The Wedding Party (The Wedding Date, #3)(48)

He ran his hand up and down her back, and her smile grew wider.

“Careful!” she said under her breath. He dropped his hand but didn’t move it too far.

“Okay!” Jill clapped her hands. “I think I have all the information I need. Alexa, come with me. Let’s get you in some dresses.”

Alexa turned to glance back at them as she walked down the hallway with Jill. She looked like a little kid being dragged off to get shots.

“You’ll be great!” Maddie shouted after her.

As soon as she disappeared, Olivia turned to Maddie.

“How bad was it really?”

Maddie sighed.

“Awful. The time we went with your mom was the worst; the second place wouldn’t have been as bad if she hadn’t already been crushed from the first time. I’m so worried about today, you guys. I promised her she’d find a dress here, but . . .” She sighed. “I really hope I was telling the truth.”

Maddie looked so worried. Theo was on the far side of Olivia; she wouldn’t be able see him touch Maddie. Theo moved his hand up to the small of Maddie’s back, and she leaned against it.

“You heard good things about this place though, right?” Olivia asked.

Maddie nodded.

“I did, and I’m pretty confident she’ll at least find some dresses that fit her here, but what if she just decides to buy the first dress that fits, to get it over with? I want her to love her wedding dress, and I know she does, too, and it would kill me for her to get something she only sort of likes just because she’s so demoralized from the whole process.”

Theo traced circles around Maddie’s back, and she leaned in closer to him.

“Okay.” Olivia poured more champagne in their glasses. “We’ll just make sure that doesn’t happen. Everyone here is very good at reading Alexa. We can’t let her pretend to us.”

Maddie lifted her glass.

“I’ll toast to that.”

Maddie saw Theo pull his phone out of his pocket. Really? Now? She always made fun of him about how addicted he was to his phone, but he couldn’t take a break for an afternoon while they did this for Alexa? She moved away from him—how had she let him sit this close to her with Olivia right there, anyway?

A few seconds later, she heard her phone ding in her purse. Shit, she’d meant to turn off her phone for the day so she wouldn’t get interrupted. She reached for it and saw the message on her screen.

Sitting this close to you is driving me crazy



She glanced over at Theo. He was looking off into the corner of the room, as a smug smile hovered around his lips.

She moved closer to him, so they were sitting hip to hip.

Is that better?



She looked at Olivia to make sure she wasn’t paying attention, but Olivia was buried in her own phone.

Better and worse, all at the same time. Do you have just an endless amount of those thin dresses where when I touch you through them, it feels like you’re wearing almost nothing?



She grinned.

I have a few such dresses, I’ll admit. Why, don’t you like them?



His text came back within seconds.

Let’s put it this way: I’m about a minute away from dragging you into an empty dressing room. We wouldn’t even have to take the dress off



Holy shit, how did Theo manage to do this to her? The worst part was that she was about a minute away from letting him drag her wherever he wanted.

“How much time does it take to put a dress on, anyway?” Theo asked. “What’s taking them so long?”

Maddie grinned.

“Most dresses take a few seconds to put on . . . and take off,” Maddie said.

“A wedding dress? Those take a long time. Those things weren’t built for quick changes. Or for getting into and out of by yourself. They’re a throwback to the days of rich women having someone help them get dressed. That’s why you’re here, don’t you know? That’s our job on Alexa’s wedding day.”

Theo looked stricken, and they laughed at him again.

“Don’t worry,” Olivia said. “We’ll let you do a snack run while we get Alexa into the dress. It’ll be useful to have an errand boy that day. In my experience as a bridesmaid, there are never enough snacks before the wedding. And they basically starve you for hours after the wedding. No wonder bridesmaids always get drunk and hit on groomsmen—there’s always lots of champagne and not enough food!”

“Olivia. Do you really think there won’t be enough snacks for the wedding party at my wedding?” Alexa said as she walked down the hallway. “I’m honestly insulted that you don’t know I’ve already drafted the list of our wedding-day snacks.”

Maddie sighed in relief as soon as she saw Alexa. She had a smile on her face! She had a wedding dress on and a smile on her face! She was cracking jokes! Oh thank God.

“What do you guys think?” Alexa stopped in front of the three of them, and then turned to look at herself in the big mirror. “I don’t hate it. I mean, I don’t love it, either, but not hating the dress on my body is already, like, a thousand times better than how I felt at the last two appointments.”

Maddie didn’t hate it, either. It wasn’t Alexa’s dress, she could tell immediately—it had a lace skirt, and Alexa wasn’t a lace kind of person, and it had spaghetti straps, and Maddie had never seen Alexa in spaghetti straps—but it still looked good on her. And most important, she was smiling.