Aon Ór Crossroads . C.J. Benvol. Читать онлайн. Newlib. NEWLIB.NET

Автор: C.J. Benvol
Издательство: Ingram
Серия:
Жанр произведения: Контркультура
Год издания: 0
isbn: 9781645317098
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four of them started arguing and debating, but this woman was different. She was the second person who didn’t seem to care what anyone else said about anything. Instead, she asked Cally what she wanted. She hesitated as she looked back and she felt the woman’s strong hands turn her to the dresses as the woman quietly whispered to her, “Don’t worry about them. What do you like?”

      Not sure what else to do, Cally pulled out the one that came down to her knee and was a soft silk that was covered in a flower lace. The shoulders and sleeves were made just from the lacey fabric, and in the middle of the bodice was a single fabric rose. She liked the lace trim around the bottom that came down enough to make the dress acceptable.

      The woman smiled at her and quietly worked her magic. “Let’s sell this one to them.” She gestured to the four talking behind them. “You put this one back on, and let me get something.”

      She did what the other woman said, but this dress was knocked out by both their mothers and Hannah. Savannah had said it was cute but that wasn’t ever good enough. She liked it because the sleeves came down to her forearms, and it just felt like something she would wear and not just to get married in.

      Cally couldn’t see wasting all that money on a dress that she would only wear once. The more she looked at it in the mirror, the more she wanted it, but she knew this wasn’t her decision. She was never going to get it, because she wasn’t the one deciding anything.

      Cally watched as the woman came back in with three veils. She tried each one on her before she found one that went down past her knees in the back, and the flower pattern seemed to match the dress perfectly. The veil was long enough to wrap around her whole body and it was absolutely perfect.

      She must have missed the shoes completely, because the other woman opened the four boxes and took out a sandal flat that was almost a match to what she normally liked to wear. They were simple and almost the same color as the dress and absolutely perfect. She put them on, and the woman whispered, “Now you can sell it to them.”

      She stepped out from behind the divider, terrified but feeling like the most beautiful person in the world. Savannah’s face was of complete approval, and that was the one Cally knew that she had to sell this to the most. She looked to Hannah next as the girl gasped saying, “Wow!”

      Her mother repeated her earlier comment. “It’s too short.”

      Dakota’s mother seemed to agree with hers, but Hannah was the one to sell it. “He’ll love it.”

      Cally just smiled as she looked in the mirror and played with the veil a little as the others started debating the dress. She hadn’t meant to look, but the tag was right there on the hem; the dress was only a hundred and seventy dollars. She got curious and looked at the tag on the veil; it was sixty-five. She didn’t need alterations or anything else, and she had more than enough to get them and the shoes by herself. For the first time, she didn’t care what any of them said or if they agreed or not; she just turned to the woman, announcing, “I want them.”

      The woman smiled, knowing something that she didn’t. “Are you sure?”

      Her mom protested, “I’m not paying for something that barely covers you.”

      Cally looked at her mother through the mirror in front of her. “I’m not asking. I have the money, and I’m getting them. It’s my wedding and my choice. I’m the one that has to wear the dress, not you, and there is no way I’m wearing a dress that weighs more than I do and is hot and stuffy and will make me miserable. If you wanted a two-hundred-pound bulky circus tent, then you should have opted for a winter wedding.”

      All four of them were looking at her like she had just lost her mind, but they knew she never stood up for herself on anything. So to stand up for herself now was a big deal. Her mom just nodded and looked over to Dakota’s mom who was staring at her. “What do you think?”

      Dakota’s mother smiled at her. “Hannah’s right, he’ll love it, and if she’s set on it, I don’t think we will have much of a choice.”

      “She does look amazing,” Hannah added, smiling like she had just won something.

      Her mother just smiled. “Okay.”

      She had gotten dressed, and they were heading up to the counter when she looked at her watch and realized it was only noon. She had expected them to be here longer, but she guessed when you know what you want and stand up for yourself anything can happen. She was ready to pay for everything when her mom said, “I’ll get it.”

      Cally just shook her head. “I have enough to get it.”

      But her mother insisted. “You need to save that.” She wasn’t going to argue. She was getting what she wanted, and there was nothing to fight over.

      They got back just before one, and sitting on the tailgate to Jay’s shiny black truck were Jay and Dakota. She didn’t want to get out of the car, but she knew she had to. She took an empowering breath, and her mom had her new dress.

      The two moms seemed in their own little world as they walked inside, and she walked over to Dakota and just kissed him. Yep, she finally accepted she was going to marry him and be with him forever and a day.

      He just had this big smile. “Did you find a dress?”

      She just nodded, but his sister wasn’t going to let that go. “You should have seen it. No one really liked it when she was trying on the dresses, but then she put it on again with a veil and the shoes, and she looked amazing.”

      Savannah just laughed. “I can’t believe you said that to Mom.”

      Dakota looked to her and asked, “What?”

      Savannah loved the attention, and Cally was more than happy to let her have it. “Mom said no because it wasn’t the traditional wedding dress. But she looked so…I don’t know…but something came over her, and she flat out told her that she was getting the dress. Mom refused to pay for it, but she just shook her head and said, ‘It’s my wedding and I’m wearing what I want.’ And it seemed to be enough, because Mom bought it for her.”

      He laughed. “So you do know what you want.”

      “Nope, I just really like that dress.”

      Hannah just smiled an ear-to-ear grin. “You’ll love it. It’s so perfect for her. It’s going to be so fun to have a sister.”

      She just leaned against the truck as Dakota reprimanded his sister. “She’s not your toy.”

      “Yeah, but I never had a sister to do hair and makeup with before,” Hannah protested.

      Savannah shook her head. “I do her hair and makeup and dress her.”

      “Yeah, but…I’ll have someone to hang out with, and when school starts, she can drive me to school,” Hannah tried again.

      Savannah just wasn’t having any of it. “She doesn’t have her license or a car.”

      “She will before school starts.” Hannah just didn’t know when to quit, and right now, Cally really wished she would stop before someone ended up dead—namely her.

      Savannah looked at her with that cold hard stare.

      “I had to get it in order to get the marriage license. I didn’t believe she would go for it either, but if it makes you feel better, she said that I had better go through with this or she would kill me. I just don’t see why it matters.”

      “You need a way to get back and forth to work,” Dakota added absently.

      “I can walk, it’s not that far.”

      “You can’t walk from our house,” Hannah insisted.

      Cally looked at her, frustrated, demanding, “Why does that matter?”

      Dakota looked at his sister with a look of seriousness that wasn’t normal for him. “Don’t.”

      At the same