Her mother looked surprised by her question. “Your dresses.”
“But these aren’t the dresses we ordered!”
Gram jerked awake. “What did I miss?”
Her mother shook her head in confusion. “I told you I decided to have a princess theme.”
“You said that was for the decorations!”
“I presumed you realized it meant your dress as well.” She narrowed her eyes. “Turn around. Why isn’t your dress zipped all the way?”
“Maybe because you ordered a size smaller than I actually wear!”
Her mother looked exasperated. “Most brides diet before their weddings, Megan!”
“Well, I’m not getting married!” Megan shouted.
As if on a puppeteer’s orders, their mouths dropped open in shock.
“What?” her mother asked.
Libby rushed toward Megan and hugged her arm. “She meant she’s not getting married in this dress.”
But Megan was done. The dress was the last straw. “No, Mom. That’s not it at all.”
Libby tugged on Megan’s arm and pulled her toward the dressing rooms.
Megan resisted. “No, it’s time to tell her the truth.”
A cell phone rang, and Megan’s mother rolled her eyes and reached into her purse. “I don’t have time for hysterics. Libby, try to talk some sense into her while I take this call from the caterer.” She stood and walked out the front door.
“Megan, I really need to talk to you,” Libby said in a low, insistent voice.
Gram, who had been taking in the whole scene like it was prime-time reality-TV drama, watched them intently but didn’t say a word.
Libby tugged again and Megan let her drag her into a large fitting room at the back of the store, where there were a couple of chairs and a full-length, three-paned mirror.
“What are you doing?” Libby whisper-shouted.
“I’m doing what I should have done in the first place. It’s time to tell her the truth.”
Libby stood in front of her, blocking her path. “Stop, Megan. Think this through.”
“That’s exactly what I should have done yesterday afternoon when I woke up with a fake fiancé.” Megan leaned into Libby’s face. “I can’t believe I’m in the middle of this!”
“I know. I know,” Libby said, rubbing her arm in a soothing gesture.
Megan sank into a chair, her massive skirt flopping up in her face. “She canceled my dress, Libby. My beautiful dress.”
Libby sat in the chair next to her, shoving Megan’s massive crinoline pile out of the way. “I know. I’m sorry.”
“That’s the only thing I wanted out of this wedding. This thing’s about to swallow me whole and suffocate me.”
“Megan, I shouldn’t have to say this, but that’s a pretty sad statement—your dress being the only thing you wanted, I mean, not the fact that this new dress is suffocating you. Although, that’s pretty bad in and of itself.” Libby shook her head, her rich, dark waves rustling against her taffeta bodice. “You shouldn’t have agreed to marry what’s-his-name if you weren’t excited about it.”
She closed her eyes. “I know.”
“What were you thinking anyway? He was a total jerkwad.”
“I don’t know about that.”
“That’s a lie, and we both know it.”
Megan leaned her head back against the top of the seat. “It doesn’t matter anyway. What do I do now?”
“What do you want to do?”
“I suppose I should tell Mom what’s really going on.” She sat up again. “She might actually kill me. If so, you can have my granddad’s old cameras.”
Her eyes lit up with excitement. “Including the old Brownie?”
“Yep. That one, too.”
Libby seemed to think about her answer before responding—perhaps trying to decide whether letting Knickers kill Megan was worth the vintage camera—but when she finally answered, she sounded more cheerful. “Honestly, Megs, at this point what does it matter if you tell her now or if you wait for Josh to break up with you tonight?”
Megan looked at her friend, her face blurry through her tears. “Because it’s dishonest.”
Libby took Megan’s hands in hers. “And Knickers was dishonest when she changed our dresses. Can you imagine if you were actually getting married and we had to wear these things?”
Megan shook her head and laughed wryly. “No. I can’t.”
“So we just accept what she did with the dresses, and I’ll tell Knickers you’re coming with me. We’ll get a drink to help you prepare for tonight. It’s your big Vandemeer family reunion, right?”
“Yeah,” Megan said in surprise. “How did you know?”
“Knickers FedExed the itineraries to Blair and me.”
“Of course she did.” Megan smiled in spite of herself.
“Follow the path of least resistance. Let Josh break up with you later. You’ll be the victim instead of the party pooper.”
“Party pooper?” Megan cocked her head. “Really?”
“This wedding is a twenty-five-thousand-dollar party, isn’t it?”
Megan groaned. “Don’t remind me. In fact, she’s added so many embellishments since last fall, it’s probably double that by now.”
When she and Libby reemerged in the viewing room, Megan’s mother had returned and was grumbling something about chicken.
“Is it free-range chicken?” Gram asked.
Megan’s mother scrunched her nose in confusion. “I don’t know.”
“I saw a special report on one of those news shows the other day, and now I’ll only eat free-range chicken. They pump those other birds full of hormones. I’ve been eating a lot of chicken lately, and I woke up with a hot flash the other night.”
“That explains something about Gram’s libido,” Libby said under her breath.
“Mom—” Megan’s mother clenched her jaw, “—for the tenth time, it wasn’t a hot flash. Someone accidently turned the air conditioner off.”
“Well, I’m still only eating free-range birds. Are they free-range?”
Megan’s mother waved her hand. “Yes, it’s free-range chicken. They’re arriving from Wyoming tomorrow, then checking into their hotel rooms later.”
Megan about fell over. Her mother made a joke!
Gram smiled. After spending all day with the older woman, Megan knew her game. Gram wasn’t senile—not even a bit. She was egging Knickers on.
They got back to the task at hand. Libby’s dress fit, so she disappeared to remove it while Megan’s mother tried to convince the alterations person to finish altering the dress before the next morning. At first the store employee claimed it wouldn’t be possible, but Nicole got her way the same way she usually did—by bullying everyone around her. Finally, the girl promised that the dress would be ready by noon the next day.
Guilt flooded through Megan as she watched the exchange. She didn’t feel too bad about inconveniencing her mother, but the employee was obviously going to have to put in some overtime to accommodate her mother’s demands. She started to say something, but Libby put her hand on Megan’s arm, stopping her. With lips pursed together, she slowly shook her head.