Page 135 of I am Dressed in Sin (Death by Daybreak MC 2)
“Then I suppose I’ll be on door duty,” he acquiesces, nodding his head at her.
Reba pulls me into the store with Nellie, Crown, Grainger, and Sin following behind.
I must say, the three of them seem to suck up every available molecule in the room. It’s like, there is no atmosphere without these men. The world is nothing until they show up; they bring the weather with them.
Now I see why the store sign in the window says Shown by Appointment Only.
We are very clearly the only people booked in for today.
“Got another one for me?” a woman asks, appearing from the back and smiling at Nellie in just such a way that I see they have a working relationship.
“This one’s my daughter,” Nellie tells her, putting her hands on my shoulders. There’s a second there where I have to blink through my reality, try to align it with my feelings. I’d gotten used to living with Grey. I’d gotten used to the idea of marrying him. Now, I’m here and starting a relationship with my mom, and I’m getting married to someone else, and … it’s a lot to take in. “We need something we can take home today.”
The woman nods, looking me over like she’s mentally gauging my size.
“Anything in particular that you’re looking for?” she asks, and I swear to fuck, I can feel the eyes of all the men on me. All of them, except for Beast. Their gazes burn as I follow the woman through the store while Reba and Nellie list their ideas for my dress.
“Something white,” Reba says, giving me a look. I return it with both brows raised.
“Are you sure red wouldn’t be more appropriate?” I query, but she balks at me.
“Goodness, no,” she breathes, giving Nellie a look. “You wouldn’t let your baby walk down the aisle in red, would you?”
“Anything she picks, I’ll be happy with,” my mother says with a wistful sigh, fingering the strap of a sleeveless white gown. “The dress I married Leroy in cost twenty dollars. I found it at the thrift store and insisted on altering it myself. He was so proud of me. The way he looked at me in that dress, it may as well have been worth millions.”
That gives Reba pause. She takes the story in like she’s filing it away for later, and I start to get suspicious.
“She wants something short, but I just don’t know about that,” Reba continues as I sigh and rub at my forehead. I hesitate while Nellie and Reba move away with the sales chick.
“Whose wedding is this, exactly?” Grainger asks dryly, giving me a look and spinning one of his lip rings around with his tongue. “Are you really allowed to wear white? Sure you won’t burn the church down?”
I let my gaze slide his way. Sin has taken up a position near the back door while Crown is … looking at dresses? He’s moving them across the rack while the three women disappear deeper into the sea of white fluff.
“What would you want me to wear, if it were our wedding?” I ask Cade, and he scowls at me, I mean like viciously scowls at me.
“Why the fuck would you even ask me that?” he snaps, and then he’s raking his fingers through his rust-red hair. It’s freshly buzzed along both sides, perfectly slicked back down the center. His leather vest is polished and shining, his denim creased and new.
I think Cade Grainger dressed up to come here today.
“Don’t tell me it isn’t something you’ve thought about,” I query back, and he looks at me like he used to, like something distasteful that needs to be gotten rid of. It’s all a defense mechanism, that much I know for sure. “Of all the—I’m sure—thousands and thousands of girls you’ve fucked, how many have you fantasized about marrying?”
“The truth, Gidge?” he asks, giving me a dark look, one that might make a lesser person wither on the vine. “None.” He turns away from me, like he’s done with the conversation. “I never thought you’d be someone who got married.”
He takes off, pushing aside a curtain in the corner with a sign that says Intimates on it. Just before he disappears behind it, I notice a sea of white lingerie that reminds me of the items Giulia forced me to wear.
No thanks. I’ll go with a red thong underneath, true DBD style.
“You’re pretty perceptive,” I tell Sin as I catch up to him. Reba, Nellie, and the saleslady are gushing over a series of crystal-covered nightmares in the opposite corner of the store. If it makes them that happy to pick a dress, what do I care? “What’s Grainger’s problem?”
Sin gives me a look, his fingers tapping at his jeans pocket, like he wouldn’t mind a cigarette just about now.
