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Even if I might want to go straight back to Pearl and tell her I wanted her–no more pretending–I knew I couldn’t. I couldn’t because I cared about her. Caring about her meant I wasn’t going to risk fucking things up with her. She deserved better. She deserved a guy who wouldn’t let her down.
So I would make sure I never let her down by making sure I didn’t get the chance. The decision sat in my stomach like spoiled food, but I knew it was the right one, so I bared it.
27
PEARL
Lizzie gave a twirl and a sassy little shoulder bump. She looked breathtaking, of course. Her dress was every little girl’s dream and her hair was bouncy and curled to perfection. “Well?” she asked.
“Jonas will definitely want to tear that off you,” Steph said, sounding bored. “Kind of ironic, isn’t it? We spend all this effort picking out the perfect clothes when the goal is kind of to make some guy want to get us out of them. It’s like picking food that would taste the best to throw up, or something.”
“What’s wrong with your brain?” I asked.
Lizzie smiled, seeming to ignore everything except the first part of what Steph said. “You really think he’ll like it?”
“You look great,” I agreed.
She looked pleased and turned to check herself out again in the multiple mirrors set at various angles. “Do you think it’s too much cleavage?”
“It’s your wedding dress,” Steph said. “You rock as much cleavage as you want. It’s your day, dude.”
She grinned. “Hmm. I think I like it.”
“Good,” I said. Now can we please be done with this? I thought. Not that sitting and watching my sister get dolled up for nearly two hours wasn’t a blast, but I was getting tired and a little hungry. Dean and I were meeting at The Spot tonight. Maybe it was more anticipation and excitement to have another meal alone with him than it was hunger. The last dinner we had together was amazing. It was easily my best fake date ever, and probably more enjoyable than any real dates I’d ever been on. Of course, there had been the way our not-date ended, too, but I knew there wouldn’t be a repeat of that part.
“Jonas likes when he can see my cleavage,” Lizzie said. She pursed her lips, staring at her own boobs. “He likes when they’re pushed up and together like this. I think he’ll like it.”
I gave Steph a discreet look when Lizzie wasn’t looking and mocked holding a gun to my head. She smiled and pulled my hand down.
“I’m sure he will,” Steph said. “You guys seem super happy with each other.”
“We are,” Lizzie agreed. “He has even been talking about maybe retiring early. His family has a lot of money, so he doesn’t have to work. He was thinking about buying a French chalet for us. Something we could vacation in during the summers. Properties all over the world. Maybe a yacht we could use to spend months at sea. It would be so romantic.” She turned, eyes wide and sparkling. “Can you imagine?”
“Sounds awesome,” Steph said.
“What about you, Pearl? How are things with Dean?”
“Oh, great,” I said quickly. “But this is about you. Um, what are you guys doing for your honeymoon? Have you decided?”
“Don’t change the subject!” Lizzie said.
“Yeah,” Steph agreed with an evil glint in her eyes. “Tell us everything.”
“There’s not much to tell. We’re super happy. We’re meeting at The Spot for dinner tonight, actually.”
“Oh, how nice. You should go find him and tell him to get cleaned up, then. Mom texted and said he’s helping dad with the car right now.”
My eyebrows shot up. “He’s what?”
“Yeah. Dad had this whole list of things he wanted Dean to take a look at since you said he was so good at fixing your car. I think mom is going to ask him for one of his “famous” massages after.”
Hello, anxiety. My heart pounded and my brain felt like it was squeezing in and trying to explode at the same time. “Well, I should probably get going. I need to go check on him.” The thought of Dean trying to bullshit his way into proving he knew anything about cars and massages in front of my parents was a red alert situation. He needed rescuing.
Steph grinned up at me like an evil villain. “You need to check on him for a little car work? Hm. That’s weird.”
“It’s super normal, actually,” I said tightly. I put my back to Lizzie and gave Steph a bulged eye warning glare.
She rolled her eyes, but seemed to agree to stop being a pain in my ass.
“Go,” Lizzie said. “It’s fine. Steph can keep me company.”
“There’s more?” Steph asked, voice laced with fear.
“Well, yeah. This was my main choice as far as dresses go, but I’ve got two backup dresses. I need to get your thoughts. We’ll send you pics, Pearl.”
