Page 15 of First Date: Divorce (Wyoming Marriage Association #1)

Rebecca looked up with damp eyes, and K.D. braced herself.

“A problem with the dress?” She tried to twist around to see it. “If you can’t finish it in time—”

“Stop that. Stand still.” Rebecca pushed her back around so she didn’t catch more than a glimpse in the mirror of a tall woman in a white dress. “Not a problem. The opposite. I’ll admit now I didn’t know if I could get this done.”

“If it’s not finished, can’t we pin it for photos and video tomorrow?”

“Pin it? For the wedding? Even if it didn’t fit well, we would not pin it.” Rebecca’s outrage softened. “But it looks fabulous on you.”

“It does,” agreed Ellyn, who said she’d stopped by to go over her final to-buy list for tomorrow’s fake reception.

“Like it was made for you,” Kendra contributed.

“In a way, it was made for her, since Rebecca altered it so beautifully,” Ellyn said.

“That’s why…” Rebecca gestured to her damp eyes. “I know this is only a make-believe wedding, but it’s a shame your mother can’t see you looking like this.”

“Good heavens, no,” K.D. said before she could stop herself.

Ellyn, Kendra, and Rebecca looked at her.

She tried to think of something to explain away her impulsive words while she pushed away the image of Janeece Hamilton Brown gushingly overjoyed at her daughter getting married.

Lamely, K.D. added, “My … uh, my mother wouldn’t understand any of this. ”

“And we wouldn’t want to have anyone else know about what you and Eric are doing,” said Ellyn, sending a warning look around the room.

“Of course not,” Rebecca said. “Raise your arm so I can check the seam. But it’s still a shame, because I’m sure K.D.’s mother would love to see her so beautiful in a wedding dress.”

“My mother would love to see me looking any way in a wedding dress,” K.D. said dryly. “ Safely married, as if—”

Good heavens. These women and their comfortable niceness were downright dangerous. Set hardened criminals in their circle for a few hours and they’d be pouring out confessions.

Ellyn nodded. “Mother-daughter relationships can be … challenging.”

“Ellyn not only has the daughter experience, but she’s got a teenage daughter, so now she’s seeing the mother side at a new stage,” Kendra said.

Ellyn cleared her throat. “We’ll save that discussion for another day. Just know you’re not alone, K.D. But don’t give up on the idea your relationship with your mother can get better. Not perfect, but better.”

“Parents can want the best for you yet be totally wrong,” Kendra added.

“And grandparents,” Rebecca murmured around pins in her mouth.

“Sometimes we don’t understand as much as we should, either,” Ellyn said quietly.

K.D. caught a flurry of looks flying among the other women. She had the impression that their statements had significance the others understood and she didn’t.

“For me, it took being a parent myself to understand parents are human, too,” Kendra said.

Changing the subject and not bothering to hide it, K.D. asked, “Where did this dress come from, Rebecca? You had even more wedding dresses lying around than you thought?”

“Not exactly.” Rebecca stepped back and squinted at K.D. Then she darted close, pinching material at K.D.’s waist and inserting a pin. “It’s mine.”

“Yours? This is your wedding dress?”

“Uh-huh.”

“But… but… Why did you give up your wedding dress?”

“It was just hanging in a closet — hanging around, as you said, though I hadn’t forgotten about it. I sure don’t intend to wear it for any other wedding.” Her dark eyes went dreamy and K.D. suspected she was thinking about her husband, Luke. “Okay, I’m ready to take this off you, K.D.”

“Good, I have to feed her samples of the hors d’oeuvres,” said Ellyn.

“Anything you make will be great,” K.D. said. “I’m still full from cake samples.”

“You know,” Rebecca said, as if she hadn’t heard that exchange, “there’s the superstition that wearing the dress of a happy bride will make you happy, too. So you should be ecstatic.”

“But this isn’t a real wedding. It’s fake. Totally fake.”

“Uh-huh.”

K.D. didn’t like the small smile Rebecca wore.

K.D. didn’t like the small smiles Ellyn and Kendra wore, either.

With the dress pooled on the floor, she stepped free of it, pulling on her normal clothes fast.

*

With the fitting complete, the women went to the kitchen, where the other men watched Daniel pulling a baking sheet out of the oven, while eagerly sniffing the scents wafting toward them. Eric and Grif moved up, as if the temptations from the oven lured them in.

“It dinged,” Daniel said with a note of self-justification. “Didn’t want it to burn.”

“How thoughtful of you, Daniel.” Ellyn’s eyes sparkled with amusement. “I’m sure it had nothing to do with wanting to eat what’s been baking.”

“Now that I know you can take things out of the oven,” Kendra said, “it opens a whole new world.”

While the others continued to joke at Daniel’s expense, K.D. caught Grif giving her a long, assessing look.

He knew she’d caught him.

But he didn’t look away. He kept studying her.

She put on her cop face, confident he wouldn’t see anything beneath it.

“Hey, I cook,” Daniel protested good-naturedly.

“You grill.”

“And mac and cheese. On the burner from the box. Our son’s favorite.”

“That’s not cooking.”

“You and Matthew think so when you eat it, gourmets that you are.”

“Quit talking about eating and let’s do it,” Luke said. “What is it, Ellyn? It smells terrific,”

“It’s a twist on pigs in a blanket.” Ellyn passed the platter around. “For fun.”

“Finally,” grumbled Luke. “I’m starving.”

“Wait. Not yet. I want you all to try it at the same time. It looks like what you’d expect on the outside, but that’s only a cover story for what’s going on inside. Like you two.” She smiled at K.D. and Eric. “Okay, now.”

Silence. Then soft moans of pleasure. Before those faded, hands reached for seconds.

“But what do you think?” Ellyn asked.

Grif put an arm around her shoulders. “Empty platter in ten seconds flat. And look at their faces. There’s your answer.”

“The pastry—”

“—melts right into that amazing sauce, against the crisp—”

“— is that a basil leaf you’ve wrapped around—”

“—that incredible meat — that’s no hot dog.”

“No, it’s a special sausage, with a little twist I wanted to try. What do you think?”

“As far as I’m concerned, this should be the entire menu,” said Eric. “Piles and piles of these little guys.”

“Amen,” said Luke. “Do you have another platter stashed away somewhere?”

Ellyn chuckled. “Sorry, no. But I’ll get on it this afternoon so we have them for tomorrow. But you have to eat other things, too.”

“Twist my arm.” Grif said.

Ellyn chuckled, then said “So…” By the way everyone turned to her, K.D. knew this was her down-to-business voice, “the menu is set, the dress is on track, the flowers—?”

“All set,” Kendra said.

“Good. Music?”

“Check,” Luke said. “Once I axed Eric’s Most-Depressing-Wedding-Ever suggestions.”

“I still like Your Cheating Heart and Love Stinks ,” Eric protested, drawing chuckles.

“I think we have everything covered— Wait. No, we don’t.” Ellyn’s right hand touched her left. “Rings.”

“ Rings ,” echoed several voices.

Eric cut K.D. a look. “More shopping.” His words recalled their differences during yesterday’s shopping in Billings, but also … other moments.

“Not around here,” she said. “We don’t want anyone seeing us buying rings.”

“Good point. We’ll go down to Casper.”

It was the opposite direction from Bardville, being some distance south of Far Hills Ranch.

Ellyn consulted her watch. “You better go now. You won’t have much time tomorrow. K.D. has her final fitting in the morning and we need everyone ready to go at 4 p.m.”