Page 28 of False Start

But Kyle didn’t joke back.

It was like looking at me in this dress, he was shocked silent.

And that made my throat dry up like the Sahara Desert.

“Isn’t shestunning?” Larissa probed, continuing to accessorize me.

I watched her drape a long, delicate chain around my neck, the gold bar at the end of it settling in the gap of the dress at my chest. When my eyes found Kyle again, he was subtly shaking his head, his eyes drinking me in again.

“Always has been,” he said, his voice almost too low for me to hear.

He looked at me, and I tore my gaze away, turning to face the mirror, instead.

We all agreed the brown dress was an option, but there was no way Larissa was letting me get out of this hellish ordeal that easy. She wanted to see me inallthe dresses she’d plucked off the racks, and I had no choice but to oblige.

In the end, it came down to three: the brown one I’d first tried on, a form-hugging black number, and a frosty blue one that draped like starlight down to the ground and had a slit so high it made my cheeks flush the first time I stepped out in it.

But it also made me feel beautiful.

I put them all on again, modeling them one at a time with full accessories for Larissa and Kyle. When I walked out in the blue one for the second time after the first two were seen again, Larissa’s eyes glistened and she clasped her hands under her chin.

“Oh, Madelyn,” she said.

Kyle stood, hastily smoothing a hand over his stomach like he was wearing a suit and not a t-shirt. He was quiet as his eyeswashed over me, his hands finding his pockets like he didn’t know what else to do with them.

Like if he didn’t tuck them away, he might reach for me, instead.

I felt the heat from his gaze like a roaring bonfire, and by the time his eyes reconnected with mine, my neck was flushed a bright pink.

He swallowed, shaking his head. “Goddamn, Mads.”

Larissa’s eyes bulged, her head snapping toward him like she couldn’t believe that was his response. She’d expected him to call me beautiful, maybe. Or gorgeous.

But his response was so him that I couldn’t help but laugh, covering my face with my hands.

When I peeked through them, I saw him grinning.

I tried not to overanalyze the way my heart was fluttering when I disappeared inside the dressing room again, ready to get the hell out of this dressandthis store. But when I went to unzip the back, the zipper wouldn’t budge.

I cursed, fussing with it until I realized I’d lodged it in part of the delicate blue fabric.

That made me curse again, and I maneuvered so I could watch myself in the mirror as I tried to undo my mistake. When my shoulders started aching from the awkward angle, I sighed, deciding my pride wasn’t worth tearing a dress that was likely more expensive than my mortgage.

I opened the dressing room door just a crack, peeking out, and Kyle’s gaze snapped from his phone up to me.

“Where’s Larissa?”

“She ran up to the front to help another customer,” he explained. “I told her we’d bring all this to the counter.” He frowned when I muttered an expletive under my breath. “What’s wrong?”

“Zipper’s stuck.”

At that, Kyle beamed, standing and tucking his phone away before spreading his arms wide like he was God’s gift to the world. “My specialty.”

I glared at him. “I’ll wait.”

“Come on,” he said on a hearty chuckle. “I’ve got you.”

When I didn’t respond, he walked closer, lowering his voice.