Falling for You
Formatted by
E.M. Tippetts Book Designs
The Second Chance Series
One Last Ride
(Coming Soon)
The Kylie Ryans Series
Keep Me Still Series
Broken Heartland Series
Path of Destruction
(Summer 2014)
Abbott Springs Series
For my precious early readers, who wanted to know exactly what happened on the beach.
This one is for you.
Sometimes the worst things that happen in our lives put us directly on the path to the best things that will ever happen to us.
–Unknown
“W
eddings are supposed to be fun, Fate. Breathe.” Melissa Lincoln smiled her bright, chemically whitened smile in the mirror behind her. Her long, copper-colored hair and the scent of expensive but slightly cloying perfume fell over Fate’s shoulder. “And for goodness sake, smile.”
Fate made a concentrated effort to force her mouth upward.
“Trevor hates lace. Says it reminds him of his grandma’s curtains,” she informed her best friend and maid of honor. “But every dress I like has lace overlay.” Smoothing her hand over the lace she wore, her frown returned.
Standing on the pedestal in front of a three-way mirror was the last place she wanted to be. Her mom was at home, alone, in the tiny one-bedroom apartment they now shared, probably drowning her sorrows over boyfriend number four bailing on her. Fate’s shoulders were weighed down by guilt at not being there for her mom. Chantal, the very helpful, young bridal consultant and Melissa had both told her to stand up straight several times while modeling dresses.
She’d tried talking to Melissa about it in a roundabout way, but her friend’s answer had been that Fate’s mom was the one who should be there for
her,
not the other way around. Melissa’s mom was a Martha Stewart in the making, so Fate didn’t bother trying to explain how the dynamic of her relationship was vastly different.
“What about this one?” Melissa held up a satin, strapless gown that was quite pretty. Except it was ivory and Trevor had specifically said diamond white. He’d made several comments about her needing to wear a white dress since she was holding out on him. If he were going to marry a virgin, he’d said, then his bride would wear the brightest white possible.
“It’s pretty,” Fate offered. “But Trevor wants diamond white, not cream or ivory.”
Melissa’s smile tightened. “Well we can’t disappoint Trevor now can we.”
“It’s his wedding day too,” Fate reminded her. Her relationship with Trevor Harris hadn’t always been easy. They’d met freshmen year at the University of Texas and been on again and off again over the past four years. But he was all she had, aside from a mother with a dangerously addictive personality. “Plus, I just don’t see what the big deal is. It’s only going to be his giant family and my mom. It’ll be over before you know it. Seems crazy to spend this much time and effort on something that will be over in a blink. But then I feel bad for not being more invested because he’s pretty excited and so is his family. So I keep reminding myself that it’s his wedding too.”
Trevor’s mom was treating the event like a national holiday. His family owned a large pharmaceutical company, Harris Pharmaceutical. He was being put in charge of overseeing a new research and development lab in New York while completing business school at NYU. After their wedding at his family’s house in the Hamptons, she and Trevor would move into an enormous penthouse apartment in Manhattan and Fate would begin her job as a marketing assistant at a company she’d found during her online job search. Maxwell Medical was a large, multinational corporation that Fate was hoping to learn more about.
While Harris Pharmaceutical still had several marketing positions available, Trevor had made a rule about them not working together. He said that couples that worked together got sick of each other and brought their marital problems to the office and vice versa. Fate agreed that she didn’t want to be one of those couples.
“So it is,” Melissa said through clenched teeth. “Here. Try this one.”
Fate used both hands to lift the skirt on the dress she was currently wearing and stepped down off the pedestal to get a better look at the dress her friend held.
“I like that one.” It was gleaming white, form-fitting with a plunging neckline. “Hold it up and I’ll snap a picture with my phone to send to Trevor.”
Melissa gaped at her in horror. “Are you insane? He can’t see it before the wedding. It’s bad luck.”
Fate rolled her eyes. “It’s the bride, Mel. He can’t see the
bride
before the wedding. Of course he can see the dress. Hold it up.”
Ignoring her friend’s disapproving glare, Fate snapped a quick picture and messaged it to Trevor. Her phone buzzed with his reply almost immediately.
Nice. Is that Melissa with you?
She texted back yes and that she was trying the dress on and would call him when she was done.
Fate slipped on the new dress with Melissa and Chantal’s help. It was a little too long, but it fit her body as if it had been made specifically for her. She glanced at the price tag after seeing it in the mirror.
“Oh. Wow. No.” The number had an extra zero at the end.
“It’s Vera Wang,” Chantal informed her. “Part of our exclusive collection.”
“Yeah. No, I can’t afford this.” Fate flushed with embarrassment, wishing she hadn’t put the dress on before checking how much it cost.
“Trevor would pay for whatever dress you wanted if you asked him to.”
Fate shook her head. “I know he would. But he’s already marrying me and my mountain of student loan debt. And his parents are paying the majority of the wedding expenses. I can buy my own dress.”
Melissa gave her a sympathetic head tilt before turning to Chantal. “Do you have something similar by a less exclusive designer?”
The girl nodded. “It won’t be similar as far as quality and craftsmanship go, as in the beading won’t be hand-stitched or anything. But we have this style in several other lines.”
“Grab a few of them, would you? Size four.”
“Um, or a six please.” Fate was grateful that Melissa was handling this humiliating moment, but she also wanted to be able to breathe on her wedding day. “Let’s just get this off before I damage it or something. It costs more than my car.”
Mentioning her car made her a little sad. Betty, her four-door Toyota Corolla, was being sold before the move to New York. Trevor said that no one drove there and the company was going to provide a car service should she need one. Betty wasn’t a luxury vehicle or anything, but she was Fate’s and she’d worked hard waitressing through college to pay for her.
Once they’d carefully removed the dress, Melissa stepped away to answer her phone. The obnoxious device had been ringing incessantly, as her friend’s phone tended to do. Melissa was a year older than her and worked for one of the most sought after even planners in the state of Texas, for which Fate was grateful. Her friend had handled the wedding details with such care and attention to detail as if it were her own.
Chantal brought three other dresses over to them, all with a similar style but less elegant than the first had been.
“This one is Maggie Sottero,” Chantal said, handing over the first dress. “Zayn.”
“It has a name,” Fate whispered to Melissa when she returned from her phone call. “A cool one.”
“Let’s give it a whirl.”
This time, Fate checked the price before putting it on over her nude, strapless bra and matching panties. It wasn’t cheap by any means, but at least it had the correct number of decimal places.
Once she’d returned to the pedestal, she immediately knew this was the right dress. While the Vera Wang one had been unquestionably beautiful, it had felt too fancy for her. The same way Trevor sometimes felt too fancy for her, with his family’s huge dinner parties and formal flatware. His mother had spent hours debating cake designers and the perfect champagne for the wedding toast. Fate was a simple girl who’d been raised by a woman with complex issues. She preferred to keep things as uncomplicated as possible. Part of her always wondered why Trevor had picked someone like her. He was the guy every girl wanted, wealthy, popular, the life of every party. His tastes were refined and specific.