The Wedding Dress (11 page)

The lawyer looked from Gareth to her. “Hiding behind your girlfriend now, Cavendish? Well, don’t worry, I’ll find something that will get your PI license revoked. You’ll never work in this town again.”

“I didn’t know people actually said that,” Anne said, enjoying the expression on the lawyer’s face as she took the letter back out of his hand. She put her arm through Gareth’s. “Let’s get out of here.”

She managed to wait until they got out of the room and around to a quiet corner before kissing him. He kissed her back, gently. Tenderly.

“You’re amazing, you know that?” Gareth said.

“I love you.”

“I love you, too,” Gareth replied. “And I’m going to do everything I can to make life perfect for us.”

Anne shook her head. “It won’t be perfect. It will be messy, and complicated…but that’s how life is, isn’t it?”

When Richard Wells pushed past them and set off for the exit, she had to ask, “Can he really do all those things he threatened to do?”

Gareth shrugged. “Maybe. At this point, I’ve done quite a few things I shouldn’t have. But I’m not too worried about it.” She loved seeing him smile, especially knowing just how much love was behind it. “Now, how about I get you home so I can help you stitch a wedding dress back together?”

Chapter Nineteen

Gareth stood at the doors to the Rose Chalet’s main room, watching the photography session before the wedding. Felicity Andrews not only looked stunning in the dress Anne had designed, but she was clearly radiant with joy at the knowledge that she was going to be married in a matter of hours.

After the bride headed off to join her bridesmaids and Anne brought out her mother’s wedding dress, the eyes of the photographer from
San Francisco
magazine’s grew wide.

“Are you
sure
this is right, Anne? After seeing Felicity’s dress, I had assumed you were more about the classic look.”

Anne ran a hand over the dress. She had patched and sewn frantically in her living room, working away on that small Singer that had belonged to her mother. In the final hour, Gareth had helped hold the dress steady so that she could do the finish work quickly with a needle and thread.

Even so, the results didn’t look anywhere close to perfect. Anne had repaired most of the rips, but she’d also widened a few so that they showed off flashes of the dummy beneath, had sewn other pieces of fabric from old dresses of her mother’s, and she hadn’t repaired the torn beading around the edges at all. There was even some yellowing, so that the once-pristine white dress was now closer to ivory.

“This is exactly right,” Anne assured the photographer.

“You’re sure? I could always shoot this segment after the wedding if you wanted another hour or two.”

“This wedding dress,” Anne said softly, “
is
my parents’ marriage. Not just the first perfect day, but the whole thing. It has rips and tears; some have been patched up, some have had other memories sewn into it, but it’s still beautiful because it’s
real
. It’s not some fairy-tale ideal of what it should be.”

“Okay,” the photographer said. “If you’re sure.”

“I’m sure.” Her eyes flicked across to find his. “I’m sure about a lot of things now.”

As the photographer started taking pictures, Gareth walked outside and took out his phone, looking through his history of incoming calls until he found the number he was looking for.

A woman answered. “Hello?”

“Kyra, it’s Gareth.”

“Gareth?” Brian’s fiancée sounded almost as surprised to hear from him as he was to be making this call after all this time. “Is everything all right?”

He thought about Anne in the next room and the way she’d smiled, not for the camera but for him. “It’s better than that. Is Brian there?”

“Sure, I’ll get him. Just hold on.”

He wasn’t exactly sure what he was going to say to his former partner. He only knew that he had to say something.

“Gareth?” Brian’s voice still sounded the same as it always had, warm and ready to laugh as if they’d only just been speaking to one another an hour ago, rather than a year.

“Hi, Brian.”

There were so many memories to sort through. Memories of working together as partners along with memories of what Brian had done. Those hadn’t gone away. It was just that Gareth thought he understood a little better now.

“I’m phoning about your wedding,” Gareth said. The other man hadn’t just been his partner. He’d been his closest friend. “I know I didn’t make the engagement party, but I was hoping I wouldn’t miss your wedding too.”

