Commissioned In White (Art of Love Series) (4 page)

“Shane and I stored some of it up in the rafters,” Zach said on a shrug, looking away. “It’s all good.”

Reesa nodded. “Well, now you guys have a place to hang with your friends and Shane has a place to work. That’s really good too.”

“Righteous on both accounts,” Zach declared in agreement, then swung his gaze to Shane. “Got to roll or you’ll have to drop off the donation stuff by yourself.”

“See you later,” Shane said quickly, dropping another quick kiss on Reesa’s mouth before bolting after Zach.

Reesa listened to them jogging down the hallway and talking about how much work it had been to clear the space out.

Feeling guilty for not doing more herself, she sighed and walked to the closet, opening the door. Things were squished next to each other. Seeing the biggest thing taking up space, she pulled out the giant clothing bag whose bottom she couldn’t help dragging on the floor. It was taller than she was and was always a pain to handle.

“I should have sent this with them too,” she said aloud, staring at the hunter green storage bag and cursing her sentimentality.

“What’s in the big bag?” Chelsea asked, coming into the room.

Reesa smiled. “Something I’m never going to use. Want to hang this on the back of the door for me so I don’t have to fetch a stool, tall girl?”

“Sure,” Chelsea said, coming farther into the room, trailed by a singing Sara. She hooked the hanger over the door edge. “Can I look inside?”

“Sure,” Reesa said nonchalantly, inspecting the still stuffed closet and sighing because the contents were all hers. Once, she’d had nothing better to do than collect beautiful clothes.

“Wow,” Chelsea said, admiring the beading and the lace as she unzipped the bag all the way to reveal the dress it contained. “Were you going to wear this when you married the dweeb—I mean, Mr. Addison?”

Reesa snorted. If they didn’t stop calling Brent that, she was going to start doing it as well. “Not exactly. I had that dress long before I met Brent. I doubt it even fits anymore. I would offer to save it for you, but honey you’re going to be tall like your Aunt Jillian.”

“No, I get that,” Chelsea said, but feeling a bit sad about it. “It just seems a shame to never wear such a pretty wedding dress.”

Reesa laughed at the longing on Chelsea’s face. Oh to be that young and full of dreams, she thought.

“Well, it’s just a dress, honey. I got to be a bride without it, and all the people I loved were there when I got married. Regardless of my plans, I guess it worked out like it was supposed to for me,” she said, putting as much confidence into the last statement as she could.

Chelsea looked at her with narrowed eyes, which made Reesa laugh harder.

“You look so much like your Aunt Jillian when you give me that look. That’s a cut through the bull—BS look,” Reesa corrected, smiling at a spinning, singing Sara in the middle of the room. “Seriously—it’s been a long time since I made any plans around it. I’m okay about not getting to wear the dress.”

When Sara stopped spinning, she skidded to a frozen stop in front of the dress, which she just noticed. “Aunt Teresa, you have a real princess dress,” she said in awe.

Reesa laughed. “Why yes I do. Did you think you were the only princess around here?”

“Are you going to wear it soon?” Sara asked.

Reesa sighed. “No, baby, I’m not,” she said, tilting her head at Sara. “It’s just an old dress that I kept from when I
used
to be a princess.”

“You
used
to be a princess?” Sara asked, giggling. “What are you now?”

“A married woman,” Reesa said, laughing and zipping the dress bag closed. “Maybe I’ll sell it online. I could probably get a couple hundred dollars for it.”

“How long have you had the dress?” Chelsea asked, watching her aunt doing the math in her head.

“Ummm…first year I started working full-time I bought it because I was dating this moody architect that was wonderful for two of the six months we were together. Now I don’t know why I thought that relationship would work, but hey—I bought an incredible dress and lived the dream for a while. That was about ten years ago now,” Reesa said. “Wow—I guess I didn’t realize how long it had been.”

Chelsea studied the zipped bag. “So you got rid of the guy you bought it for, and all the ones after, but you kept the dress all these years,” she recited, thinking it was a shame to never wear such a beautiful dress anywhere at all.

