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“What do we think?” I ask, tipping the brim down. “Does this read country glam, or wanna-be influencer?”
“Watch it,” Seer warns with a smile, “I have that one in white.”
“Actually.” Vic reaches for the hat, plucking it off my head and leaving my hair a mess. I glare at him as he continues. “With the right accessories, this could be a super fun piece.” I want to say I’m totally kidding, but Carla cuts in.
“You know there are stores that do that, right?” She sniffs a candle on a nearby home decor shelf, making a face and then setting it back down. “Like, at the Stockyards, even in Deep Ellum.”
Vic snorts. “Yeah, for like, $200 a pop.” He holds the hat out at arm’s distance. “I’d be willing to bet Piper already has everything she needs to make this one fabulous.” I eye the hat. He’s not completely wrong - some leather cording, maybe a line or two of chain. The white feather I’d been saving for some sort of hat for Greensleeves. This seemed more pressing.
“For the low price of,” Seer takes the hat, examining the price tag, “$35, sold!”
“This was not on the list,” I remind her, and she just stashes the hat with the armful of items she’s planning to try on. This girl may rival my mother and her shopping problem - I mean, habit.
“No.” Vic has turned on his heel, and he doesn’t move as he keeps talking. “But that was.” I follow his gaze to the mannequin halfway across the clothing section, eyes squinting.
“That? What was on the list?” I cross my arms. “For the reunion? Or for Freddy?” Vic snorts.
“Neither.” He holds his hands up, making a frame with his fingers. “You still have those lace appliques, yeah? The ones with the rhinestones?” I think on it - I’m pretty sure I have them stashed in a drawer somewhere, leftovers from a piece I’d finished last year. “A little tulle here, some more rhinestones there. Ooh!” He steps toward the mannequin and we follow, like a pack of dogs waiting to be fed. “We could make you one of those badass chain shoulder things.”
“I can never wear those,” Seer sighs, looking down at her chest through the Marina and the Diamonds shirt she’s wearing. “The girls are just too big and they’re made for people with giraffe necks.”
“Lucky for you, Vic and Piper know their way around needle nose pliers.” Carla would know, she’s stepped on them enough around the apartment. Seer perks up, crossing her arms and looking at the dress in front of us, then me.
“It could work.” She taps at her chin. “Fitzwilliam would need to wear something more than his usual boring suit.”
“I’ll handle Fitz,” Vic says with a wave, and I narrow my eyes at him.
“Did one shirt make you his personal stylist?”
“The man could have gone to jail for defending me.” He shrugs, but his face is sincere. “The least I can do is make sure he looks good with my girl.”
“I think you meanhisgirl,” Alex cuts in, and I roll my eyes.
“I think you’re all idiots.”
“Maybe,” Carla answers, reaching out to slide one of the layers of the dress in front of us between her fingers. “But you’re an idiot who’s gonna make his jaw hit the floor when he sees you in this, once you’ve worked your magic.”
Chapter 51
Fitz
QuietPiperisscary.I didn’t think I could be more scared of her than I was that day in the office at The Pine. That cold fury radiated off of her in waves at the insinuation she’d been the one in the wrong with the Davis family. But here, sitting in my passenger seat, not saying a word for the forty five minutes it takes us to get parked at the Lone Star State University colosseum, is terrifying.
“Are you sure you’re ok?” I ask for what feels like the tenth time.
“Mhm.” She nods, flipping down the mirror, again, smoothing chapstick over her lips, again, and swipes under her eyes, again.
“You look great.” I reach over to squeeze her knee, but when I try to pull my hand back, she grips my fingers in a way she hasn’t the entire car ride. I feel my shoulders relax a little. There she is. She closes the mirror, fidgeting again with the small gift bag in her lap - I told her she didn’t need to bring anything, but she promptly told me where I could stick that idea, so I left it alone.
“I don’t know why I’m so nervous.” She pauses, watching a family cross the parking garage, toddler screaming at the top of their lungs. “That’s a lie. I do.”
“They’re going to love you.” I watch her whole body freeze the second the word love is out of my mouth, and I want to wrangle it back in. Stuff it back in the jar it came from. But instead, I squeeze her knee again, and barrel through like it didn’t happen. “We’re going to be late if we don’t go in.” She glances at her watch.
“It doesn’t start for another half hour.”
“It’ll take us at least twenty minutes to get through security,” I argue. Her brows knit.
“You’re the kind of guy who likes to be early to everything, aren’t you?”
