I slipped out of it, and pulled on the red dress. It made of a soft, stretchy fabric that had been sewn together in strips that hugged every curve and left little to the imagination. I stepped out from behind the screen and gasped as I looked at myself in the mirror.
"No, Viv, no! I can't!" I cried as I thought about how my family would react if they saw me in this dress. It was one thing to wear a fitted sheath to the office, but quite another to pull on a dress that was little more than skin.
"Jeez, take it easy, hon," Viv said as she shook her head. "What are you, Amish or something?"
My face fell and I was silent as the blush rose from my chest to my cheeks. The mocking tone of her voice told me that her opinion of the Amish was something of a joke, and I felt ashamed to have been singled out as the butt of her joke.
"Oh no," she whispered. "Grace, you're not really Amish, are you?"
Unable to speak, I simply nodded as prayed for the floor to swallow me up. Viv put a hand on my shoulder and spun me around to face her.
"Grace, I am truly sorry for my ignorance and insensitivity," Viv said as she looked me in the eye. "I've been on the receiving end of cruel things people have said, and I swore I'd never do that to someone else and now look what I've done."
"It's okay," I shrugged just wanting to get changed out of the dress and get out of the store.
"No, it's really not, hon," Viv said as she took my hand and squeezed it tightly. "It's not okay at all. Can you forgive me for being so rude?"
"Sure," I said as I looked up at her and was surprised to see tears welling up in her eyes. "Don't cry about it, Viv. It happens. People make mistakes."
Suddenly Viv's eyes grew wide and a smiled bloomed on her lips, as she exclaimed, "Oh my gosh, Grace! I think I have just the dress for you! Promise me you won't leave, please?"
"Okay?" I said uncertain of what would come next, but hopeful that whatever it was that had made Grace's eyes light up would actually end up looking good on me. I walked back behind the screen and peeled off the red dress thinking I'd try on the midnight blue one just in case Viv's hunch was wrong, but before I could get the dress off the hanger, Viv came bursting through the door holding a dress encased in a garment bag in front of her.
"I swear, I think this is the one, Grace," she said with a warm smile. "This one will be perfect for you."
She hung the dress on a hook and unzipped its covering. We both inhaled deeply as she pulled the dress out of the bag and held it up.
"Oh my," I whispered reaching out to touch the gray, shantung silk and running my fingers over the crystal beads that covered the bodice. It was designed to drape over one shoulder leaving the other bare, but it covered more than any of the other three dresses. I'd never seen anything so lovely in my life.
"Try it on," Viv said as she unzipped the side panel and urged me to step into the dress. I did and sighed as she pulled the silky fabric up over my body. I slid my left arm through the opening and then let Viv adjust the bodice. Viv made a few adjustments, tugging on the fabric and fluffing the skirt before she said, "Step up on the platform and look at yourself in the mirror, Grace."
I hesitantly walked to the mirror with my eyes cast downward and stepped up on the platform. Viv made one more adjustment and then breathed, "Oh, will you look at you, hon?"
I looked up and gasped. The beaded bodice of the silver-gray dress fit me like a second skin flowing up over my shoulder and down across my back. The top of the dress was a triangle of fabric that folded down and attached at the shoulder, making the dress both elegant and modest. The skirt wrapped around my hips and was gathered at the waist with a large crystal decoration before flowing down into a short train in back. The dress was perfect in every way.
"You look amazing, Grace," Viv said as she walked around the platform straightening and tugging making the dress look better than I could have ever imagined.
"This is the one, Viv," I said as I looked down at her eyes shining with excitement. "It's the dress that will impress!"
"Oh Lordy, hon, now look at you!" Viv laughed as she stepped up on the platform and hugged me tightly. "You look like a princess."
"And a CPA?" I asked garnering a confused look from Viv. "I'm not only Amish, I'm a CPA. Can't get much more straight edge than that, can you?"
Viv burst into peals of laughter that were still ringing in my ears as I loaded myself, my suitcase, and my dress into the cab outside the store. Viv had given me a deep discount on the dress, and although I'd protested at first, I'd finally agreed to take the discount in exchange for a handful of her business cards which I promised I'd hand to every woman who asked me where I'd gotten my dress.
"Come back and tell me how the party went, Grace," Viv said. "I'll have Ella put out a real spread and we'll gossip about all the people you met!"
"I won't know them from Adam," I laughed as I closed the cab door and waved goodbye. Adam! I had promised to talk to him after he'd gotten the Mustang situation straightened out. I fished my phone out of my purse and dialed his number
, but only got his voice mail. I left a brief message, and then tucked the phone back in my purse as my mind wandered to thoughts of dinner and how in the world I was going to sleep tonight.
Chapter Thirty-Eight
Adam
Using the map that Honor had drawn me, I navigated the back roads of Corner Grove and took the long way back to the highway. Verity and I agreed that we didn't want anyone to know I'd left town, not even overnight, so I snuck out after dark, promising to be back by Sunday afternoon.
I left my cell phone with Danny and Honor and made them swear not to answer it unless I gave them the secret signal that it was me calling—two rings, then hang up, followed by two more rings and hang up. The third time they were to pick up. I showed Danny how to program the phone when I called so that they would know it was me if I called from that number again. He gave me a thumbs up and quickly programmed the phone to say, "No problem, English!"