciation made her giggle.
There I go, acting like a teenager again,she thought.
He moved to the door of the shop, almost as if he couldn’t help himself, and when he entered, he seemed to suck the air right out of the room. His presence, whether it was the air of authority in his confident stride or his large frame, made the cozy boutique shrink in size.
“That dress…” He trailed off as his gaze traveled over her from head to toe and back again. “No,youin that dress. That’s the one, right?”
Robin gave him a short laugh. “I’m not sure. It’s the first one I’ve tried on.”
“Well, all that means is you’re an efficient shopper. No need to keep going. It’s perfect.”
She gestured to the dressing room behind her, pointing at the row of floor-length dresses she’d yet to try on. “I still have four more to try on. What if one of those is even better?”
He looked at her with a dubious grin, shaking his head. “Something tells me you’d look great in a potato sack, but if you wanna keep going, I’m happy to help you pick one.”
While Robin’s mouth dropped open, he pulled up a chair and flipped it so the back faced her, then stretched one long leg over the seat and straddled it. His forearms rested on the back of the chair, and he sipped his coffee, watching her expectantly.
“You’re serious?” she asked, shaking her head with a laugh.
“Yep. Chop-chop.”
“Don’t you have some policing to do or something?”
He looked around. “I am. I’m… investigating the crime of you not knowing the perfect dress when you see it.”
She snorted and turned away, examining her reflection again. “It’s blue, though.”
He pointed to his chest. “I like blue.”
“Of course you do. But it’s aChristmasball. I was thinking one of the red or green ones would be better. Or even the gold.”
Jack’s eyes wandered to the collection of dresses in the fitting room. “Well, let’s examine the evidence before we make a decision.”
“We?”
He gave her a mock frown. “You want me to leave? I’ll leave. I’m sure I can find something else to occupy myself, though I can promise you, it won’t be as fun as this.”
With another bewildered shake of her head, she stepped into the fitting room and closed the door.
This was a new side of Jack that she hadn’t seen before. In the three years she’d known him, they’d chat because they couldn’t seem to avoid it. They’d sit across from each other at Joan’s table and joke with the Pattersons as if nothing outside the walls of the inn existed. They’d lightly flirt, but it was on a level that often made her wonder if it was all in her head.
But this? Him blatantly appreciating how she looked in that dress? Deciding to stay and watch her try on more? Openly flirting and choosing to spend what appeared to be a coffee break with her?
She slipped on a red dress and smiled at herself in the mirror. Yep. She was here for this.
When Robin came out of the dressing room, the look on Jack’s face was something she hoped to remember for the rest of her life. His jaw dropped, his eyes went round as saucers, and when she stepped onto the small platform in front of the three-panel dressing mirror and caused the thigh slit to reveal a strip of her leg, she thought she might’ve heard him choke on air.