He could practically see his ex-partner grinning. “I wouldn’t want that either,” Brian replied, and then, “What changed your mind?”

“Plenty of things.” Gareth looked over at Anne through the windows. “Is it okay if I bring a plus one?”

“That would be Anne Farleigh?”

He tried to work out how his former partner might know that. One answer immediately sprang to mind.

“You’ve heard from Richard Wells.”

“He called into the station with some crazy story about you both breaking into his office.” His friend laughed at the thought of Gareth breaking and entering.

“Listen, Brian,” he said. “What I did, I did, and I’ll deal with the consequences. But Anne wasn’t a part of anything. She didn’t know about any of it. I know I don’t have the right to ask, but whatever fallout there is from this, make sure it falls on
me
. Just me.”

“Nothing’s going to happen,” Brian said. “He didn’t even have any security footage. Evidently, it went on the blink for a few minutes yesterday afternoon. Too bad technology is so hard to count on.”

Gareth had to grin at that. He’d missed bantering with his old partner. But Brian’s upcoming wedding wasn’t the only reason he’d called. “How’s Bobby doing?”

“Good. He’s making a lot better choices when it comes to his friends these days. He’s even on course to get into a good college.”

“You must be proud.”

“I am.”

“Brian, I wanted to say that I’m sorry. I finally understand why you did what you did.”

“I’m sorry too,” his friend said. “I shouldn’t have put you in that position.”

They talked for a few more minutes, and Gareth felt as if a weight had been lifted from his shoulders by the time he hung up. When he turned his attention back to the photo shoot, Felicity Andrews was back being photographed beside Anne and her mother’s wedding dress.

“It’s such a different take on the theme,” Felicity declared. “I love it! It’s almost as perfect as the one you made for me. You’ll see. This time six months from now,
everyone
will want dresses like this with the whole history of a relationship in them. It’s such a great idea.”

Rose came into the room. “Felicity, I don’t want to hurry you, but it’s only an hour before the wedding’s due to start, so we’d better get you ready.”

“It is? Well, it looks like I have to go, then. Come on, Marsha.”

She took the photographer with her, and Gareth moved over to take Anne into his arms.

She was smiling, not quite her old smile, where everything in the world seemed to be as perfect as could be, but he thought her new smile was even more beautiful.

It wasn’t just armor. And it didn’t come out automatically, which only made it more precious…because it meant that it was only there when there was something worth smiling about.

And as he pulled Anne into his arms, there was plenty worth smiling about.

Chapter Twenty

Felicity Andrews’s wedding was the event of the year.

Journalists were making notes for magazines, and there were several people in attendance that Anne recognized from TV, all of them wearing their finest. Clearly, when the publisher of the city’s big magazine got married, everybody made an effort.

Making an effort
, Anne thought with a smile. Sometimes that was what things were about.

Yes, Felicity looked perfect out there, but Anne knew now that it wasn’t about perfection. It was about the moments when things weren’t perfect. Life got complicated and messy and sometimes went completely wrong, and all she could hope was that Felicity and her new husband would love each other enough when those times came.

Gareth stood with his arms around her, watching the ceremony until the musicians Tyce had recommended started to play. “Would you like to dance?”

Anne let him take her in his arms as they whirled their way around the Rose Chalet’s dance floor, enjoying the moment.

She didn’t know what the future held, but this moment was as perfect as things got. And not knowing exactly what the future might hold…it was actually quite fun when she thought about it. Sure, not
every
surprise would be wonderful, but if Gareth was there with her, it was a reasonable bet that most of them would be.

He stretched one arm out, and Anne turned a neat pirouette under it before he pulled her back tight to him and kissed her.

“This is wonderful,” Anne said.

“I have a feeling from the conversations I’ve overheard about Felicity’s dress that it’s going to get even more wonderful. A lot more people are going to want your dresses and a wedding at the Rose Chalet.”

“That’s nice,” Anne admitted, “but I was actually thinking about how wonderful it is to be this close to you.”

