AllFreeNovel
Share Us
As she put on her sundress, her mind raced with a way to salvage the wedding. “It can be repaired, right?” Her desperate gaze searched Liza’s, hoping and praying for a positive response. “Please tell me. I need to know.”
“Well,” Liza said, “We’re going to see what can be done.”
“How bad is it?”
Liza hesitated as though not wanting to reveal the extent of the damage. “The entire back panel is ripped at the top. It’s so frayed that there’s not enough to reattach it to the bodice.”
Angela’s heart sank. Tears of frustration and disappointment rushed to her eyes. She rapidly blinked them away. She wasn’t going to fall apart. There had to be a way to fix this.
If only she hadn’t been so careless, her dress wouldn’t be torn. Sometimes when she got excited, she would start moving at a rapid pace, and accidents happened. Carter was always telling her to slow down, but after her mother died, she’d felt like if she didn’t keep moving, she would get lost in her grief.
Liza paused from where she was trying to pin the dress together. “Brooke, could you call my shop? See if Alice can find me some flowered off-white lace. Tell her I’m going to need her to stay all day. We have an emergency.”
“Will do.” Brooke rushed to her desk, leaving the door open to the outer office.
“So, there is something that can be done?” Angela’s entire body tensed up as she waited for an answer.
Liza continued to concentrate on pinning the seams. “I’ll do my very best. I can’t promise it’ll look exactly the same. In fact, I’m quite certain it won’t look like it did, but I will make it look the best I can.”
Angela was disappointed to know the dress wouldn’t be the same as when her mother had walked down the aisle. Her parents had had a loving and lasting relationship. Had it been perfect? No. Had they argued? Occasionally. But had they always loved each other? Yes, they had. Angela could only hope her marriage to Carter was something similar.
The sound of the front door opening had everyone peering out into the lobby area. There stood Carter.What is he doing in here?
By the look on his face, something was wrong. It was probably his office. He’d most likely been called into the office for some important meeting. That had to be it.
It was okay. Even though they’d taken the day off to spend together, she wouldn’t be good company now. It was probably best he went to the office until she got over this setback.
“Angela, can we talk?” His face was drawn, with frown lines bracketing his eyes and mouth.
As she approached him, she decided to put him out of his misery. “It’s okay. You can head back to the office. I’ll just order a car when I’m done here.”
He shook his head. “It’s not that.”
Oh, no. Now what?She straightened her shoulders and asked, “What’s wrong?”
He hesitated. “The minister called me when he couldn’t reach you.” His voice was soft and gentle as if he were worried about how she was going to take this news. “It’s the church.”
“The church?” It was the same church her parents had gotten married in. Her voice rose. “What about the church?”
By then Clara had joined them. She didn’t say anything, just stood quietly by as though waiting for the other shoe to drop.
“The water main burst in front of the church, and it’s flooded. It won’t be repaired in time for the ceremony.”
“No. Not the church too.” How could her beautiful wedding be falling apart? It wasn’t fair.
She struggled to keep her emotions in check. Everything felt as if it were going wrong, but at least she still had Carter. He was right there by her side, and they would get through this together.
“What do you meantoo?” Carter’s gaze searched hers.
A lump formed in the back of her throat. Saying the words was going to make it all so real. As he continued to stare expectantly at her, she knew she had no choice.
Her mouth grew dry. “My wedding dress… It’s ruined.”
“What?” His eyes widened. “But how?” When she wasn’t able to say more for fear of crying, he turned an expectant look to Clara. “What’s going on?”
Clara gave him a brief rundown of what had happened with the gown. Even though Clara didn’t go into details, it still sounded bad. How were they ever going to fix all of this in eight days?
Carter turned back to Angela. “I’m sorry. I know how much the dress means to you.”
