“That seems extreme—especially when it comes to news she’s not gonna want to hear. I’ll text.” PawPaw took out a brick of a phone and started thumb typing. “You two are lucky that I’ve got more than enough tie-dye to share and that I’ve got a spare room, because Rochelle is having a family reunion and there are Burgesses packed into every hotel room for miles.”
Hadley’s eyes went wide. “We can drive home tonight and come back tomorrow.”
Will’s stomach took a ten-story nosedive at the idea of driving back three hours today only to do it all over again tomorrow.
“Don’t be silly, Trigger.” PawPaw hooked his arm through Hadley’s and started walking with her toward the green space. “Plus, this way we’ll get an early start in the morning. I already told your mom we’d be there by lunch. So now you two can have a little dinner and dancing. What could be better than that?”
Okay, Will could think of about a million things better than that—especially since he and Hadley still hadn’t said a single word to each other since she’d tipped her hand with all those questions in the convenience store. However, saying that wasn’t part of his plan.
“I can’t think of anything better,” he said, falling into step with Hadley and PawPaw.
“Looks like it’s a plan, then. Don’t you worry, Trigger, I bet one of the ladies has an extra tie-dye outfit you can borrow.” He looked over at Will. “I’ve got a couple of Grateful Dead T-shirts that should work for you.”
Will wasn’t usually a costume kind of guy, but if it meant not getting in the car again until tomorrow, then he’d wear a chicken suit if necessary.
…
How had this happened? How had Hadley ended up wearing a tie-dyed micromini dress as three of her grandpa’s girlfriends wove daisies in the single, loose braid flowing down her back? This was nuts. Totally bananas.
“Are you sure I shouldn’t wear my jeans with this?” she asked, tugging down on the hem that barely reached mid-thigh.
Marion gasped, whipping her head around so fast to stare at Hadley in shock that her no-nonsense bob, dyed a dignified brown, took a heartbeat to catch up. “And ruin the look?”
Alice added a final daisy to Hadley’s hair and stood back to admire her work. “When my cousin sent me this dress all the way from California all those years ago, my daddy forbade me from wearing it.” She let out a sigh that spoke of could’ve beens and if onlys. “I’ve had it in a trunk ever since. Don’t you dare ruin this dress’s coming out by wearing it with jeans.”
Cat smoothed the dress’s Peter Pan collar and then locked eyes with Hadley in the mirror. “Just be careful how you sit in it or you’ll be showing the world your good china.”
Great, something new to worry about beyond the fact that she was going to have to dance with Will. She’d tried to work out a way to avoid it and had come up totally blank. Taking a deep breath—and offering up a quick prayer that the fifty-year-old seams of a one-size-smaller-than-her-belly-liked dress would hold—she had to admit defeat. She hated that. But there was no way around it. She was going to have to get up close and personal with the big jerk who happened to be saving her ass.
Luckily, Alice, Cat, and Marion had just the thing to settle her pre-dance nerves—Ensure spiked with vodka. She’d questioned it at first, but after one drink, it was obvious these older women knew what they were about.
“This was really nice of you guys,” she said, lifting her glass in a toast. “Thank you.”
Cat fluffed her steel-gray curls that went down to her shoulders and gave her a smile. “It’s not every day we get to kidnap one of Paul’s granddaughters and dress her up.”
Hadley had no idea how to respond to that, so she just smiled at the three self-appointed fairy godmothers and let them get on with her transformation.
“Shoes! You need something besides…those,” Cat said, finishing by pointing at Hadley’s running shoes and wrinkling her pert little nose in disappointment.
“I have just the thing, one minute.” Marion disappeared into her bedroom, moving quickly despite her cane th
at had tennis balls on its three-pronged base. She returned a moment later with a pair of woven wedges. “My granddaughter left these last time she visited. You two look to be about the same size.”
Hadley slipped on the shoes and then did a quick walk around the small kitchenette. They were about half a size too small, but she wasn’t going to be wearing them for hours. They’d make an appearance for PawPaw’s sake and then get out of there. One dance—max—and that would be it.
“So what do you think?” She did a spin for her fairy godmothers and executed a quick curtsy as they clapped. “Thank you for letting me borrow it. It’s a fabulous dress.”
“It’s not just a dress, you know,” Alice said. “It’s self-determination, control, power. You kids now with your Amazon Prime delivery and Instacarts, you have no idea what it was like to wait weeks for a package to arrive. I held my breath opening it up. I was one of those kids who hated tearing the wrapping paper on my Christmas presents, so imagine that but with the heavy tape they used to seal parcels.”
“You are still like that, Alice,” Cat said before taking a drink of spiked Ensure.
“I timed you on your birthday,” Marion said. “Your quickest unwrap was three minutes.”
“If it bothers you so much, don’t watch next time.” Alice brushed her fingertips across the shoulder of the dress, picking off a piece of lint Hadley would have sworn didn’t really exist. “This dress was everything I wanted to be and couldn’t at the time. Then life happened and I forgot all about it. By the time I remembered, there was no way it would fit me anymore.”
She stepped back, crossed her arms over her rainbow-colored T-shirt, and let out a happy sigh. Hadley might be within the other woman’s line of sight, but it sure didn’t seem like Alice was seeing her.
“Are you sure you’re okay with letting me wear this?”