Lyric and Lingerie (Fort Worth Wranglers 1)
His whole body tensed as he turned around and gave her the grin most likely to get him out of trouble with the female populace. He just hoped it worked, because he’d missed her after being away from her for only a few hours. No way was he ever going to be able to let her go. “Harmony wants you to wear that weird feathery one up front, but I talked her out of it. You can thank me now.”
He kissed her lightly on the lips.
“Thank you.” She leaned in so only he could hear her. “Why are we here?” She studied his pupils like she was looking for some sort of brain injury. “We’re not getting married, remember?”
That hurt more than it should.
“Just keeping up appearances.” He rubbed his thigh. The brace was doing its job, but he wanted her to think that the disappointment he couldn’t hide was just leg pain.
“Why don’t you sit down? Harmony and I can look at dresses.” She led him back to the damn purple settee. She picked up the dresses and looked around for a place to put them.
“Why don’t you try those on? Harm and I picked them out for you.” He sat down as gently as he could, but the chair creaked and listed to the left. He was afraid this settee was on its last legs, helped along there by his two hundred sixty pounds of pure muscle. He only hoped he didn’t end up with one of its ornately carved legs up his ass when the thing finally gave up the ghost.
“Okay.” Lyric made that sound like the worst idea ever. “Harm, can you come help me? I don’t think I can figure out how to put them on.”
Harmony followed Lyric to the door marked dressing room, and Heath tried to ignore how fast his heart was suddenly beating. He couldn’t wait to see Lyric in her wedding dress, couldn’t wait to see how perfect she looked.
But he was old-fashioned too. Should he see her in it before the wedding? Wasn’t that bad luck or something? No way did he want to start off their life together with a bunch of bad luck hanging over their heads.
He shifted and the settee groaned again. That was it. He couldn’t take this uncomfortable chair one more minute. He stood and went looking for somewhere else to sit. Preferably someplace that wasn’t in imminent danger of giving him splinters in unmentionable places.
He scanned the store. It was a chair-less den of uncomfortability. He pushed open a door with “Office” spelled out in pearls. There was a desk and one lone black-pleather rolling desk chair. Several patches of duct tape covered holes. He didn’t care. He rolled it out onto the sales floor. Drastic times called for drastic measures.
Clearly the wedding dress business didn’t pay well. Maybe he’d send over a couple of comfy chairs from the furniture store down the street. Truly, he would be doing the world a favor.
He rolled the chair up next to the settee, sat, and pulled out his smartphone. As long as he had time, he figured he could thin out his pictures and videos.
Harmony walked out of the dressing room. “Are you ready?”
“No, wait.” Heath held up a hand and then pulled a red bandana out of his front pocket. “Livinia and Griffin … oh, um … Grayson … Greg, Lyric’s trying on some wedding dresses.”
Everyone needed to be in on the decision.
“My names is Gre
gor. You knows everyone else’s names.” Gregor sighed like the weight of the world was on his shoulders. “Why is mine so difficult for you?”
Because Gregor had insulted Lyric, and that behavior would not go unpunished.
Heath folded the bandana over and over and used it to cover his eyes. He tied it at the back of his head.
“I give up.” It was Harmony. “What’re you doing?”
“It’s bad luck for the groom to see the bride in her dress before the wedding.” He settled back in the chair and crossed one ankle over the other. “This is the only wedding I’m ever going to have, so I want to do it right.”
“So why did you come?” Harmony never passed up an opportunity to give him a hard time.
“I didn’t want to miss any of the action. Now come on, tie me up.”
“You are so odd,” Harmony said.
“What is goings on with the bandana?” Gregor spoke from Heath’s right side.
“He doesn’t want to see the bride in her dress before the wedding.” Livinia was on his left. “It’s so romantic.”
Heath had been called many things, but romantic had never been one of them. He kinda liked it. Heath the romantic was so much better than Heath the washed-up quarterback.
“I don’t know about this one,” Lyric said as fabric shooshed against fabric.