Page 55 of The Business of Love Box Set 1: Books 1 - 4

RICK

I looked up from my watch when the curtain of the change room flew open and Chessie stepped out wearing a blush-colored dress with a silk sash around her waist and a matching flower in her hair.

She was grinning from ear to ear as she shuffled across the boutique floor to stand in front of the mirror and check out her reflection.

I stepped up behind her and crouched down. “What do you think about this one?”

She swayed from side to side and played with the ends of the full skirt. “It’s pretty.”

“Pretty, as in you love it and you don’t want to take it off, or pretty, as in just pretty?”

She cocked her head to the side. “Just pretty.”

I pointed toward the change room. “Next!”

Chessie giggled and hurried back into the fitting room where the shop attendant, a middle-aged woman with short frizzy hair and blue-framed glasses, was waiting for her. They closed the curtain and began the process of changing into the next dress.

When she emerged once more, she had an even bigger smile on her face. The new dress was still the blush-pink color— a mandatory requirement set by Verity—but it was much more Chessie’s style due to every inch of it being covered in glitter.

She spun in a circle and the skirt fanned out and sparkled radiantly in the shop lighting. “I love this one, Daddy!”

I chuckled. “Of course, you do.”

The boutique employee with the blue glasses came out of the fitting room and clasped her hands together. “Would you like to see it with a little bouquet? We have sample ones for flower girls.”

Chessie shook her head. “No thank you. I’m not a flower girl.”

“Oh?” the shop owner asked with a smile. “Are you one of the bridesmaids then?”

“Nope,” Chessie said.

With a frown, the employee looked to me.

I rubbed the back of my neck. “She’s my best girl.”

“Best girl?”

“Yeah,” I said. “In place of a best man.”

“Wow,” the employee said, nodding and looking kind of impressed. “That’s the first time I’ve ever seen that. Are you a daddy’s girl?”

Chessie giggled. “Maybe.”

The employee looked back and forth between me and my daughter. “Well, the best man—or best girl, should I say—has a very important job. You have to hold the rings and keep them safe during the ceremony.”

“I know.” Chessie nodded.

“How about we see if we can have a pocket sewn into this dress for you to keep the rings in?”

I nodded at the employee. “That is a brilliant idea. What do you think, Chess?”

She clapped her hands together excitedly. “I love pockets!”

“Don’t get too used to them,” the employee muttered. Then she told me to take our time and that she would meet us at the sales counter when we were ready.

I stole a moment alone in front of the mirror with Chessie. “You’re sure this is the one you like? Once we buy it, we can’t change our minds.”

She admired her reflection. Her eyes glittered as brilliantly as the dress itself and she couldn’t stop looking at herself in the mirror. I knew before she said it that this was the right dress.

“This is the one I want, Daddy.”

“Then it’s the one you will have.” I patted her back. “Go on back in and get changed. We’ll stop and grab a bite to eat before we head home.”

“Carbs?” she asked excitedly.

I laughed. “So long as you don’t tell Verity.”

“Cross my heart!” she cried before shooting back into the change room to take the dress off. She had to call me in to help her with the zipper, and while she got back into her normal clothes, I paid for the dress at the counter and the little flower clip for her hair that she liked so much.

“It’s rare to see fathers out with their daughters for things like this,” the employee told me. She smiled as Chessie came out of the fitting room with a huge grin on her face. “It’s really nice to see.”

“She has me wrapped around her little finger and I wouldn’t have it any other way,” I admitted.

Chessie and I stopped for her favorite treat on our way home: cinnamon buns. We ate in the car with the heater on and the radio playing and she told me all about how excited she was to wear her dress and her new sparkly shoes.

“I hope Verity likes my dress,” she said as she finished her cinnamon bun.

“Why wouldn’t she like it?”

Chessie shrugged.

“Kiddo, if you like it, Verity will like it. I promise.”

“I guess.”

“You don’t believe me?”

She chewed the inside of her cheek and looked out the window. She was too short to ride in the front seat with me but she liked sitting up here when we weren’t moving. She could see a lot more than when she was in the back seat. “I just don’t want to spoil the wedding.”

“Chess,” I said, putting a hand on her shoulder.

“What are you talking about? You won’t ruin the wedding!

You couldn’t if you tried. Hey, look at me.

” I smiled at my daughter when she finally met my gaze.

“You have to stop thinking about this as just Verity’s wedding.

