“It’s dowdy,” Nicole argued and handed Connor a bottle of juice.
The little boy kicked his heels against the stroller bottom and cried out, “Pretty!”
“Connor likes it,” Katie argued.
“He won’t when he’s thirty.” Nicole shook her head again, leaned over to a nearby rack and plucked a dress free. “Try this one. It’s your size.”
“It’s black.”
“And…?”
Katie blew out a breath and said, “Fine. Be right back.”
They were in a tiny boutique on Second Street. She might have had better luck in a mall, but this was closer and Katie preferred supporting the small businesses around her. After all, she was determined to be one of them someday soon and besides, the big mega stores already had a huge customer base.
She took off the beige and hung it up carefully, giving it one last wistful glance. “Are you sure?” she called out from the dressing room. “The beige one looks so elegant.”
“Try the black,” Nicole ordered from just outside the door. “Trust me on this.”
Sighing, Katie did, dragging the black dress over her head and positioning it just right. When she closed the side zipper, she looked into the mirror and instantly thought about buying a sweater.
“I can’t wear this,” she complained, still staring at her reflection as if seeing a stranger. “This is so not me.”
“Let’s see it.”
Katie opened the door a scant inch, barely giving Nicole a peek. But her friend wasn’t satisfied with that and pushed the door open completely. Her eyes went wide and a slow grin curved her mouth. “Wow.”
Uncomfortable, Katie looked back into the mirror. Miles of skin were exposed. She’d never worn anything like this before. And what did that say about her sad, quiet little life?
Two thin black straps snaked over her bare shoulders and the bodice was cut low enough to give an excellent view of the tops of her br**sts. The material was slick and clingy and molded to every inch of her body, defining curves even she hadn’t been aware of. The hem of the dress hit mid-thigh—another inch or two higher and it would’ve been illegal.
As it was, it was only embarrassing.
“You look amazing,” Nicole said, staring into the mirror to catch her eye.
“I can’t wear this.”
“Why not?”
“It’s just not me,” Katie said, fighting the urge to tug the bodice up a little higher.
“That’s exactly why you should wear it,” Nicole told her, scooping Connor out of the stroller to prop him on her hip. Swinging her blond hair back behind her shoulder, she met Katie’s gaze in the mirror and said, “Cordell shot your confidence out from under you.”
“True.” But she was the one who had allowed it to happen. Katie ran one hand over the front of the dress, smoothing the fabric. She studied her own reflection while her friend continued talking.
“If you keep hiding away, you’re letting him decide your life for you. Don’t you get it?”
Katie’s gaze shifted to Nicole’s in the mirror. “Yes, but—”
“No buts.” Nicole shook her head firmly and ran the palm of her hand across the top of her son’s head. “Trust me, I know what it’s like to have your self-assurance shaken. Let’s pause to remember that my husband walked out on me when I was pregnant.”
“Nicole…”
“Not a bid for sympathy,” she said firmly. “I’m so over him. My point is, you should be over Cordell, too.”
“I am really,” Katie told her and realized that she had been “over” Cordell for some time. She’d been nursing her own hurt feelings for too long, but that had stopped when she met Rafe.
Just one of his kisses was enough to sear anyone else from her mind. Her heart. Her breath caught and twisted in her lungs until she was almost light-headed as she thought about the gleam that would appear in Rafe’s eyes when he saw her in this dress.
“Then what’re you waiting for?” Nicole came up behind her. In the glass, the two women stood side by side, with a toddler boy grinning between them. “If you’re really over that creep, then wear this dress tonight. Knock Rafe’s socks off.”
Katie sent her own reflection a thoughtful smile. Slowly, she straightened up, threw her shoulders back and let the initial embarrassment she’d felt slide away. She did look good. She really liked Rafe and hiding away from what she was feeling wouldn’t change that any.
“Atta girl,” Nicole whispered as if she could hear what Katie was thinking.
Katie’s mind raced. Cordell King hadn’t even been a part of her life for very long. Truthfully, she thought now, she had probably built what they’d so briefly shared into something it had never been. Meeting him had been so far out of her orbit that she had taken it as some sort of sign—that he was the one. She had been willingly blinded by the fairy tale, Katie told herself hollowly. Rich, handsome man sweeps poor but honest shopkeeper off her feet and whisks her off to his palatial estate.
She gave her reflection a rueful smile.
When her fantasy ended, she’d crawled back into her narrow routine and pulled it in after her, essentially cutting herself off from everything just so that she couldn’t make a foolish mistake again. And who was that decision hurting? she demanded silently.
Cordell had gone on his merry way, leaving a diamond token in his wake, no doubt never once thinking about Katie. While she, on the other hand, had not only buried herself in work, but continued to hold off on another relationship just because she’d made one bad judgment call.
Straightening up slowly, she looked her reflection in the eye and asked, Are you going to be alone for the rest of your life, Katie?
God no. She didn’t want that. She had never wanted that. Ever since she was a little girl, she’d dreamed about having a family of her own. She had heard all the stories from her grandmother and her mother, talking about the great loves of their lives and how they wouldn’t have traded a minute of it—even to spare themselves the pain of losing those special men.
What, she wondered, would she look back on one day? A great cookie recipe?
“So just when exactly did I become such a coward?” she whispered.
“What?”
She shifted her gaze to Nicole’s reflection and asked, “Why didn’t I see this before? Why am I hiding away? I didn’t do anything wrong. I just picked a lemon in the garden of love.”