Given how tightly Gareth held her, Anne guessed that he was thinking the same way.

“I honestly wish that today would never end.”

“Me too,” Anne said, “but when it does, I’m not at all worried about what the future holds. Not if you’re around.”

“Well, I plan to be around for a very, very long time,” Gareth promised her.

“Good.” Anne entwined her arms around his neck. “In that case, you should know that I’ve decided to give Jasmine half of what my father left me.”

He didn’t look surprised, even as he said, “You realize that it probably isn’t going to make Jasmine into your best friend overnight, right?”

“I know, but it’s the right thing to do, and I don’t want to have to fight a long court case where all that happens is that Richard Wells makes more money, and…I have a
sister
, Gareth.”

“A sister who has been trying to sue you,” Gareth pointed out. He had that slightly worried note in his voice again.

“I understand. I really do. Jasmine’s angry, and I guess I can see now that she has a right to be. She looks at me, and she sees the person who got all of her father’s attention. And I guess that when I look at her, I’ll always see a reminder of what my father did, and that will hurt a little.”

“Then why do it?”

“Because it’s okay that it hurts,” Anne said. “Hurting means that we’re facing up to it, and facing up to it means that one day—” She stopped, sighed, then smiled. “You’re right, we may not ever be friends, but at least we might have a chance at getting to know each other. And getting past the hurt.”

“You know that settling means Richard will get a cut of the money?”

Anne shrugged. “I can’t help that, and neither can you. Though I might try holding out until he agrees to leave you alone. I didn’t like him threatening you.”

“I think you did a good job of letting him know that,” Gareth said. “You don’t need to worry, though. I spoke with my ex-partner, Brian, before the ceremony.”

Anne knew what a big deal that was for him. She lifted his hands up to her lips and pressed a kiss to them before saying, “I’m so proud of you.”

“It actually was easier than I thought it would be. And he doesn’t think Richard is going to be a problem at all.”

“It must be difficult,” she said softly, “breaking so many rules in such a short space of time.”

“It is. And I don’t plan on making it a habit. But it turns out that there are also good reasons to break them sometimes, and I can’t think of a better reason than you. What Brian did for Kyra, I understand it now. You will come with me to his wedding, won’t you?”

“I
do
love a good wedding.” She paused, laughing. “Of course I’ll come. Anywhere that you are, I want to be.”

Anne could so easily imagine waking up beside him ten years from now. Twenty. Forty.

His expression grew serious as he said, “There’s something else I wanted to tell you.”

“You can tell me anything.”

His mouth curved up before he said, “I’m going to change my job so that I spend my time reuniting families. It’s a whole branch of the business. Finding loved ones who have run away or disappeared. Finding the descendants of people who’ve died with no will or without leaving details on how to contact their family.”

She could see Gareth doing it brilliantly. Bringing families together and changing lives for the better.

“I love that you’re going to help reunite families.”

“That’s not all I want to do,” he said as he pulled her closer despite the fact that the music had stopped.

“Tell me what you want, Gareth.” Because whatever it was, she had a feeling she already wanted it too.

“I want to start my own family. With you.”

“That sounds…” Anne tried to think of the right word, and she realized there really was only one word for it. “
Perfect
.
”

Epilogue

Cleaning up after a wedding was exhausting, no matter how many people were helping. Even with Gareth joining in and keeping Anne’s mind on the job in a way even Rose had never been able to, there was still so much to do after an enormous wedding like Felicity Andrews’s that it seemed like they would never get to the end of it all.

Rose watched the two of them, thinking how good they looked together. Anne reached out to touch him from time to time, as if she could still barely believe that he was real. Or maybe just because she knew that she could. Rose was happy for her friend. If anyone deserved the happy ending she’d found with Gareth, it was Anne.

Phoebe was there too, clearing away the flowers, looking so different these days in ways that had nothing to do with her always colorful clothes, and everything to do with the fact that she spent most of her free time with Patrick.