It’s my wedding too. And yours. We’re all marrying each other to become a family and you deserve to feel beautiful and wear whatever you want on the big day. Do you understand?”

She nodded. “Yes, Daddy.”

“You promise?”

A little grin tugged at the corners of her lips. “I promise.”

I held the front door open and Chessie ran inside ahead of me. She kicked off her shoes and hollered, “We’re home!”

Chuckling, I closed and locked the door behind us.

Verity emerged at the top of the stairs. She had her cell phone pressed to her ear and she told the person on the line to hold on before she waved at Chessie. “How was dress shopping?”

Chessie jumped excitedly up and down. “So much fun! We found the perfect dress. It’s the blush pink you wanted and sparkly and so pretty and I can’t wait to wear it and—”

“That’s good, sweetheart,” Verity said. “You can tell me all about it as soon as I’m off the phone, okay?”

Chessie nodded and then spun to me. “I’m going to play in my room.”

“All right,” I said. “I’ll let you know when dinner is close.”

Chessie was already racing up the stairs as fast as her little legs could take her. She shot past Verity, who giggled softly and blew me a kiss.

“I’ll be down in a minute, baby,” she called. “Just finishing up a call with Kim.”

Kim. What were they talking about? God. Why do I feel like this every time I hear Kim’s name?

It was like someone had wrapped my intestines around a brick and threw them off a rooftop.

I watched Verity disappear back into her upstairs office and her voice carried down the stairs as she spoke with Kim. Her tone immediately shifted from friendly to business and I could hear her irritation with Kim.

Were they actually discussing wedding details? Or was this more of Verity being petty?

I tried to distract myself and mind my own business by going into the dining room and pouring myself a glass of whiskey on the rocks. I took a sip just as the decibels of Verity’s voice increased.

“No, it’s your job to listen to me,” she was saying. “When you’re spending the kind of money Rick and I are, anything can be changed. I’m aware the wedding is only in three weeks but I know what I’m talking about, okay?”

I grimaced. Here we go again.

There was a big part of me that just wanted this wedding over and done with. Verity could relax and stop being so on edge about making sure everything was perfect. I could go back to work full time. Chessie could stop worrying about pleasing Verity.

Normalcy sounded like such a relief.

I began making my way up the stairs as Verity grew more and more frustrated with Kim.

“Listen,” she hissed into the line when I reached the top of the stairs. “I don’t care how much more it costs. I don’t care how many more people you have to hire. Just make it happen.”

I knocked on the doorframe of her office and braced myself against it. “Everything okay?”

Verity held up her hand to silence me as she listened to Kim.

I could hear Kim’s calm and collected tone through the line but I couldn’t hear what words she was saying.

Whatever they were, Verity didn’t like them because she rolled her eyes, let out a frustrated growl, and then marched toward me to slap her phone into my hand.

“You deal with her,” she said shortly. “I’m going to make myself a drink.”

Verity stormed off down the stairs. Her heels hit each step with force and I could hear her muttering under her breath to herself as I lifted the phone to my ear.

“What did you do?” I asked, moving down the hall to the master bedroom where I knew I’d be out of Verity’s ear reach. “Did you tell her she was acting like a brat?”

Kim’s rich laughter filled the line and I smiled. “Oh yeah, like I’d do something like that. No, I just explained that any changes we make now will be final because tomorrow is the deadline for all your vendors to lock in orders. And I can’t help but worry about such last-minute changes, is all.”

“What does she want to change?”

“Linens and drapings. That sort of thing. I can get it done but I was just advising her to consider if this was the right move. Panic decisions so close to the big day like this rarely ever work out the way the bride wants them to. She’s had a vision in her head for such a long time and now she wants to mess with it. It just smells like trouble to me.”

“You’re the expert. Sounds like good advice from where I’m standing.”

Kim sighed. “Yeah. Unfortunately, good advice tends to go in one ear and out the other when it comes to stressed-out brides.”

“Anything I could do?”

“A foot massage would be lovely.”

I laughed. “I hardly think that’s appropriate.”

“For Verity,” Kim clarified. “What sort of home wrecker do you take me for?”

“I take it back.” I chuckled.

“You’d better. I have to go, Rick. I want to put in Verity’s requests before the end of the workday today so the vendors have time to process everything tomorrow.

Just do me a favor and really make sure she’s clear on what I’m saying.

No more changes after tomorrow. That’s final and it will be out of my hands. ”

“Got it. Loud and clear.”