“Have you kissed her?”
He didn’t answer right away.
“Colin?”
“Yes, I kissed her.”
Lily made a thoughtful clicking sound with her tongue. “Interesting,” she said slowly, her hands planted on her hips. “What exactly do you—?”
Colin’s phone started to ring at his hip, interrupting her query. He’d never been so relieved to get a call. “I’ve got to take this,” he said, answering the phone and moving to the front of the shop. “Hello?”
“There’s no dress?” It was Natalie, her displeasure evident by the flat tone of her query.
“That is correct,” he said with a heavy sigh. “And like everything else, she says to just pick something. Lily says she’s a size six and that you used to share clothes, so fake it.”
“Fake it?” Natalie shrieked into his ear.
“Yep.” He didn’t know what else to say.
Natalie sat silent on the other end of the line for a moment. “I need to make a few calls. Can you meet me at a bridal salon tonight?”
Colin looked down at his watch. It was already after five. Did they have enough time? “Sure.”
“Okay. I’ll call you back and let you know where to meet me.”
Colin hung up, turning to see a smug look on his sister’s face.
“I told you she could handle it.”
“That well may be, but she wasn’t happy about it.” At this point, they’d probably be lucky if Lily didn’t go down the aisle in a white trash bag. They had about two weeks to pick the dress, order it, have it come in and do any alterations. He wasn’t much of a wedding expert, but he got the feeling it would be a rough road. “What about Frankie? Do I need to dress him, too?”
Lily shook her head and Colin felt a wave of relief wash over him. “He’s good. He’s got a white suit and picked out a silver bowtie and suspenders to go with the theme.”
He should’ve known a bit of hipster style would make its way into this wedding. Whatever. It was one less person he had to dress.
Returning to the counter, he closed the wedding portfolio. He was anxious to get out of here before Lily started up the conversation about Natalie again. “Okay, well, I’m off to meet Natalie at some bridal salon. Any other surprises you’re waiting to tell me until an inopportune time?”
The slight twist of Lily’s lips was proof that there was. “Well...” she hesitated. “I kind of forgot about this before, but it should be fine.”
Somehow, he doubted that. “What, Lily?”
“Next week, Frankie and I are flying to Las Vegas for a motorcycle convention.”
“Next week? Lily, the wedding is next week.”
“The wedding isn’t until Saturday. We’re flying back Friday. No problem.”
Colin dropped his forehead into his hand and squeezed at his temples. “What time on Friday? You’ve got the rehearsal that afternoon and the rehearsal dinner after that.”
“Hmm...” she said thoughtfully, reaching for her phone. She flipped through the screens to pull up her calendar. “Our flight is scheduled to arrive in Nashville at one. That should be plenty of time, right?”
“Right.” He didn’t bother to point out that it was winter and weather delays were a very real concern this time of year. With his luck, she was connecting in Chicago or Detroit. “When do you leave?”
“Monday.”
Colin nodded. Well, at the very least, he knew he could work on the house without worrying about her stopping by and ruining the surprise.
A chime on his phone announced a text. Natalie had sent him the name and address of the bridal shop where they were meeting.
“Anything else I need to know, Lil?”
She smiled innocently, reminding him of the sweet girl with pigtails he remembered growing up. “Nope. That’s it.”
“Okay,” he said, slipping his phone back into his pocket. “I’m off to buy you a wedding dress.”
“Good luck,” she called to him as he slipped out of the store.
He’d need it.
* * *
Natalie swallowed her apprehension as she went into the bridal shop. Not because she had to get Lily a dress at the last minute—that didn’t surprise her at all. They were close enough to sample size to buy something out of the shop and alter it.
Really, she was more concerned about trying on wedding dresses. It wasn’t for her, she understood that, but it still felt odd. She’d never tried on a wedding dress before, not even for fun. Her mother had sold her wedding dress when her parents divorced.