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I nodded, but when I looked at my reflection, I saw my pursed lips betrayed my inner reluctance. Although Ross Dress for Less said the dress originally sold for $159.99, clearly no one had been willing to pay that or it never would’ve ended up at an off-price department store.
Still, the iridescent black beads of the bib collar were nice, and this shade of mauve was the most flattering of anything I’d tried on. Plus, the dress didn’t make me feel like my body was not built to be clothed by clothing companies.
“Really.” Natalie leveled with me. “You look great. Besides, it’s a fundraiser that you got free tickets to. Nobody cares what you wear.”
I rolled my eyes. “At least make me look like I belong there with the people who paid two hundred bucks a plate.”
“Of course.” Natalie swept all of my hair behind my shoulders. “Simple and classic sound good?”
“Sounds great.”
Natalie silently brushed and twisted, pausing to rearrange my bangs. “Are you trying to impress a certain doctor?” The hint in her voice was more obvious than halogen lights in an OR.
“He’s not a doctor.” And I didn’t even know if Davis was coming.
Natalie paused, her eyebrows pinching together before she looked up to meet my gaze in the mirror. “Your mentor?”
“Oh, yes, of course he’s a doctor.” And of course she meant Dr. Donaldson.
How could I have been thinking about Davis? I was tryingnotto do that. Anything but thinking about Davis and about his witty and whimsical messages, about how he’d put at least as much work and thought into our project as I had, about how checking my email had become the thing I looked forward to most in a day.
And how now I was kind of kicking myself for insisting we email, because that meant I didn’t see him half as much as I could have.
I was losing my mind. Davis Hardcastle was not someone I could lose my heart to, not a month before I was supposed to move away.
The butterflies in my stomach had to have donned flak jackets for the incoming nerves. It wasn’t just because I might see Davis tonight—it was this job.
The job was perfect. Davis was wrong for me. Why couldn’t I get that straight in my head?
A knock sounded at my bedroom door, rescuing me from my thoughts. “Come in,” I called.
Our niece Angela stuck her head in the room. “Um, could Carter and I have popcorn?”
“We’re going to have dinner in a little while,” Natalie told her. If she was thinking the same thing as I was, she didn’t show it. But the poor kids had so little stability at home with Samantha, of course they didn’t have a concept of when meals were. Our middle sister deposited her grade schoolers with us at least one weekend a month like sacks of living laundry, chores she needed a break from. I couldn’t vouch for what kind of care they were getting the rest of the time, but I had no evidence of abuse, so there wasn’t anything I could do about it legally.
Angela’s gaze fell.
“But we could have popcorn and watch a movie afterwards,” Natalie offered.
“Not horror,” Angela said quickly. “It gives Carter nightmares.”
I wasn’t sure I wanted to know why she knew that. “Of course not horror,” I said. “Maybe I should skip the gala.”
“No, you should go.” Angela flashed me a weak smile. “We can watch something with you tomorrow.”
“I’d like that.”
Angela slipped out, but stuck her head in again almost immediately. “Aunt Cassie? You look really pretty.”
“Aw, thank you.” Trust a kid to make you feel good about yourself. “Come here.” Natalie let go of my hair long enough for Angela to run over to me and give me a hug and dash out again.
Natalie started over on my hair. “So... are you nervous about going out with Dr. Donaldson?”
“I’m not going out with Dr. Donaldson.” The response was automatic at this point, and my weariness with the entire subject showed in my voice.
“You’re picking him up to go to a fancy dinner that costs hundreds of dollars.”
“We’re carpooling to a work function. He doesn’t think of me that way. It would be out of line. Besides, we’ve traveled together; sharing a car to the gala isn’t any different.”