Reesa shrugged. “What can I say? I’m an optimist, and also cheap. The dress cost me two thousand dollars. However, in the last decade I have learned that you can plan your life, but you can’t account for all the things that are actually going to happen. Turns out I didn’t need the dress after all—so no big deal. My prince found me anyway. End of story. I got my happily ever after, just without the whole white bride thing.”

Chelsea walked over and hugged her aunt, who wasn’t fooling her. “You’re crazy, Aunt Teresa.”

“Why? Because I think Shane is a prince? I realize that’s a bit of a stretch. It’s seeing him in those suits he’s wearing to work,” Reesa said on a laugh, giggling as she remembered forcing him to wear his earring regardless of his clothing choices.

Chelsea laughed and pulled away. “No—but that’s funny too. Even in the suits, he still looks a little uncivilized. Shane is definitely not Prince Charming.”

“
Shaney is a prince?
” Sara squeaked the question. “Why does no one tell me these things? This is my kingdom, but I don’t know what’s going on.”

“I didn’t say he
was
one, Sara. I said he
wasn’t
one,” Chelsea protested.

Laughing and feeling grateful Shane was a little uncivilized, Reesa loaded up the clothes basket with Sara’s things. “Let’s go to your throne room, Princess Sara, and I’ll explain things to you on the way. Time to clean up. Your toys go back into the baskets when you’re done with them, Your Majesty.”

When they had left the bedroom, Chelsea turned to the zipped bag again and eased the zipper down for another peak. It was very beautiful and looked exactly like something her Aunt Teresa would pick to wear for her special day. She was not fooled by her aunt’s denials. There was only one reason a woman kept a wedding dress all those years.

Chelsea suddenly wished her Aunt Jillian was back from her new job training because she would know what to do to stop Aunt Teresa from getting rid of the dress. She zipped the bag back up and lifted it off the door. Until she could figure out a better plan, Chelsea figured she would just take the wedding dress to her room and hide it in her closet where there was plenty of room.

Chapter 3

“This is it. I am never moving again,” Jessica said, carrying the last of the moving boxes into the house.

With Michael helping at the gallery every day now and Shane starting a new job, in the end she and Will had had to do all the moving themselves. They had emptied Will’s storage locker two days ago, and his stuff was now stacked in the half of the garage not housing his bike.

Whereas her stuff was now filling up the entire living room. She should have just called some charity and had them pick it all up. Jessica didn’t think she would have missed a single thing.

“The good news is that all of it fit into this one room. I put your brass bed in the first guest room. We can use the second guest bedroom for storage until we decide what to do with everything,” Will said. “Since we didn’t bring any living room furniture and we haven’t bought any yet, no problem in this room for a bit.”

Jessica looked at the mountain of boxes in the living room. “I guess I should be grateful one room held it all.”

Will nodded. “I know I am,” he said sincerely, laughing when Jessica shoved him sideways.

“Hello—the door was open,” Ellen said cheerfully, walking into the house. “I brought lunch.”

“Yay, Ellen. Thanks,” Jessica said, excited to see food because she was starving. “We can try out the new dining table. There are real chairs to sit on in that room.”

Grinning, Ellen trailed after Jessica and tried not to laugh at the pained look on Will’s face. “No wedding talk, William. I promise.”

Will snorted and followed the women to the dining room.

“Are they having a retirement party for you at work?” Ellen asked Jessica.

“No, I asked them to come to the gallery opening instead,” Jessica said, gathering paper plates and napkins from the kitchen. As soon as money allowed, they were planning to have the wall removed in order to open up the eating area to one big space.

“Wise woman—you might even get some sales from it,” Ellen said, setting the three sodas she’d brought on the table. “Will and I had our retirement event together. It was definitely boring.”

Jessica nodded. “I suppose I should be a little sad at leaving the school, but instead I’m just excited about working at the gallery. My only problem is that Carrie expects me to dress up a bit more than I’m used to doing. Washed out jeans with paint splotches aren’t going to cut it with her.”

