She nodded toward the dressing area Kate had screened off from the rest of her shop, and both ladies jumped up to help her try on the dress. Probably before she changed her mind.
“I really think you’ll like this one,” Kate offered on their way into the dressing room.
And she did like it. She didn’t love it. But she did like it. Which was pretty much how she felt about every other dress from the rack that she tried on after it too.
She’d narrowed it down to the first and fourth dresses, the latter more of an A-line with a crystal-encrusted bodice.
“You don’t have to choose today,” Kate said. “I’ll hold both of them for you—honestly, I don’t have people knocking down my door right now with the sudden need to buy a gown.” She smiled. “That will be next week, when all the women who are surprised with a Christmas ring get the wedding bug.”
Vivien nodded. “Thanks.”
Kate unlocked the rack’s wheels and tugged it toward the back room.
“You okay?” Ree asked.
“I don’t know. This is a big deal. We had all these plans for it.”
“I know. But we’ve been making calls with Megan today. Things are shaping up…well.”
“That was super convincing.”
“Well, I mean, there are a few loose ends we’re still chasing down.”
Vivien let out a moan. “I probably don’t want to know.” She rubbed her hands together. “I just wish I felt like Boone was focused on it too.”
Ree reached out, threaded her hand into Vivien’s. “Would having Boone here right now change anything?”
Vivien lifted her shoulder. “Maybe.”
Ree gave her that look. The one that said she was possibly being ridiculous. Potentially overreacting.
“Really?” Ree’s brows rose and she squeezed Vivien’s hand. “He’ll be back.” She lifted her arm and forced Vivien into a twirl. “This is good practice for the future. Balance. Sacrifice. Compromise.”
Vivien just hoped it wasn’t practice for a broken heart.
WEDNESDAY, 1:45 P.M.
If Boone could put out an APB on the wedding dress, he would. He’d enlist the help of every department he had connections with if it would do any good.
Unfortunately, neither he nor his peers were in the dress-locating business.
And that made him feel about as helpful as a rock.
He walked down the headquarters’ hallway to the open door of his office. Jack sat hunched over the computer, his eyes on the screen.
“Any luck?”
“No, are you sure this is the drive?” He held up the thumb drive Boone had given him.
“Yeah, that’s the one.”
“I think it’s corrupted.” He pushed the drive into the port again.
“There’s no way.”
Jack moaned. “Oh, look at this.” He turned the monitor. “This is a new message.”
DRIVE IS NOT ACCESSIBLE. THE FILE OR DIRECTORY IS CORRUPTED AND UNREADABLE.
“Great. Can you fix it?” Boone shrugged out of his coat.
“Not really a tech guy.” Jack scrubbed his hands over his face. “I already tried closing it and re-opening it.”
“Well, let’s start googling.” He pulled out his phone and typed in a search. “I have two tickets to St. Thomas that require these reports to be filed.”
“If you can’t use those tickets, I could probably…” Jack looked up at Boone with a mischievous smirk.
“Right. Not happening,” Boone answered and looked back to his phone, scrolling through the search results. “You said you already tried a reboot?”
“Not a system reboot. One sec.” Jack clicked on the mouse. “How’s the dress thing going?”
“Well, I left Vivien with a rack of dresses and a frown over at Kate’s shop.”
“Oh, I’m sorry. I had terrible timing, huh? You should have said something—”
“It would be worse if I had to cut our honeymoon short—or miss it altogether. No, let’s figure this out, because Vivien and I are getting married, with or without that dress.”
Jack nodded and waited for the computer to come back online.
Boone checked the web page on his phone again. “Okay, open the file directory.”
Jack pushed the chair back. “I can get out of your way and let you do this. Might be easier.”
Boone took the chair, opened the directory, and ran a file check. Clicked to attempt to repair the corrupted files.
No luck.
Jack grabbed his coffee cup from the desk, took a drink. “I hope Vivien can find a backup dress.”
Boone tried to open one of the spreadsheets as a Word document.
Nope.
“I hope so too.” Boone paused. Clicked. “But that’s a good idea. Let’s see if we have a good backup file.” He removed the thumb drive and opened his file directory again. “If everything was working correctly, I should have a backup copy of these reports on the cloud.”
Please. Because something had to go right today.
“Outstanding.” Jack leaned forward to watch the monitor.
He clicked on his H drive and scrolled through. Found the backup folder. Clicked.
Bingo.
“Now, if you can just get those spreadsheets to open without another error…” Hope punctuated Jack’s words.
And yeah, Boone said a little prayer before he clicked open the file.
The window opened with each of the backup files listed.
“See if one will open,” Jack prompted.
Boone opened the first file. “It’s good.” Tried the second, third, and fourth.
“I’ll make copies of these files and use those.”
“Good call.” Boone stood. “If there’s anything else you need, let me know.”
Jack put a hand on his shoulder. “You’ve got your hands full. I’ll wrap up the audit response, and I’ll cc you when I submit it.”
“Thanks. I owe you one. I was getting a little desperate.”
“Nope. I’m happy to help. I’ll see you later.”
All the way to his truck, Boone just hoped Vivien had found a dress. He backed out of his parking spot and drove around the berm of snow. When his phone rang through the truck’s Bluetooth, he rolled to a stop in the lot.
Peter.
He answered the call, adjusted the settings on the defrost. “What’s up, Peter?”
“Is Vivien with you?”
“No, on my way to her now.”
“Would you see if she can meet me at the antique store later? I still haven’t found the costumes, and I’m hoping she can help. I’m getting kind of desperate.”
Oh, who wasn’t today? “Sure. I’ll let her know. But she’s got a lot going on. Not sure she can make it.”
“I get it. I hate to even ask. Just text me if she can meet me over there.”
“Will do.” He disconnected and turned the truck onto First Avenue, hoping to salvage some part of the day. Hoping even more that Vivien had found a dress she liked.
Before he’d made it past the next stop sign, his phone rang again. What now?
Unknown number.