A Chance This Christmas(16)
But she’d been too hurt by her father’s defection to worry about that at the time.
“If you’re on board,” she said to Emma “you could try on the dress and I’ll start pinning.”
“You know, I wouldn’t even be speaking to you if I didn’t really want a cool dress.” Emma toyed with the heavy zipper on the front of her costume. “So this is kind of sartorial blackmail.”
“But you can thank a lifelong love of reading that I personally helped to nurture for that high-level vocabulary, can’t you?” Rachel tossed the plastic case of pins from one hand to the other, wondering how Gavin was doing downstairs.
Had he been serious about singing with her? She worried she was going to ruin his high standing in the community in the course of one evening.
“Mostly I’m going to agree because I want to look hot at this wedding.” Emma tugged down the zipper on the costume, where she wore a tee and shorts underneath. “Do you think you can make that happen?”
Most women didn’t know that beauty came from confidence, something Emma already possessed. But Rachel would take whatever credit she could to mend her friendship with this young woman.
“I guarantee it.” She popped open her box of pins, and gestured for Emma to get moving. “Pop on the dress and let’s get to work.”
She waited while Emma took the gown into Kiersten’s bathroom, wondering what Gavin would think of her next round of creations when he saw the bridesmaid dresses at the wedding.
A thought that had her realizing she’d committed to staying in Yuletide until then by promising Kiersten she’d work on the gowns. Would the locals leave her in peace to do her sewing? Or would too many Ghosts of Christmas Past, determined to bring up what they saw as Rachel’s misdeeds, visit her mother’s home?
Any answer she might have come up with for that question was drowned out by an outcry from downstairs. An argument, maybe? Rachel crossed quickly to the bedroom door, opened it and turned her head so her ear faced the opening.
Promptly, she heard a new karaoke song begin. The tune was familiar enough. But then the woman singing introduced some revised lyrics.
“Rachel got run over by a reindeer!” the voice crowed gleefully. “Walking out of my house, back to hers…”
Closing the door again, Rachel saw Emma had joined her in eavesdropping.
“Sounds ominous down there,” Emma observed, spinning around in her red lace and satin dress. “Good thing you have me to think about instead of the veiled threats to your life.”
Rachel gulped and wondered if Gavin had overestimated his sway with this crowd. “For a Christmas-themed town, we’ve got some bloodthirsty residents.”
Shrugging, Emma took up a spot in front of the mirror. “Personally, I think their anger is a little misplaced. It was clearly your father who embezzled all that money.”
“I appreciate that.” Circling her model, Rachel remembered why she’d liked Luke’s precocious little sister, even when his parents hadn’t been overly fond of having Rachel around. “And I had no idea my father was a crook until that day. I thought it must be a misunderstanding for weeks afterward.”
It hurt to learn someone you trusted was someone you never really knew at all.
“Were you able to forgive him?” Emma lifted her arms at Rachel’s gestured instruction.
The fabric pulled in all the wrong places and she added a pin where a little extra material would create a smoother look.
“I’m not sure that I have,” Rachel said between a few pins in her teeth. “But I was able to move past it.”
Emma nodded. “Then it’s a good thing you’re here. Because I’m starting to think the rest of the town has been stuck on it for way too long.”
Their gazes met in the mirror and Rachel sensed a possible ally in Luke’s sister. And while she was grateful to have someone on her side, she knew the rest of the town wouldn’t be as easy to win over.
*
In the Garretts’ den, a few doors down from the main gathering area of the bridal party welcome dinner, Gavin lined up the bull’s-eye on the dartboard for his next shot. He’d retreated here with Luke shortly after his tense conversation with the bride’s mother. Katie Garrett had been unimpressed by his assurances that Rachel wasn’t in town to cause trouble, but she’d at least given up trying to throw her out of the house.
Luke had been only too happy to take a break from the Christmas mayhem, suggesting a round of darts that had turned into three. No doubt they’d need to return to the party soon to mingle, but the guests seemed entertained by the games and karaoke. A screechy rendition of “Rockin’ Around the Christmas Tree” in the background might be tough on the ears, but the singer was obviously enjoying her two minutes of fame as she ad-libbed lyrics to stoke the crowd.
“This one’s for you, Yuletide!” she shouted over the microphone before the chorus.
It spoke to the strength of the party cocktails that the living room crowd went wild.
Gavin arced back his arm to make his throw.
“So are you two dating now?” Luke asked from where he sat on the front of a big oak desk.
Gavin’s shot missed the target.
“What happened to the ‘no talking while in the backswing’ rules?” he asked, his natural competitiveness extending to games of all kinds. He couldn’t miss one more if he wanted a chance to win.