“If you need a shopping companion, let me know,” Ellen said. “I’ll trade you for a unique business card design. I want to advertise myself as a wedding coordinator.”

“Deal,” Jessica said quickly, looking up to see Will silently sighing in the dining room doorway. He hated that she and Ellen were becoming friends, which was probably normal for any ex-husband. Jessica was surprised at the friendship too, but she didn’t share Will’s misgivings. Of course it helped that over the years she had taught herself to just not care what most people thought about what she did.

“So have you seen Princess Sara lately?” Jessica asked, sitting down and digging into the excellent turkey club sandwich Ellen had brought her from the café.

“Yes I have,” Ellen said, smiling. “I took Sara and Chelsea for pedicures. We had a grand time. Chelsea and I were chattering away by the time we got to lunch. She’s delightful for a fourteen-year-old.”

Will took a chair, sat down resigned to being social, and started to eat.

“What’s up with Reesa?” Ellen asked, looking at Will. “She’s still walking around in shock. Has Shane said anything to you about her?”

Will frowned and shook his head as he took a bite of his sandwich. “No, but then I haven’t really seen him. Last I heard, he and Zach were spending every spare moment cleaning out the garage so he could move his drafting table into it. They’re trying to get the space converted to a family room and office for Shane before Christmas.”

“They’ve evidently finished that,” Ellen said easily. “Chelsea said they moved his art supplies there over the weekend.”

“I guess I better try to make time to help him insulate the garage then,” Will replied. “It’s getting colder every day. He won’t be able to work out there if it’s cold.”

“Chelsea also told me some other interesting things,” Ellen said, putting her sandwich down. “She said Reesa has a beautiful wedding dress she’s been saving for ten years.”

Jessica sighed and dropped her sandwich. “
Poor baby.
When I saw the JP ceremony, I was actually glad Will and I decided to get married in a church. If she’s had her dress that long, I wonder if she even feels married.”

Ellen nodded. “I’ve wondered the same thing. Chelsea’s hiding the dress in her closet to keep Reesa from getting rid of it.”

“Shane and Reesa could still have a regular church ceremony if they wanted, right?” Will asked. “People do that sort of thing all the time.”

Both women looked at him and blinked, but it was Ellen who finally spoke. “Will, that’s a great idea.”

Will shrugged. “Tell them you’ll do it for free advertising for your business. I’ll split the costs with you, Ellen. Since Reesa doesn’t have a family to pay for her wedding, we’ll do it.”

“You really are a hero,” Jessica said, finding Will’s gaze and locking onto it with hers.

Will grinned. “I’m surprised you two didn’t think of it first.”

“That’s because Jessica and I aren’t natural romantics. We have to work at it,” Ellen said softly, eating her sandwich with gusto now. “If I got too wrapped up in the romance of the ceremony, I’d be less effective in getting the details of the big day to work out. Someone has to be practical so all the bride and groom have to do is make goo-goo eyes and dream about being married.”

“Oh God forbid we don’t get the details right,” Will said sarcastically, but without his usual irritation at her.

Ellen pinched a piece of bread off her sandwich and threw it at Will. “Stop making fun. I’m being honest here. I think I’ve finally found a healthy channel for my need to organize and fix things.”

Jessica laughed. “Well, I think we better just wait and see if Reesa even wants a wedding before we get wrapped up planning one for her. She’s such a practical person. Not that I think I know her well after the few times I’ve talked with her, but she seems like the kind of person who definitely wouldn’t appreciate others making decisions for her.”

***

“I hid it in my room because she was planning to sell it online,” Chelsea said softly.

Jillian stroked the dress one final time before zipping the bag back up carefully. “I remember when she found this dress. It was on a mannequin in a store window. She said she walked into the store and knew it was perfect when she tried it on. She paid a small fortune for the dress, and another to have it hemmed and altered to fit her.”